U. of Iowa Contractor Fined Over Safety Violations in 2009

A company that employed a worker who died in an accident on the University of Iowa campus on Jan. 24 was cited for safety violations in 2009 that regulators said put employees’ lives in danger during another UI project along the same river, according to records obtained by The Associated Press.

The Iowa Occupational Safety and Health Administration alleged that Iowa Bridge and Culvert allowed working conditions that exposed employees to the possibility of falling from a barge into the Iowa River or being crushed by a crane, according to citations made public Tuesday.

Regulators proposed a fine of $10,700 against the firm in 2009 for nine serious violations at the work site on Riverside Drive in Iowa City, near where employee Kevin Hammons died Monday after a metal beam fell on him.

Under a settlement, the agency vacated four violations and reduced the penalties attached to four others. The Washington, Iowa-based firm paid a $5,400 fine and agreed to correct the problems.

The site of the 2009 violations was near Monday’s fatal accident, which is also being investigated by the Iowa workplace safety agency.

Hammons, 52, died along the shore of a pond near Art Building West after a beam fell and trapped him underneath. Iowa Bridge was installing a pumping station that would help protect the art building, which has been closed since the flood of 2008, from future water damage from the river.

An autopsy performed Tuesday concluded he died of blunt force injuries to the chest and abdomen. The death was ruled accidental, Deputy Johnson County Medical Examiner Jonathan Simmons said.

Hammons was working to spread backfill material in a hole containing the pumping station when two metal beams fell after cable clamps holding them failed, according to a UI police report released Tuesday. One of the beams hit another worker in the head, and he fell in water at the bottom of the hole but wasn’t injured, according to the report.

Workers were using a crane to dump sand into the hole, which may have put too much weight on the cables and caused the beams to fall, Iowa Bridge employee Brian Uitermarkt told investigators.

Uitermarkt, who also signed the 2009 settlement, did not return a phone message Tuesday from the AP.

UI spokesman Tom Moore said the university was never given a copy of the 2009 OSHA inspection report since the case did not involve an injury. He said the university was assured by the project manager that “the violations were minor and had been addressed.”

The 2009 project involved building a coffer dam – a temporary structure to allow construction projects by stopping the river – and installing pipe under it to bring chilled water to the east side of campus, Moore said. The goal was to allow air conditioning systems in UI buildings to work during peak capacity.

Jens Nissen, executive officer of the Iowa workplace safety agency, said that work site was inspected after a photograph published in the Iowa City Press-Citizen of an employee cutting through a steel beam with a torch showed possible safety violations. The citation said the company failed to protect employees on a barge who were performing a variety of tasks, including operating a crane and other equipment, by not having a guardrail to prevent them from falling.

“These conditions exposed employees to falling into a fast current of freezing water which was approximately 24 (feet) deep,” it read.

The citation said the company failed to properly barricade the swinging radius of a crane to prevent employees from “being either struck or crushed by the rear of the crane” and did not have a guardrail in the crane to protect workers from falling. Regulators also found that the firm used a crane to hoist employees onto the dam when a ladder should have been used.

Iowa Bridge and Culvert was selected as a subcontractor on the art building project by Iowa City-based McComas-Lacina Construction, which beat out several other companies for the work last year. The project involves repair work inside the building to allow part of the art school to move back in next year, and the construction of a 12-foot wall that can be assembled when the river’s water rises. The pumping station would work in conjunction with the wall.

McComas-Lacina President Mike Hahn said Iowa Bridge was hired because of its expertise in constructing coffer dams, one of which had to be built for the pumping station because of its location next to the pond.

“As far as I know, they met all of our safety requirements,” he said. “It’s pretty hard to check everybody’s OSHA record for the last five years. We’ve worked with them off and on for 20 years and never had one problem at all.”