By KERRY SMITH, EDITOR, ST. LOUIS CONSTRUCTION NEWS & REVIEW MAGAZINE
PARIC Corp. is among a bevy of construction managers across St. Louis to cement project safety partnerships with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
PARIC Safety Director Shannon Niles says for five years now, the construction company has joined with more than a dozen Missouri-based commercial contractors in partnerships with OSHA on all sizes of projects throughout the state.
But the newest project partnership, forged in mid-2018, is the first large-scale agreement PARIC has signed with OSHA to govern a project as large in scope as Ballpark Village. The worker safety partnership covers safety-related aspects of all ongoing Ballpark Village projects in downtown St. Louis, for which PARIC serves as general contractor. The four construction projects connected with Ballpark Village span 550,000 square feet of construction including residential, office, retail, restaurant, hotel and entertainment space adjacent to Busch Stadium.
“This strategic partnership with OSHA is unique to Ballpark Village and unique to PARIC as well,” Niles said. “Projects that are longer than two years in duration are eligible for this voluntarily agreement with OSHA. This partnership agreement brings the owner (The Cordish Companies), the building trades (Carpenters District Council of Greater St. Louis and Vicinity, Eastern Missouri Laborers’ District Council, Building and Construction Trades) and other parties together in striving to create the safest workplace possible.”
PARIC and OSHA negotiated contract particulars, signing the agreement in May. Niles says the scope of the partnership agreement requires project partners to go above and beyond standard safety regulations as stipulated by OSHA.
“We’re committing to meeting and exceeding all OSHA safety regulations, while also inviting OSHA onto the Ballpark Village construction site anytime with a minimum of once per quarter,” Niles said. “In addition, we’ve agreed to keep our safety-related worker statistics – such as the project’s lost-time incident rates, DART (days away, restricted or transferred) rates and TRIR (total recordable incident rates) – below the national average. This partnership with OSHA also includes our commitment to perform training for our employees and subcontractors beyond what is normally required by OSHA,” he said. “We’ve agreed in writing to do whatever it takes to keep every worker as safe as possible in building Ballpark Village.”
Photo Above (L to R) Rallo Sr., Senior Vice President, PARIC , John Stiffler, Executive Secretary/Treasurer, Building & Construction Trades, Nate Moore, Sr Project Manager, PARIC, Charlie Lee, Cordish Company Inc., Shannon Niles, Safety Director, PARIC, William McDonald, Area Director of OSHA, Gary Elliot, Business Manager, Special International Representative, Barry Stelzer, Safety Director/Trainer, Carpenters Regional Council, Tim Vaughan, Project Director, PARIC
