Wisconsin Department of Transportation tests mandatory safety plans

Daily Reporter (Milwaukee), Sep 22, 2008 by Sean Ryan

Project-specific safety plans might be the standard next year for contractors bidding on state road jobs.

The Wisconsin Department of Transportation is studying the safety plan (PDF) Dorner Inc. followed after an explosion during an Oconomowoc road job. The agency is trying to decide if all projects should have the plans.

As WisDOT considers project-specific plans, the agency also is investigating whether safety should become part of the contractor prequalification process, said Donald J. Miller, WisDOT project development director.

"We see the need," he said. "We're evaluating a pilot project this year in Oconomowoc, and we're looking to decide if it's something we would do on a broader scale."

The Dorner safety plan was drafted after an April 2 explosion was triggered when natural gas escaped from an unmarked pipe where Dorner, Luxemburg, was rebuilding Wisconsin Avenue in Oconomowoc.

The Oconomowoc action plan required contractors, WisDOT, the city and utilities to dedicate more people to the project, said Jodi Arndt, Dorner's attorney who wrote the plan. The process included collecting all parties' concerns about project safety and asking them what they could contribute to prevent potential problems.

It probably took about 15 or 20 hours to pull together, Arndt said.

"Of course, the focal point on this one was the natural gas explosion and the existence of the old lines through that part of downtown Oconomowoc," she said.

The plan told Dorner to dedicate more supervisors to the project, and it required WisDOT and We Energies to have someone on site at all times. According to the plan, Oconomowoc's water and electrical utilities needed someone on call for the project.

City utility employees and representatives of We Energies and WisDOT all were given power to stop work on the project. Arndt said the city demanded the right to stop work as a condition of letting construction resume after the April 2 accident.

"There was a give and take by everybody," she said, "and the overall goal at that point in time was to get the project back on track."

WisDOT will gather opinions from all the parties that participated in the Oconomowoc plan and get a feel for what worked, Miller said. The idea is to use that knowledge to figure out how to make builders come up with project-specific safety plans as part of bid specifications, he said.

"We probably would have some parameters that we'd ask the contractors to do," Miller said. "This would probably be contractor- submitted plans."

Arndt said she does not know how contractors will estimate bid prices if safety plans are drafted after a contractor is selected. If those safety plans give outside parties the right to stop the project, it affects pricing and scheduling, she said.

The safety plan is WisDOT's priority following the accident in Oconomowoc, Miller said. But the department is still investigating whether next year's prequalification statements should ask contractors for safety information. Contractors apply for annual pre- qualification for projects in the spring, he said.

"We want to look at it," Miller said, "and potentially implement it then for the next prequalification cycle."

Miller said many questions still remain, such as what information WisDOT should request get a good picture of contractors' safety records. The options include Occupational Safety and Health Administration citation history and workers' compensation experience modification rates. Miller said another serious question is how to use the information to improve safety practically and legally and without decreasing competition.