Recent STAR Level 1 Award recipient:

Ahtna Construction & Primary Products (ACPPC) Crew: Dusty Crandall, Jason Hockin, Jim Fowler, Nicolas Morin, Brandon Nicolai, and Stewart Lord

The ACPPC crew was faced with the challenge of manually removing a beaver dam that was causing water encroachment/flooding to the pipeline right-of-way access (ROW) leading to the mainline dig project site. Though beaver dams have had to be removed in the past, most could be accessed and removed by mechanical means, e.g., equipment. In this case, the dam was not accessible for the use of equipment. Water hazards, body positioning, steep access, and fatigue were recognized hazards, so appropriate measures had to be implemented. The supervisor and crew took the time to complete a well-thought-out Job Hazard Analysis (JHA) recognizing the hazards, implementing mitigation measures, and adjusting their work processes as needed during the manual dam removal. The successful, safe, and efficient implementation of this task resolved the water encroachment/flooding hazard and allowed safe access to the ROW and work site for the project to continue.

The final JHA, with lessons learned, will be used to develop a job loss analysis to be implemented for future manual dam removal on the Trans Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS).