Boston – The Construction Institute (TCI) announced the recipients of TCI’s 2012 Pride in Construction Project of the Year Awards and the Volpe-Eagan Construction Safety Awards. The awards were presented on December 13, 2012 at TCI”s annual awards luncheon held at Venezia’s Waterfront Restaurant & Banquet Facility in Boston.
TCI conferred two Pride in Construction Project of the Year Awards recognizing Baystate Medical Center – Hospital of the Future and the Emerging Technologies and Innovation Center (ETCI) at the University of Massachusetts Lowell.
The Volpe-Eagan Construction Safety Awards were presented to Harry Carlson, a safety manager with Greenwood Industries, Millbury, Massachusetts, and Rick Carter, Training Coordinator for the Plumbers Local 12 Education Fund, located in Boston.
Pride in Construction Project of the Year Awards
“The Construction Institute’s Pride in Construction Project of the Year Awards recognize public and private projects that have been constructed in Massachusetts using union contractors and workers that have had a positive impact on the construction industry, the community in which they are located, and the customer,” said TCI Executive Director, Mary Vogel. “We are incredibly proud of the project teams who built Baystate Medical Center’s Hospital of the Future and the Emerging Technologies and Innovation Center at UMass Lowell. These state-of-the art facilities exemplify the superior value, quality and integrity provided by union contractors and their skilled union crafts men and women.”
Baystate Medical Center – Hospital of the Future
The $296 million Baystate Medical Center Hospital of the Future project is a 641,000 square-foot new clinical facility in Springfield, MA. The first phase of the project, completed in October 2011, built the entire shell and core of the building, and fit out a state-of-the-art heart and vascular center which includes 6 operating and procedure rooms, 30 critical-care and 96 inpatient rooms, and support functions. The second phase, completed in September of this year, fit out a new Emergency and Trauma Center and Imaging Center. Baystate Medical Center is the only Level 3 trauma center in Western Massachusetts, and at 110,000 patients per year, is the second largest Emergency Department in Massachusetts.
The Hospital of the Future was designed with guidance from patients, families and clinical staff for optimum patient comfort and recovery. The facility is predominantly new construction, including multiple tunnels and bridges and tie-ins to two existing buildings, and includes renovation in an existing building for a new main lobby for the entire campus. The construction was completed under a Project Labor Agreement with the local building trades and Suffolk Construction as the Construction Manager. It employed on average 250 construction workers daily, including many local residents, throughout the 4 year project. .
Accepting the award on behalf of Baystate Medical Center were Michael Moran, Vice President, Clinical, Facilities and Guest Services, and Stanley Hunter, Project Executive.
Emerging Technologies and Innovation Center at the University of Massachusetts Lowell
The opening of the $80 million state-of-the-art Emerging Technologies and Innovation Center (ETIC) at UMass Lowell in October will propel new scientific discovery and ground-breaking research in nanotechnology, plastics engineering, biomedicine and electro-optics at the University. As the first major construction project on the North Campus of UMass Lowell in over 30 years, ETIC resulted in almost 300,000 man-hours of construction work and over 550 construction jobs over the 2-year project. The success of the ETIC project was dependent upon understanding the level of quality that a nanotechnology facility demanded, engaging the highest skilled workforce, utilizing the latest methods in safety, and maximizing the benefit that the final product would have on its local community. The building design meets and exceeds critical criteria for temperature, humidity, and vibration required by leading
edge scientific research.
Turner Construction, the Construction Manager on the ETIC project also recently completed the union- built Mass Green High Computing Center in Holyoke. These facilities will position the UMass system and other Massachusetts universities to be at the cutting edge of high tech research and attract opportunities for jobs and funding for the University, the State, and the surrounding communities.
Bruce Ventura, Project Executive, Turner Construction, accepted the award on behalf of the ETIC project
team.
Volpe-Eagan Construction Safety Awards
“Since 1970, the Massachusetts construction industry has honored significant achievements by men and women in advancing safety and health in the workplace”, according to TCI Executive Director Vogel. ”The Volpe-Eagan Safety Awards are conferred in honor of Patrick Volpe and Edward F. Eagan, both pioneers in promoting health and safety in the construction industry, and we are honored to have Harry Carlson and Rick Carter join the 75 men and women who have received this award.”.
Harald (“Harry”) Carlson, the recipient of the Volpe-Eagan management award, is the ultimate safety professional. Carlson has over thirty years of safety and risk management experience in a variety of different industries including trucking, construction, marine, petroleum, and distribution. He moved into safety and health after working in the field as a drill rigger. Over the years, he has served as a safety professional for insurance companies, moderate to large contractors, subcontractors, construction management firms, and on wrap-up projects. Carlson was a lead safety consultant on the Central/Artery Tunnel project and currently works for Greenwood Industries, a large union roofing contractor. He has earned several nationally-recognized credentials in the Environmental, Health and Safety field, not to
mention the highest respect of his colleagues in the field.
Richard (“Rick”) Carter, the Volpe-Eagan labor recipient, began his career as a plumber in 1993 when he joined Plumbers Local 12 in Boston as an apprentice. Just 2 years after completing his apprenticeship, he became an instructor for Local 12’s training program and rose to his current position as Training Coordinator seven years later. Clearly a devoted educator, Carter has also maintained a keen emphasis on safety in Local 12’s training curricula for both apprentice and journey worker upgrade courses. And today, under his leadership, over 95% of Local 12 members are OSHA10 trained and 30% have completed the OSHA 30 course.
Carter is also a member of the Massachusetts Board of State Examiners of Plumbers and Gas Fitters.