OSHA has cited six contractors working one excavation in Monroe, N.Y., and proposed $648,094 in penalties after inspectors found a steep, unstable embankment nearly 75 feet high that wasn’t adequately sloped or shored, the Labor Department said Oct. 13. The citations include five willful and 23 serious items. Nobody was reported hurt. OSHA went in on a complaint.
The site is Monroe Commons, also marketed as Magna Square, a planned four-story, roughly 408,000-square-foot mixed-use building with retail, offices and a 39-room hotel on 18 acres in Orange County. The department’s release describes the allegation as struck-by and collapse hazards tied to a large excavation.
Who got the OSHA excavation citations
General contractor Advanced Plan and Build LLC drew $175,444. The largest single figure, $198,615, went to Parkstone Inc. and Obstacle Systems Inc., which OSHA says operate as Drip Drop Waterproofing Inc. The Paving Masters LLC drew $188,684. Century Max Industries Corp. got $46,340, Prime Structure Inc. $19,860 and DelValle Contractor $19,151.
Advanced Plan and Build, the waterproofing companies and Paving Masters were cited as willful for exposing employees to cave-in and struck-by hazards from an unprotected excavation. Century Max, DelValle and Prime Structure got serious citations for the same hazards. DelValle and the waterproofing companies were also cited for fall protection and chemical hazards.
The waterproofing number makes sense once you picture the work. Foundation waterproofing crews stand at the base of the cut, between the wall and the soil face, which puts them where falling rock and a sliding bank would land. OSHA also cited the employers for not shielding workers from material rolling off the face and for skipping daily inspections by a competent person.
The engineer requirement behind two willful items
The detail that should worry other GCs is narrower. OSHA cited Advanced Plan and Build and Paving Masters for willfully failing to make sure the excavation, which ran between 21 and 75 feet deep, was designed by a registered professional engineer.
The excavation rules in Subpart P of 29 CFR 1926 let a competent person pick sloping, benching or shoring from the standard’s tables on shallower work. Past 20 feet, the protective system has to be designed by a registered professional engineer. This cut was past that line at its shallowest point. A willful classification means OSHA believes the employers knew the requirement and ignored it, or didn’t care.
These are allegations. Each employer has 15 business days from receiving its citations to comply, ask for an informal conference with the area director, or contest before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission. Penalties often come down in settlement, and willful findings sometimes get reclassified.
What a multi-employer excavation case means on your site
The case is a reminder that OSHA cites each employer for its own exposed workers. A sub doesn’t get a pass because the GC owns the excavation design, and the GC doesn’t get a pass because the sub’s crew was the one in the hole. All six employers here were cited for cave-in and struck-by exposure on the same cut.
It isn’t the only willful construction case this fall. In September OSHA called an HDD contractor’s violation willful after a worker was killed. Monroe ended without a body, and OSHA’s trenching and excavation guidance is built to keep it that way. A 75-foot bank with no engineer’s stamp is the kind of site where a complaint call is the only warning anyone gets.