2021 NUCA Safety Award 501,000 to 1,000,000 Manhours: MAC Construction & Excavating Inc.

MAC Construction
SafetyWORKS is a regular column highlighting NUCA’s William H. Feather Safety Awards winners. If you would like to be considered for these prestigious NUCA awards in 2022, please submit your entry by the end of December 2022. Award details can be found at nuca.com/safetyawards.

By Robert Baylor, NUCA Director of Communications

Every strong idea is composed of powerful words, and MAC Construction and Excavation’s 2021 William H. Feather Safety Award started with four very powerful words, backed up by their company’s commitment:

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“Safety is a Decision.”

This commanding phrase, “Safety is a Decision,” is the framework behind MAC’s excellent safety record over time, rooted in the 42-year-old company’s culture, core values, and beliefs. “This phrase naturally embodies the accountability MAC operates with every day, not only from a professional standpoint, but also personal,” wrote Neal Biggs, MAC’s EHS / Risk Director.

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Safety is a core value at MAC, with the true belief that zero incidents is achievable and expected.

MAC is a second-generation, family-owned business providing site development and excavation services in the southern Indiana and Louisville, Kentucky, metro area.

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Their prior leadership blazed the trail for their employees by setting a high standard for safety in all of their operations. With ideal conduct on the jobsite and in their business demonstrated daily by MAC’s leadership, it allows for an easy buy-in from their employees across the company. This corporate safety culture encourages continuously raising the bar for safe and quality work on their jobsites.

Through their Environment, Health and Safety (EHS) program, the company strives to eliminate job hazards. In return, the company’s leadership demands from their employees an equal and binding responsibility to the company, themselves, their fellow employees, the community, and their family to perform their tasks in a safe manner. The information contained in their company safety manual is expected to be known by all employees, and to apply all of its information when performing their jobs.

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MAC’s EHS education is compulsory, addressing education at employee orientation, continual onsite workforce training, and continuing education for employees, supervisors, and management. MAC utilizes specifically designed company training programs to educate our workforce. These programs are designed to address site-specific hazards such as fall protection, confined space, excavations and trench safety, management of traffic/flagging, First Aid/CPR, and manager development. These programs are offered at both the “User” and “Competent Person” level.

Their NUCA membership also offers key benefits and readily available safety resources to their company, enabling them better to manage and operate more efficiently across large and small tasks. Safety publications, personnel training, and the relationships established from their years of NUCA membership continue to aid the company’s safety protocols.

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MAC Construction

“We believe our company has the upper hand by investing in our NUCA membership and being a part of a durable organization that cultivates leadership, growth, and success in the safest way possible,” said Biggs. The company employs a full-time, degreed safety director in Neal Biggs, who works daily with their 44 crew supervisors to manage their safety program, inspect jobsites, advise on excavations, and promote a safe working environment for all of its employees and subcontractors.

Safety training plays a major part in reinforcing their safety culture. All of their supervisory staff has attended a 10-hour or 30-hour OSHA Construction Outreach Program in the last three years, with other employees attending a NUCA Excavation Safety, Competent Person Training, or NUCA Confined Space Entry Training Program.

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To win this award, MAC knew that its 2021 safety promotion program would play a significant role in the decision. Across the year, the company worked with local emergency personnel to instruct their men and women on trench safety.

MAC believes that this safety training starts early, even before their future employees are hired. At their local high school trade classes, they conducted safety training outreach for the students, donating PPE equipment and promoting driver safety training. They also conducted youth first aid and CPR classes at local events.

In 2021, the company mentored two small local contractors on safety and health issues, from PPE, damage prevention practices, trenching/excavating, scaffolding, and fall protection. This program enhanced their own company’s safety culture and reduced accidents and incidents.

Safety is an everyday part of MAC’s culture, both on and off the job.

NUCA was proud to award MAC Construction one of the 2021 William H. Feather Safety Awards at our March 2022 convention in San Antonio, witnessed by their peers. We salute their commitment to their employee and workplace safety and hope all NUCA members can learn from their example.

Robert Baylor is NUCA’s Director of Communications. Tags:

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