Archives for 2024

Construction companies across the country will soon be required to provide all employees with properly fitting personal protective equipment (PPE).

OSHA published its finalized PPE in Construction Rule this week.  The rule simply clarifies PPE fit requirements and standardizes them alongside general industry and shipyard requirements.

“The issue of improperly fitting PPE is particularly important for smaller construction workers, including some women, who may not be able to use standard size PPE,” OSHA’s website states.

Click HERE for an FAQ on the rule from OSHA.

The updated rule will cost employers a total of about $5.5 million initially to comply and around $280,000 annually, OSHA estimates.

It goes into effect Jan. 13, 2025.

WISCONSIN DELLS, Wis. — The keynote speaker at the Wisconsin Asphalt Pavement Association’s (WAPA) Annual Conference walked on stage Tuesday to a round of applause.  He then promptly told the crowd he is not a keynote speaker.

Vince Hafeli – president of Ajax Paving Industries – instead spent the hour talking about something he says the construction industry never talks about; a topic that Hafeli says even he never shared publicly until a couple years ago.

“At work, I felt like I was a rockstar.  I felt like everything I touched turned to gold,” Hafeli explained.  “Personally, I felt like everything I did was absolutely wrong.   I felt like a complete failure.”

Hafeli, 62, likely would have taken his own life one night in 2007 if it weren’t for a phone call letting him know his son was on the way to intervene.  The longtime contractor says that was the darkest time in his personal life despite publicly appearing to have truly made it.

Data helped highlight Hafeli’s message: the industry sadly loses 2-3 workers per day on a job site to accidents, which often draw huge attention.  Meanwhile, 10-15 construction workers per day die by suicide but that gets buried and tucked away, Hafeli said.

“Today, I’m going to dare you to be different,” Hafeli said.  “I’m going to dare you to talk about something that men in particular have been hesitant to talk about in this industry.  To talk about mental health and to talk about suicide.”

It was a powerful message for a crowd of about 300 gathered at the Kalahari Resort in Wisconsin Dells.

WAPA’s annual conference also included remarks from WisDOT Secretary Kristina Boardman, representatives from the Federal Highway Administration, and a number of technical breakout sessions. Wednesday’s topics included election analysis, a WisDOT quantities update, and work zone safety discussions.

Award winners and scholarships were the other highlights at the convention.

WisDOT won an award for this year’s full freeway closure of I-894, which helped Payne + Dolan (Walbec Group) crews repave several miles of highly traveled freeway in a fraction of the time.  The villages of Weston and Rothschild won an award for a shared roundabout project, and Lannon Stone won the 2024 Business Asphalt Innovation award.

WAPA’s scholarship winners included Alexa Rademacher (UW-Madison), Luke Fischer(UW-Madison), and Natasha Janicki (Mid-State Technical College).

MADISON, Wis. — A new website detailing where and how the state’s Agricultural Roads Improvement Program (ARIP) is being utilized should launch in the next few months.

WisDOT division leadership told the WTBA Board of Directors during its meeting Thursday the goal is to make the ARIP Web portal public in Spring 2025.

The site’s purpose is twofold: provide counties and municipalities with a singular place to apply for and track funding for projects.  It will also give contractors the chance to see where projects are being advertised and how much material will be used to do the work.

WisDOT staff has been working on the web-based application since the Legislature passed the new ARIP program as part of the 2023-25 budget. It provides $150 million for projects that rehab rural roads which directly serve farms and agricultural processing plants.

The program’s first round awarded 37 projects just shy of $50 million this past summer. WisDOT says round two’s awards covering the other $100 million should be announced in the next few weeks. The projects are evenly distributed around the state’s five regions, save for the Southeast Region which has fewer rural roads.

The site’s development will also lead to WisDOT upgrading the Local Road Improvement Program’s (LRIP) online platform to make material quantities and advertising public. Those upgrades are expected in September 2025.

WTBA staff and its members have pressed WisDOT to provide this type of data for years, which made Thursday’s news an encouraging update.

WTBA began its new fiscal year on a high note, adding to its strong membership base.

The Board of Directors unanimously approved four new applications Thursday at its bimonthly meeting in Madison.

The additions include Consultant member Town & Country Engineering and Associate members CMC Paving Solutions, OnStation, and Verona Safety.

The additions pushed total membership to 281, marking a 7% net increase in WTBA members since Dec. 2023.

Please join WTBA in offering these four new members a warm welcome!  You can learn more about their products and services below.

CMC Paving Solutions

Associate Members — Heavy Highway Steel Products

https://www.cmc.com/

OnStation

Associate Members — Digital stationing platform offering location-based project records from bid to close

https://onstationapp.com

Town & Country Engineering, Inc.

Consultant Members — Full-service civil and environmental engineering firm

https://tcengineers.net

Verona Safety

Associate Members — Full-service safety provider specializing in personal protective equipment (PPE) and safety services

https://veronasafety.com