Meridian, Idaho, building contractor Big D Builders Inc. faces $198,586 in Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) fines after an airport hangar collapsed near the Boise Airport, killing three workers and injuring at least eight others, the agency announced July 29.
OSHA investigators responded to the scene and discovered that Big D Builders had begun erecting the hangar without using sufficient bracing or tensioned guy wires. They also learned that the contractor had ignored numerous indications that the structure was unstable, including visibly curved, bent, and wavy structural I-beams; unbalanced columns; and several snapped wire rope cables.
Agency inspectors determined that Big D Builders continued to add 150-foot-long bays to the football field-size project. OSHA found that the bays were visibly crooked and that the contractor left many critical connecting bolts loose. Rather than installing additional bracing or temporary guy lines per steel erection industry standards, the contractor used straps to straighten the additional spans.
“Big D Builders’ blatant disregard for federal safety regulations cost three workers their lives and caused at least eight others to suffer painful injuries,” David Kearns, OSHA’s Boise, Idaho, area office director, said in an agency statement.
OSHA investigators also found that the employer failed to train workers to properly construct steel spans and allowed cranes and other construction equipment to operate in mud and standing water, exposing workers to the risk of equipment overturning. The agency cited Big D Builders with one willful and three serious violations.
OSHA also cited Inland Crane Inc. of Boise with one serious safety violation and proposed $10,163 in penalties for exposing workers to collapse hazards due to failures to ensure stability during the hangar erection process.
Chicago-area framing contractor facing $317K in new OSHA fines
KW Framing Inc., a Chicago-area framing contractor that’s already facing debt collection for more than $100,000 in fines for violations identified in 2022, faces $317,644 in new OSHA fines for continuing to expose employees to deadly fall hazards, the agency announced July 29.
OSHA inspectors observed employees working at heights of up to 30 feet without fall protection on January 29 at a residential construction site on North 80th Street in River Grove, Illinois. Inspectors returned to the site on February 9 and 12 and found workers were being exposed to similar fall hazards as they set joists and trusses. Agency inspectors visited another KW Framing worksite in the same residential development on May 7 and found the company again was allowing employees to sheath a more than 30-foot-high roof without required fall protection.
Following the January and May inspections, OSHA cited KW Framing with one repeat violation for failure to provide eye protection and two willful citations for its lack of fall protection. The agency also cited the company with four serious and two other-than-serious violations for not having guardrails or stair rails, misusing ladders, failing to ensure employees wore head protection, and not maintaining records or certification that employees received fall protection training.
KW Framing now faces $317,644 in new penalties. The company so far hasn’t responded to OSHA’s 2022 citations or made an effort to pay the assessed penalties, which has led the U.S. Department of Labor to seek debt collection.
“If KW Framing believes ignoring OSHA will somehow relieve them of their legal responsibility for providing a safe work environment, they will find that the Department of Labor intends to use all possible means to hold the company and its management accountable,” Sukhvir Kaur, OSHA’s Chicago North area office director, said in a statement.