The company and its contractor team achieved a copy book record for project delivery, clocking up 78,000 hours without a single lost-time injury. Federal safety commissioner Helen Marshall will visit the Lavarak Barracks to present Baulderstone with its Australian government Building and Construction Occupational Health and Safety Reaccreditation, following the company’s initial accreditation three years ago.Baulderstone said the accreditation scheme was widely acknowledged as setting the highest OHS benchmark for the building and construction industry. As well as having effective OHS management systems, accredited companies must demonstrate a strong safety culture throughout the organisation. In approving reaccreditation, Marshall commented on Baulderstone’s strong onsite audit performance over the three years the company had been associated with the scheme. “It is evident Baulderstone has a strong leadership commitment to OHS and this is flowing through to the workers onsite,” she said.Baulderstone North Queensland regional manager Gary Butler said that at the peak of the eight-stage ELF project, the company had 85 people onsite per week, employed across 35 subcontractors. “As well as our own Baulderstone team, up to 90 per cent of our subcontractors are local companies and we feel a strong responsibility to ensure safety is an ingrained, active part of daily practice and not a vague ideal,” he said. “Through our Safety Matters campaign we have worked hard to increase awareness of safety hazards in the workplace and we reward great safety behaviour on all our projects.”The ELF Infrastructure project works involve construction of a new base entrance, including guard house and pass office, a site-wide high-voltage upgrade, a new weapons training building, upgrades to the medical centre, a new 3-kilometre road, sewage and water upgrades, and new training facilities.Project works began in August 2009 and are scheduled for completion in January 2011.
