Inspection Detail

Inspection: 315318840 - American Bridge/Fluor Enterprises Inc Jv

Inspection Information - Office: Oakland District Office

Investigation Summary

Sometime before approximately 8:30 a.m. on July 23, 2012, an employee was working as an iron worker. He was working at a construction venture being run jointly by American Bridge Company and Fluor Enterprises, Inc. He had been in the trade for approximately 11 to 12 years. The project was the replacement of the east span of the San Francisco - Oakland Bay Bridge. The project's staging area was a large yard covering several acres and containing mobile office buildings, located in Oakland, CA. The actual bridge work extended over San Francisco Bay. The incident occurred inside horizontal open box girder # 12, located mid-span on the bridge. The employee and his coworkers were removing pieces of horizontal angle iron used to mechanically hold the horizontal sections of the open box girder sections in place until they could be welded together. At the time of the incident, the employee was removing one of the angle iron plates. As he was standing on a work platform from which he was working, his left foot slipped. He fell onto a structural member of the work platform. His left hip struck the structural member, and he sustained a fracture of at least one and possibly both of his hips. The employee was taken to a local hospital, where he was treated for his injuries for more than 24 hours. At approximately 8:30 a.m. that day, the Cal/OSHA DOSH Oakland District office received a report of this serious workplace health and safety injury from the Oakland Fire Department via telephone. At approximately 2:10 p.m. on July 30, 2012, the Division arrived at the place of employment, which was the east landing of the San Francisco - Oakland Bay Bridge renovation project, in Oakland, CA, and conducted an opening conference with management.

Keywords: FRACTURE, GIRDER, IRON WORKER, SLIP, CONSTRUCTION, STEEL ERECTION, FALL, BRIDGE, WORK PLATFORM, HIP