By Denise Yancey, Ahtna Environmental, Inc.

Ahtna Global, LLC (AGL) was awarded the Association of General Contractors’ (AGC’s) annual “Excellence in Safety – Heavy Division” award at this year’s annual statewide ceremony on November 11, 2020. This award promotes and recognizes excellence in safety throughout the construction industry in Alaska. There was plenty of competition.

The “Heavy Division” is awarded to companies who completed projects for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command (NAVFAC), U.S. Air Force, General Services Administration, and other federal agencies; any type of marine construction or dredging projects for ports and inland waterways; flood control and prevention projects for the Natural Resources Conservation Service, Bureau of Reclamation; and any industrial plant construction.

The applications were reviewed by an independent panel of safety professionals with special attention to upper management commitment, worker training, active participation of the entire company, and special innovations.

An example of a quantitative measure of AGL’s record: over the past year AGL’s 47 employees logged 37,068 work hours, with:

• 0 Total Lost Workday Cases of Injuries/Illnesses
• 0 Lost Workday Incidence Rate (# of lost workday cases X 200,000 ÷ total employee hours worked)
• 0 Total Recordable Injuries/Illnesses
• 0 Recordable Incident Rate (# of total recordable cases X 200,000 ÷ total employee hours worked)
• 0 Days Away, Restrictions, Transfers (DART) Rate (# of total workday cases + total restricted workday cases X 200,000 ÷ total employee hours worked.)

Note that AGL’s DART rate has been “0” every year since 2016, showing that safety has always been a priority at Ahtna.AGL will now be able to cite this prestigious award as concrete evidence of its safety record in its marketing campaigns and responses to requests for proposals, differentiating us from our competitors. We also can rest easy knowing we work for a company that makes a point of protecting its employees from on-the-job harm.Special thanks to our upper management, Tim Finnigan and Timothy F. Gould, for their top-down commitment to safety; our safety officers Acery Garcia and Aaron Miller for their training efforts; Director of Construction Ronald DesGranges and the Construction Project Managers for solid implementation of our values; all of our field team members for ensuring safety measures keep our employees safe on a daily basis; and Lori Kropidlowski of the Marketing Team for submitting a solid entry for AGL’s Award!