Water Utility Clients Recognize Black & Veatch's Innovation And Excellence In Health And Safety
The effectiveness of Black & Veatch's approach to health and safety has been recognized with awards from two major water utility clients.
Black & Veatch received the Best Innovative Idea award from Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water at the utility company's 2009 Health & Safety Excellence awards for its Behavior on Safe Sites (BOSS) safety and health programme.
The award citation stated, "Black & Veatch are innovatively extending their successful BOSS programme into their design teams with obvious ‘buy in' from those teams. This has resulted in a BOSS scorecard specifically developed for design activities with the aim of directly influencing and enhancing standards on site through the design process."
Black & Veatch is one of a Welsh Water's Asset Management Alliance partners for water supply capital investment schemes. In addition to process, mechanical and electrical (M&E) and civils design, the work covers procurement and M&E installation. Many projects also incorporate civil construction.
Scottish Water recognised the Glencorse Project, a new £105M water treatment works to serve Edinburgh, at the utility's Capital Programme Awards. The project, where Black & Veatch is the primary design-build contractor, won the Excellence in Health & Safety category.
Presenting the award Andrew Walker, Scottish Water's Director of Human Resources & Development and Health & Safety, said the winning entry had shown, "An innovative approach to health and safety, displaying proactive methods to embed an everyday culture of health and safety in Scottish Water and throughout our delivery partners."
Health and safety considerations at Glencorse have influenced fundamental decisions such as site location, as well as structural size, complexity and design. This, together with the BOSS program's impact upon the wellbeing of those involved with the project, helped the team achieve an award-winning approach to health and safety.
Black & Veatch's ability to offer clients an extensive integrated design and construction capability has a positive influence on health and safety performance according to Tony Collins, Black & Veatch Water Europe's Director of Health & Safety and Environment.
"Our business model allows risks to be identified and addressed at an early stage because it promotes close dialogue between designers and constructors from the outset, Collins said. "In addition, it means we can provide consistent application of common health and safety procedures across the many disciplines required during a project's lifetime."
Commenting on the broader significance of the awards Collins added, "The way we approach this vital area is common throughout our global business. As a result, all of our clients receive the same dedication to health and safety that has been so generously recognized by Welsh Water and Scottish Water."
About Welsh Water
Welsh Water is the sixth largest of the ten regulated water and sewerage companies in England and Wales. Responsible for providing more than three million people with continuous, high quality supply of drinking water and for taking away, treating and properly disposing of the wastewater that is produced, Welsh Water is fully committed to delivering the best quality service at least possible cost.
About Scottish Water
Scottish Water is a publicly owned company, answerable to the Scottish Parliament and the people of Scotland. Scottish Water supplies 2.3 billion liters of drinking water per day and remove nearly a billion liters of waste water daily – treating it carefully before returning it to the environment.
About Black & Veatch
Black & Veatch is a leading global engineering, consulting and construction company specializing in infrastructure development in energy, water, telecommunications, management consulting, federal and environmental markets. Founded in 1915, Black & Veatch develops tailored infrastructure solutions that meet clients' needs and provide sustainable benefits. Solutions are provided from the broad line of service expertise available within Black & Veatch, including conceptual and preliminary engineering services, engineering design, procurement, construction, financial management, asset management, program management, construction management, environmental, security design and consulting, management consulting and infrastructure planning. With $3.2B in revenue, the employee-owned company has more than 100 offices worldwide and has completed projects in more than 100 countries on six continents.
Black & Veatch's global water business provides innovative, technology-based solutions to utilities, governments and industries worldwide. Local project teams work with multinational water and wastewater treatment process experts to address site-specific challenges through a broad range of consulting, study, planning, design, design-build and construction management services. For more information, visit: www.bv.com.
SOURCE: Black & Veatch