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FacebookSafety wasn’t in the equation
Six workers have died at CityCenter, and three more have lost their lives at other local Perini projects. Still, commissioners picked the company to build McCarran’s new terminal
Sam Morris
A crane is poised over a work site at McCarran International Airport on Thursday. The county Commission this week awarded a $1.2 billion contract for construction of Terminal 3 to Perini Building Co., whose CityCenter project on the Strip has had six fatalities in 19 months, in addition to three at other sites.
Sat, Jul 19, 2008 (2 a.m.)
Sun Topics
At this week’s Clark County Commission meeting, Commissioner Chris Giunchigliani noted a curiosity: Two weeks earlier, in the same meeting room, she and other public officials had expressed deep concern about worker safety at CityCenter.
Now the commission was poised to award a $1.2 billion contract for a new terminal at McCarran International Airport to Perini Building Co., the contractor that had overseen the projects whose safety problems were the focus of the earlier meeting. There have been six fatalities at Perini’s CityCenter site in 19 months, and three more workers have died on other Las Vegas Perini projects during that time.
As Giunchigliani noted, the county’s evaluation of Perini and other bidders vying for the airport contract did not take safety into account.
Some industry representatives saw that omission coming. Steve Holloway, vice president of Associated General Contractors in Las Vegas, had written a letter to commissioners before the hearing that said, in part: “I can see the headline now: Clark County Commissioners reward Perini for killing six workers.”
Holloway was representing a competing bidder for the airport project, a joint venture of contractors that are members of his trade organization. Perini is not a member.
Holloway said the trade group supports greater emphasis on safety in bidding for public jobs. He also said state law allowed commissioners to look more closely at Perini’s safety record in awarding the McCarran contract.
Nonetheless, safety was not an issue in the decision. Perini won the contract in a 6-1 vote, including Giunchigliani’s vote in favor, demonstrating that the construction giant with its competitive pricing continues to enjoy tremendous clout in Las Vegas, where the company plans to move its national headquarters within a couple of years. Perini’s $1.2 billion bid was lowest by a full $200 million.
As Avram Fisher, a construction industry analyst for BMO Capital Markets, explained: “Perini has a very good reputation with owners. Just like anyone with any reputation, it takes a lot to change that. They’d be on the top of the list for any project.”
At the hearing, commissioners debated technical issues. The bidder Holloway represented, a joint venture of McCarthy Building Cos. and Kiewitt Western, argued that Perini’s application had irregularities. McCarthy/Kiewitt did not mention safety as a concern. Giunchigliani asked Clark County Aviation Director Randall Walker to assure commissioners safety would be a priority at the airport.
“Safety is a very high concern for us, and that’s why we have such a good record” at the airport, Walker told commissioners.
McCarran spokesman Chris Jones said airport officials thought Perini’s work would be done safely because the company’s previous contracts at the airport have been executed safely. Plus, the nature of the airport job is different from Strip construction, Jones said. Work would not go on around the clock and the site would be much less congested.
The county’s Aviation Department and the site’s project manager, Bechtel Corp., closely monitor safety among contractors at the airport, Jones said.
Despite that, some commissioners said they would have preferred to have safety factored into their decision. But they said they thought that by law they were restricted from doing so because it was not part of the bid process.
“I think Perini has had some problems” with safety, Giunchigliani said in an interview after the hearing. “I would have liked to have had a legal justification to not have approved that contract. I would have liked to have reopened the bid. Legally, there just wasn’t a case to be made.”
Giunchigliani said she plans to work to change state and local regulations to make safety a clear priority in the bidding process for public projects.
Some public agencies in other states do take safety into account, including provisions that review a company’s loss of work time due to injuries, its record of safety violations, its workers’ compensation safety ratings, its fatality record and other factors.
Perini did not respond to requests for interviews for this story.
In June, after workers shut down CityCenter by walking out in protest of unsafe conditions, Perini said in a written statement that safety is the company’s highest priority and called the fatalities in Las Vegas a “major concern.”
Construction analysts say Perini has a reputation at or near the top of a very short list of contractors that produce exceptionally large construction projects for less money and finish them on schedule and on budget. That reputation has helped it maintain strong relations with developers, analysts say.
In fact, publicity about the deaths on the Strip, citations from the state’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and safety concerns expressed recently by workers and union heads in Las Vegas show no sign of directly affecting the company’s revenue or its ability to get new work, industry watchers say.
That’s in part because state safety regulators have not found evidence of “gross negligence” by the company and in part because, as of last year, the company maintained a slightly better-than-average workers’ compensation safety rating.
“When it comes to public and private projects, the bottom line is that safety does not play a factor as long as they can bond the projects and have workers’ compensation cover them,” said an analyst who was not authorized to speak on record.
Perini has suffered in the stock market this year because of concern that some of the projects it has touted may be delayed in the economic downturn. Still, it appears poised to win more contracts as they arise.
The company told investors this year it expects to win a large percentage of the construction work still to be done on the Strip. It also expects to receive a portion of a contract to oversee construction at MGM Grand Atlantic City, an MGM Mirage project that the company used to refer to as “CityCenter East.”
MGM Mirage spokesman Yvette Monet said the casino company is taking safety into consideration in awarding the contract. She declined to elaborate.
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***Despite that, some commissioners said they would have preferred to have safety factored into their decision. But they said they thought that by law they were restricted from doing so because it was not part of the bid process.
***“I think Perini has had some problems” with safety, Giunchigliani said in an interview after the hearing. “I would have liked to have had a legal justification to not have approved that contract. I would have liked to have reopened the bid. Legally, there just wasn’t a case to be made.”
Ok, so unless I'm missing something, one of two things happened here. Either 1) there are ridiculous laws on the books in Nevada that continue to allow large construction companies to operate in a manner that costs lives, or 2) there aren't any of those laws and the Clarke County Commission is ignorant and making some pretty hefty assumptions instead of doing their job and finding out exactly what the laws are.
How can anyone in a position of public trust make a $1.2 billion dollar decision without knowing for certain what to consider in that decision? Shouldn't common sense enter into that somewhere? The vote was 6-1 in favor of. You mean to tell me that 7 people sat around a table considering this, and not one of them had the intellect or courage to say "Wait a minute. Is this Perini company even safe to work for?" I'm willing to bet that even if there are laws that say you can't factor in a bidders safety record (which just boggles the mind), that a rejection of that bid based on safety concerns would hold up in a court of law if it came to that.
I'm personally insulted, and can only imagine how the families of the people killed at these sites feel. My thoughts and prayers go out to those families.
Since Perini has had no Major safety issues when performing Airport projects then the answer is Clark County should adopt Airport Safety Practices.
Every injured or killed worker on this job is on the heads of the six who voted for. A Only one person had the depth of character and guts to do the right thing? How about abstaining from the vote, at least? May every one of these who rubber stamped this company be visited in his or her nightmares by the Perini dead.
And did I miss something, or was it not reported who was the lone voice against this travesty?
This is precisely why deaths and heavy injuries will continue on these high profile projects. Companies like Perini have no incentive to change their safety practices. The county and casino owners continue to award them projects, Nevada - OSHA doesn't administer fines or shut down their operations, the unions don't pull their workers off Perini jobsites and continue to send them employees. So what's Perini's motivation here? Are we to think that a machine like Perini is supposed to protect workers just out of the kindness of their hearts? What do they care about the employee? To them, the employee is just a number. If 1 dies they just go get another one from the Union hall. The 200 million Perini saved Clark Co was the 200 million that was suppossed to budget their safety program I'm sure. The bad guys always win in Vegas. Always have, always will.
I think consideration should be given to the safety record of a contractor when awarding a huge contract like this. That is why I researched the safety record of Kiewit, McCarthy and Bechtel (the other contractors mentioned in this article) and what I found was amazing. THEY ALL HAVE TERRIBLE SAFETY RECORDS! Not only have numerous workers died on projects run by all three companies, but Kiewit has made efforts to cover up fatalities and has fired workers that were injured to stop other workers from reporting their injuries. There were 96 fatalities when Bechtel built the Hoover Dam. More recently Bechtel is under criminal investigation for deaths due to their negligence on the Big Dig site (not to mention the law suit that is pending due to the shoddy work on that project). Furthermore, Bechtel (owned by the 51st most wealthy person in the U.S.) is the same company you read about receiving no bid contracts for their work in Iraq.
I think what would be more informative than the story the Las Vegas people received would be actual stats of the number of fatalities per number of construction man hours for each of the companies listed above compared to the national average. That story would provide real information and not the misleading information we actually get. If the Sun hired journalists with any potential I am sure that information would be provided. Instead the Sun hires unskilled and incapable journalists and Las Vegas receives sub par and sensationalist news coverage. The Sun should be disciplined for the carelessness and negligence of their staff in publishing such garbage. All of the comments to this piece would be entirely different if the writers were exposed to information regarding the deaths on Kiewit's sites and the things that have happened on Bechtel's sites.
If the contractor that was awarded the project is unsafe, let the numbers show they are more unsafe than the other contractors. That should have been looked at when awarding the contract. However, this article purports to say that Perini shouldn't get a contract because they're unsafe. That is misleading because the other contractors also have poor safety records.
Just goes to show you, just Like Congress, the Council is BOUGHT AND PAYED FOR.
Another Joke, so they would have gotten SUED
well why should they care, another worker dies, then the family should own Las Vegas in Lawsuits
and also sue the STUPID Council people who voted for this GIVEME some money DEAL
This is an insult to the memory and families of the killed workers. Let's see if the building trades or any legislator has the gumption to introduce a bill to require that safety records be a factor in awarding public contracts.
JakeSloan, you must be, like I am, from places where there is decent journalism. One of the main reasons this state is the way it is is that the local media do not have anywhere near the quality one would expect from a city this size. I suspect they don't like to hire people educated outside of Nevada - so they get those who were educated in this lousy system, and who have little or no worldly experience. And so the backwater self-perpetuates...
p.s. - make that jakeslone - sorry
Jakeslone said:I researched the safety record of Kiewit, McCarthy and Bechtel (the other contractors mentioned in this article) and what I found was amazing. THEY ALL HAVE TERRIBLE SAFETY RECORDS!
Really? So what is their safety record(s) at the McCarran Airport? You sighted deaths at the Hoover Dam (over 70 years ago and one project on the East Coast, What else you "got" that pertains to the Airport Safey Record?
So does the Sun have any comment now? It seems like your story is meant to mislead Las Vegans. If all of the contractors have had deaths on their sites, then why would you publish an article trying to tell Las Vegans that the County Commission made a mistake by awarding the contract to an unsafe contractor? Obviously no matter who they awarded the contract to, the company would have had deaths on their site. It seems like the County Commission saved tax payers 200 million dollars and did not sacrifice any safety. Also, i corroborated jake sloan's comments with the use of google. Do you not have access to google? Since this board is "moderated by Las Vegas Sun editors" you have no reason to miss this comment...unless you are afraid of being called out for the shoddyness of your journalism.
VegaVic...
Does it really matter WHERE a company's fatalities or lost man-hours take place? Your comment makes it sound like that they should be given carte-blanche at the airport because they don't seem to have trouble there. I trust that's not what you meant.
Harske Said: Does it really matter WHERE a company's fatalities or lost man-hours take place?
Yes it matters, How do you equate a Carte Blanche when the Safety Program that’s been in place for over twenty years and has no recorded loss of life? Could it be that the Safety guidelines and policies established by the Airport are working? Its seems to be pretty clear who has been enforcing safety.
Lets hope no deaths happen on this job But, does the county have the back bone to say STOP and reveiw what is going on if a death does occur? Time is money on these projects but we have to spend money sometimes to avoid deaths at work. Clark County as the owner of this projects needs to look at something other than low bidder. And be ready to act at the first sign of things going bad.
I'd like someone to find me a contractor that has worked on several projects of this magnitude that doesn't have any deaths to its name.
Like everyone else, thoughts and prayers to the families of those who have died working on ANY construction project ANYWHERE.
However, I don't necessarily agree with alot of the posters here.
Let's pretend that you work for XYZ Construction. You are an operator. When you first showed up on the jobsite, it was mandated that you receive safety training, on top of the training you received at the labor hall (apprentice programs) , plus how ever many years of work experience.
There is an accident. You've been through training from XYZ to be safe. You've been through the apprentice program and know what to do/not to do. You've had years of experience.
How is this accident XYZ's fault? You are certified as an Operator. Is it not the operators fault for not following safety procedures?
Is it XYZ's fault for not hiring 1 person for EACH construction worker to monitor them (50 workers and then 50 people standing around watching all day long). No it's not their fault.
Is it the union hall's fault for graduating someone from the apprentice program when maybe they needed additional training? No it's not their fault.
Accident - thats exactly what they are. Its horrible that it is costing lives, but everyone is so quick to blame the main contractor.
At no disrespect to people who have lost their lives, you simply cannot blame a company for the mistake of one person. It is impossible to monitor every person on every job site, for every minute of the day. The company, when seeing the certifications assumes that the person is trained and capable of doing the job they have been hired to do.