Granite received three California Construction and Industrial Materials Association (CalCIMA) 2020 Excellence in Safety Awards. The annual awards recognize mines, plants and individuals for their exemplary contributions to safety leadership, innovation, and communication, and how well they extend safety beyond their workplace setting. Winners are selected by a judging panel of committee members.
Granite Regional Safety Manager Dana Bednarik and Granite’s Bradshaw Facility Superintendent Ted Nicholas both received CalCIMA’s Outstanding Safety Leadership Award, and Granite’s Vernalis Aggregate Plant received the Large Aggregate Mine Award.
Since joining Granite in 2014, Bednarik has helped to transform the safety program at Granite’s Coalinga Plant with her creativity and commitment to continuous improvement. She has cultivated an environment in which the team feels comfortable sharing their opinions and innovations to further evolve the safety of the plant together. Her dedication to safety has changed many lives at this plant and will surely continue to affect the lives of future employees whom she may never meet because of the impact she has had on Granite’s safety culture.
“She has always put our safety first. There is nothing she will not do to make our work safer or easier,” said Granite Maintenance Foreman Alex Munoz. “She creates a family atmosphere and makes us feel like a part of the team. She certainly has made my job easier and safer. Dana always goes above and beyond her call of duty.”
As plant superintendent, Nicholas has kept the Bradshaw Facility team moving for the last 31 years. He is always seeking to improve the workplace environment, reduce environmental hazards, and advance processes in the interest of both production efficiency and safety. He is open, transparent and collaborative with solutions by incorporating different points of view. His mantra is to do things on purpose, don’t put yourself in harm’s way, and every person will go home in the same condition they arrived every day.
Granite Plant Manager Aaron Vasbinder said, “Ted has been a consistent force at Bradshaw for as long as I can remember. With the myriad of changes in leadership over the last 10 years, Ted is the one that kept things moving and the team together. His unflagging positivity and optimism are the keys to his long-term success. The team wants to follow him because he treats them right. They also see him consistently giving his best effort, which sets the tone for what’s expected of them.”
The foundation of Granite’s Vernalis Aggregate Plant safety program is rooted in the fact that everyone is accountable to drive Granite’s safety culture regardless of their job title. The Vernalis team maintains a sense of personal responsibility to discuss observed practices and potential hazards and is supported by leadership to stop a process to do some training, add a day to a maintenance task, or even shut the plant down in the name of safety. The Vernalis team is forged from trust and Granite said it is “extremely proud of their efforts and accomplishments.”
These winners are an integral part of Granite’s safety culture and representative of the company’s pursuit to execute work with relentless safety, Granite stated.