Hawai'i company wins national safety award

By Rod Ohira
Advertiser Staff Writer

As environmental safety and health director for Dick Pacific Construction, Tracy Lawson has implemented a safety program recognized as the best in the country last year.

Associated General Contractors, a Washington, D.C.-based organization representing more than 36,000 U.S. contracting firms, named Dick Pacific the overall grand award winner for construction safety excellence at its convention last month in Las Vegas. Dick Pacific is the first Hawai'i contractor to win the top national honor.

Lawson, 32, is a former Army military police investigator who earned her degree in occupational and environmental safety management from Honolulu Community College.

She oversees a staff of 15 and is responsible for safety at project sites in Hawai'i, Alaska, Guam, Saipan and a power plant in California. One unique practice is the way Dick Pacific workers start their work day.

"We start with a stretching regimen and huddle before work to talk about the tools we'll be using and safety concerns," Lawson said. "We also require more use of safety glasses, gloves and try to pay a lot of attention to details."

Dick Pacific's accident rate was 50 percent lower than the national average, she said.

Dick Pacific, a subsidiary of Pittsburgh-based Dick Corporation, has been headquartered in Hawai'i for 61 years and employs 800 people. Local projects include the CINCPAC headquarters building at Camp Smith, and the $70 million Marriott Ko Olina Beach Club timeshare project.

Reach Rod Ohira at 535-8181 or rohira@honoluluadvertiser.com.