A lost-time injury is defined as one that prevents the injured person from carrying out his or her normal duty within 24 hours from the time of an accident.

This outstanding safety feat was recently announced by contractors Grinaker-LTA and Enza Construction, which are building the 40 000m2 shopping centre in a joint venture.

According to Martin Joseph, SHERQ (Safety, Health, Environment, Risk Assessment and Quality) manager, this is a milestone rarely celebrated in the construction industry. “It must be noted that we did not achieve this by luck,” he adds. “It is through utilizing our safety tools to the maximum and cultivating a strong belief in leadership, compliance and accountability.

“The commitment shown by everyone involved – from the site management team right down to the worker on the ground - has been astounding,” Joseph enthuses. “Reaching this milestone clearly shows the passion we have for our people’s safety on site. One of the recipes for our success is that we put our safety slogan of 'HOME WITHOUT HARM, EVERYONE EVERYDAY' into action, and not just on the notice board.”

Jerome Beaunoir, safety officer, adds: “On this joint venture we always put safety first in every job undertaken. The site agents and their teams contribute significantly to the vigilance of preventing unsafe conditions and acts on site. The controls that we put in place are maintained strictly. Our health and safety efforts have borne fruit in that the contracting team has achieved this milestone. This plays a huge role in contributing to the overall successful completion of a quality product on time.”

The Bridge City shopping centre represents Phase 1 within the ground breaking new Bridge City Precinct, a mixed-use node that links the communities of Ntuzuma, Inanda, Kwa Mashu, Phoenix and Newlands, and is South Africa’s biggest urban renewal development. It is a new initiative by eThekwini Municipality and Tongaat Huletts.

The shopping centre is being developed by Crowie Projects. Work is currently on schedule, and on track for a successful opening later this month (October 2009), notes Rankin Burger, contracts director at the Grinaker-LTA Building East / Enza Construction joint venture. He adds that the success of their current contract at Bridge City means the joint venture is well-placed to secure more work in the Bridge City precinct in future.