April 2018
Archer Western Recognized for Safety Excellence at UTMB-Galveston
GALVESTON, TX - Archer Western received the Gold Safety Through Exemplary Performance (STEP) Award for achieving safety excellence throughout 2017 at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) District Heating and Cooling System project in Galveston, Texas.
The UT System recognizes firms with STEP awards who demonstrate their leadership in workplace safety. To be considered for the Gold Award, firms must log safety observations seven days a week, have UTMB safety professionals walk the site multiple times a week and make no unsafe observations, and have no recordable or lost time injuries for 11 out of 12 calendar months.
Jim Victor, UTMB Associate Vice President of Design and Construction, stated during the award presentation, “Archer Western has done an excellence job managing the safety processes on this UTMB project. This award is difficult to achieve and is well deserved. People deserve to be able to go home each day uninjured and that was achieved here.”
(Photo: Jon Frye, Senior Project Manager with Archer Western, poses with Gold STEP Award.)
UT Systems has worked with hundreds of general contractors and construction managers, and Archer Western is one of only 18 contractors to be recognized with the Gold STEP Award.
“I am incredibly proud of our team, they fostered a safe work environment day-in and day-out on the District Heating and Cooling project,” said Tom Caplis, Vice President of Healthcare for Archer Western. “Safety is one of our core values – and it can only be maintained with a strong team willing to continuously reinforce it. As Archer Western continues to grow our footprint in the Greater Houston Region, we will be guided by our values and emphasize jobsite safety on every project."
The District Heating and Cooling System project required extensive work on UTMB’s mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems. In 2008, Hurricane Ike caused widescale flooding along with immediate failure of all building systems at UTMB – Galveston. In the following weeks, the system remained submerged in salt water, sustaining permanent and extensive damage. Archer Western worked across 88 acres to repair, replace, and upgrade the heating and cooling system with a workforce of more than 250 tradespeople. The project was successfully completed with no injuries over the last 3.5 years.
Project Safety Managers Scott Boim, Steve Gray, Thomas Chatterton, Mark Weir and Martin Morales, along with Senior Project Manager John Frye and Project Manager Chris Deiss, worked hard to meet a very stringent list of requirements. The District Heating and Cooling Project team also includes Thomas Carroll, Zack Ecker, Don Oost, Scott Day, Tom Albert, Kyle Kinsey, Mark Wheeler, Thomas Heise, Ed Agen, Devon Armstrong, Justin Murphy, Kevin Nutley, Pete Peters and Taylor Halle.
In addition to the District Heating and Cooling Systems, Archer Western is performing additional construction operations on UTMB’s Galveston campus, including the new Biocontainment Critical Care Unit, the Building M6 Switchgear Elevation project and Phase II of the West Plant Hardening project.