June_2022 - 18

Mid-Coast Corridor Program
MCTC provided more than
4,000 Roadway Work Protection
training courses for employees in
heavy rail and light rail and participated
in annual Construction
Safety Week activities. MCTC
also used " cross-job safety tours "
where supervisors from other
projects would visit to evaluate
safety practices while MCTC
employees would do the same.
The result was the development
of shared best practices.
Meisgeier says one practice
gained from these tours was the
use of white cones put out by supervisors
to indicate where employees
could park at the job site.
The practice was picked up from
a visit to a Seattle, Wash., job site.
Meisgeier says it may not seem like
a big deal on the surface, but on a
transit job site where clearances
are tight, it made supervisors think
about what and where the work
was being performed and brought
awareness to the job site.
One of the most unexpected
and largest risks to safety was the
spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.
MCTC worked to get ahead
of procuring PPE for its teams,
modified the way briefings were
conducted, staggered crew start
times and tried to minimize the
number of high touch items, like
taking verbal role call versus using
a sign-in clipboard.
MCTC's training efforts extended
beyond job safety. The joint
venture provided more than 4,500
individual environmental orientation
trainings, required anti-harassment
training of managers and
initiated a program called Working
Minds: Suicide Prevention in
the Workplace.
" Construction has the highest
rate of suicides out of any industry, "
explained Meisgeier. " There is
a stigma and we started looking at
what common threads exist: long
hours, sometimes working nights,
isolation from your family. We had
a connection to someone who was
doing similar training for the
military and who was willing to
18 | Mass Transit | MassTransitmag.com | JUNE 2022
Companies
involved in
the Mid-Coast
Corridor
Projects:
Lead Engineer:
WSP; HDR and
Kleinfelder/
Simon Wong
Program
Management
Consultant
(PMC): T.Y. Lin
International
in partnership
with HDR
Construction
Management:
Jacobs
Engineering and
PGH Wong
Major
Subcontractors:
Modern Railway
Systems;
McCarthy Building
Companies;
Lucas Builders;
SRK Engineering
Major Suppliers:
Oldcastle
Infrastructure;
L.B. Foster
Company;
Voestalpine
Nortrak;
Roberson's
Ready-Mix
MCTC WORKED to develop a culture of safety on the project.
speak to our team. It evolved and
we found the Working Minds Program,
which works to build suicide
awareness. Our goal was to get rid
of the stigma and to let people
know there are resources available.
We also wanted to bring a comfort
level and the training needed to
talk to people to try to understand
who may need help. And a big part
of this is letting someone know in
the right moment that someone
cares about them. "
In addition to the safety, environmental
and mental health
training that occurred on the
project, SANDAG and MCTC
were dedicated to the advancement
and success of small and
disadvantaged firms. These efforts
began with procurements and a
subcontracting plan MCTC says
balanced " custom subcontract
packaging, outreach, marketing
and mentoring. "
SANDAG and MCTC worked
together to exceed project goals for
utilizing small and disadvantaged
firms, enabling several companies
to grow their workforces and secure
additional contracts. MCTC
published a regular DBE Connection
newsletter that shared participation
statistics, construction updates,
as well as procurement and
mentorship opportunities. MCTC
staff mentored four DBE subcontractors
through a formal program,
in addition to the informal mentoring
efforts. Through MCTC's
commitment to supporting small
and DBE firms, the project was
recognized by the Small Business
Administration as Minority Small
Business Champion of the Year.
Additionally, the Federal Highway
Administration used the project as
an example to develop best practices
for DBE programs.
Gauging Success
Measuring how much the MidCoast
Corridor program accomplished
can be done in several
ways. The program's central project,
the Mid-Coast Extension of
the UC San Diego Blue Line Trolley,
was one of only three rail tran
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June_2022

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