Current Projects
The goal is to identify the business factors, work characteristics, and crew demogrpahics that best predict serious injury and fatality (SIF) incidents. The project will produce a dashboard to enable an objective and dynamic method to assess SIF risk.
Intro Video:
Update Video:
Co-Chairs
- Peter Lineen - Quanta Services
- Craig Lowrie - Flynn Group of Companies
Members
- Mike Quashne - BGE
- Gabriel Guimte - California Resources Corporation
- Guy Hairfield - California Resources Corporation
- Mike Sparks - California Resources Corporation
- Perry Redman - Caterpillar
- Marguerite Porsch - CenterPoint Energy
- Seth Washington - Cheniere
- Lauren Eggert - Chevron
- Dan Lyons - ComEd
- Carl Johansen - Consolidated Edison
- Justin Seet - Enbridge
- Brandon Baylis - Honeywell
- Tim Belitz - Honeywell
- Steve Anderson - Marsh Risk Consulting
- Paul MackIntire - Mastec
- Rose Perez - Southern California Edison
- Menno Nijdam - Technip FMC
- Ellen Quinn - The Otis Elevator Company
- Bob Spencer - TVA
- Mitch Wade - US Pipeline
Academic Members
- Elif Erkal - University of Colorado
- Sid Bhandari - Western Michigan University
- Matthew Hallowell - University of Colorado
- Katie Welfare - University of Colorado
Now that we have essentially debunked TRIR in the current way it is used, we must answer the next question: "If not TRIR, then what?"
Stay tuned...
Members
- Brad MacLean - Wolfcreek Group
- Jenny Bailey - Xcel Energy
- Bruno Cagnart - TechnipFMC
- Len Colvin - TVA
- Matt Compher - Quanta Services
- Mike Court - Graham Group Ltd.
- Nick DiMartino - MasTec
- Alicia Edsen - Kiewit Corporation
- Clint Harris - CRC
- Phillip Hodge - Chevron
- Greg Kelly - Enbridge
- Paul Levin - Sundt
- Nelayne Maulini - Entergy
- Mike Quashne - BGE
- Bob Rodriguez - Otis Elevator Co
- Matthew Hallowell - UC Boulder
- Siddharth Bhandari - UC Boulder
- Katie Welfare - UC Boulder
This project will further the CSRA objective of creating safety metrics that reflect the quality of the safety system.
Chairs
- Ramsey Robertson (Chair) - Wolf Creek
- Caleb Scheve (Vice Chair) - Price Gregory
Members
- Alan Parker - Ergon
- Doreen Hartley - NextCenturi
- Michael Ochs - QD Construction
- Dave Tolbert - Comfort Systems
- Ben Rayne - TC Energy
- John Kuum - Power
- Mike Muffly - Mastec
- Todd Gallaher SCE
- Julie Olin - SCE
- Joan Kuenzi - Xcel Energy
- Brent Cunningham - Pembina
- Mark Klimbal - MN Limited
- Scott Williamson - TechnipFMC
- Kevin Camp - MYR
- John Murphy - Power
- Alden Strealy - PGN
- Ryan Martin - TVA
- Ron Severson - OTIS
- Robert Miller - OTIS
- Philip Pickle - Entergy
- Mike Quashne - BGE
- Matthew Hallowell - UC Boulder
- Sreeja Thallarupreddy - UC Boulder
- Fred Sherrat - Anglia Ruskin University
- Siddharth Bhandari - UC Boulder
- Katie Welfare - UC Boulder
- Evan Stoddar - UC Boulder
Are the causes of high and low severity injuries different? This project will aim to understand how to design interventions that are specifically designed to eliminate serious injuries and fatalities.
Chairs
- Jenny Bailey (Chair) - Xcel Energy
- James Upton (Vice Chair) - Ergon
Members
- Gina Feldhege - Xcel Energy
- Ryan Edgerton - Pembina
- Dennis Ejiofoh - TechnipFMC
- Tony Abbott - MN Limited
- Steve Trickel - Comfort Systems
- Gabriel Guimte - CRC
- Andy Reimer - Enbridge
- Vicki Mills - Entergy
- Steven Renfro - Los Alamos
- Luke Bowley - EverSource
- Russell Stone - Los Alamos
- Mike Donnelly - Graham
- Jonathan Fowler - OTIS
- Sage Babin - Quanta Services
- Elsie Bentley - PLH Group
- Mike Quashne - BGE
- Matthew Hallowell - UC Boulder
- Arnaldo Bayona - UC Boulder
- Siddharth Bhandari - UC Boulder
- Katie Welfare - UC Boulder
Upcoming Projects
Organizations spend millions of dollars annually on safety programs, but how can we know if we are putting effort into the most useful programs? As new initiatives or improvements to existing programs are considered, it is important to consider effort versus reward (i.e., the organization’s return on their safety investment). Such information would allow organizations to strategically design safety programs with the greatest overall impact when resources are inevitably limited. A methodology to compute return on investment, and example case studies could improve how organizations invest in safety and transform the function from a budget-oriented to a value-adding function. This study will explore the extent to which emerging methods from economics, pharmaceuticals, and healthcare can be adapted to construction safety. This inquiry will address fundamental questions like: How do we isolate and measure the impact of a safety intervention? and How do we measure our monetary and non-monetary return on investment? This project is a bold step forward, challenging the long-standing assumption that safety impact cannot be assessed objectively. The findings could transform safety-related business decisions and enable more effective use of limited resources.
New safety technologies are constantly being developed but how do we test whether or not they are helping us to improve and causing the impact we are hoping they cause? The CSRA has learning opportunities in adjacent National Science Foundation supported research where we are studying and testing the validity of augmented reality and virtual reality. For example, in current COVID-19 circumstances, suppose there is a camera that can determine whether or not workers are wearing masks. This camera could be tested in a lab to determine how well it works, when it does and when it does not work, etc. In essence, we can try to “trick” new technology to determine just how well they work and serve as unbiased brokers and experimentalists.
Past Projects
Total recordable injury rate (TRIR) has been used as the primary measure safety of performance for nearly 50 years. Since organizations conform to the same definition, the TRIR metric has been used to compare industries, sectors, companies, and even projects. TRIR is used in many ways and dominates discussions about safety performance from the worksite to the board room.
With over 3.2 trillion worker-hours of data supplied by the Construction Safety Research Alliance members, we explored the question: given how it is used, to what extent is TRIR a statistically valid measure of safety performance? Our team of researchers analyzed the data using generalized linear modeling, Monte Carlo simulations, and parametric analyses, which yielded the following conclusions:
- There is no discernable association between TRIR and fatalities;
- The occurrence of recordable injuries is almost entirely random;
- TRIR is not precise and should not be communicated to multiple decimal points of precision; and
- In nearly every practical circumstance, it is statistically invalid to use TRIR to compare companies, business units, projects, or teams.
Besides the myriad of reasons why it is flawed (underreporting, case management, etc.), the work conclusively shows that TRIR is statistically meaningless given the way it is currently used. For us to transform safety into an evidence-based discipline, we need to scientifically dismantle such unsubstantiated institutions. With TRIR debunked, we are addressing the natural next question, “If not TRIR, then what?”
Reference the final published results here: https://www.colorado.edu/lab/csra/node/133/attachment
Members
- Matt Hallowell - UC Boulder
- Mike Quashne - BGE
- Rico Salas - UC Boulder
- Matt Jones - UC Boulder
- Brad MacLean - Wolfcreek Group
- Ellen Quinn - Otis Elevator
- Jenny Bailey - Xcel Energy
- Bruno Cagnart - TechnipFMC
- Len Colvin - TVA
- Matt Compher - Quanta Services
- Mike Court - Graham Group Ltd.
- Nick DiMartino - MasTec
- Ester Brawley - CRC
- Phillip Hodge - Chevron
- Greg Kelly - Enbridge
- Gregg Slintak - Consoldiated Edison Company
Our vision is to create a protocol for assessing the quality with which safety activities are implemented that is precise, accurate and reliable.
Chair
- Mike Quashne
Vice Chair
- John Barry - SabicIP
- Ramsey Robertson - Wolfcreek Safety Solutions
Members
- Gabriel Guimte - California Resources Corporation
- Dan Lyons - ComEd
- Ryan Deines - ConocoPhillips
- Dave Wulf - ConocoPhillips
- Victor Flores - Enable Midstream
- Tim Mason - Enable Midstream
- Scott Desautels - Enbridge
- James Upton - Independent
- Brandon Pratt - Graham Construction
- Brandon Baylis - Honeywell
- Tim Belitz - Honeywell
- Randy Poulter - Laney Group
- Jarrett Quoyle - MasTec
- Alden Strealy - PGN
- Caleb Sheve - Price Gregory
- Sage Babin - Quanta Services
- Jason Griffin - RMI
- Hich Chibl - TC Energy
- Ellen Quinn - The Otis Elevator Company
- Jennifer Jaskolka - Xcel Energy
Academic Members
- Matthew Hallowell - University of Colorado
- Katie Welfare - University of Colorado
- Wael Alruqi - University of Colorado