OSHA cited Florida-based Jax Utilities Management Inc. for exposing employees to trenching hazards and issued $271,606 in proposed penalties. OSHA made the announcement March 12.
OSHA opened an investigation after an employee was injured when an unprotected trench collapsed. Citations were issued for exposing employees to struck-by and caught-in hazards and allowing employees to work without cave-in protection, as well as a serious citation for allowing water to accumulate in the trench, which contributed to the collapse.
Jax Utilities has also been placed in OSHA’s Severe Violator Enforcement Program.
Rover Pipeline Work Stopped in West Virginia
A company building the Rover Pipeline in West Virginia has been ordered to halt construction on the 713-mile-long pipeline after state inspectors cited 14 violations.
According to the Charleston-Gazette Mail, the offenses include leaving trash and construction debris partially buried on site, improperly installing perimeter control and failing to inspect or clean public and private roads around the construction site.
The pipeline, owned by Energy Transfer Partners, when completed will transport 3.25 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day from processing plants in West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
The cease-and-desist order was sent March 5 from Scott Mandirola, director of the West Virginia Division of Water and Waste Management.
TBM Sets National Record for Drilling in China
A 26-foot-diameter Robbins Hard Rock Main Beam tunnel-boring machine (TBM) has achieved a national record for 23- to 26-foot machines drilling 4,670 feet in one month in the northeast China province of Jilin.
The record tops a previously-set achievement on the same project from 2017, when the TBM advanced at a rate of 4,386 feet in one month. The TBM was tunneling through rock types rated from 5,100 to 30,000 psi, and identified as tuff — granite, sandstone, and andesite with multiple fault zones — conditions requiring nearly continuous ground support.
The world record for the size class is held by another Robbins machine, set more than 20 years ago at the Tunnel and Reservoir Plan in Chicago for 4,862 feet in one month.
