DCA Meetings and Awards Dinner Held in Washington, D.C.
The Dredging Contractors of America’s (DCA) Council for Dredging and Marine Construction Safety (CDMCS) held a series of meetings this week in Washington, D.C., including the Pipeline Task Force Meeting and its Q4 Meeting. The vision of CDMCS is striving to create an injury-free workplace for the dredging and marine construction industry, with a mission of raising the industry standard on safety, in collaboration with U.S. Army Corps of Engineers partners.
The pipeline task force consists of three main goals each with its own working group. The Best Practices Team supports the goal to “support safe working practices;” the Training, Awareness and Education Team works to achieve the goal to “increase public awareness” and the Government Coordination & Information Exchange Team works to “strengthen data accuracy.”
The CDMCS Pipeline Task Force is first addressing Corps-regulated dredging projects in federal navigation channels, and the council decided to test case Calcasieu River and its underwater pipeline crossings for accuracy verification. The types of pipelines that the council is focused on are natural gas and liquid lines. Finally, the CDMCS Pipeline Task Force is focused on finding industry solutions and best practices rather than implementing regulations or enacting laws.
CDMCS also held its First Annual Leadership in Safety Awards Dinner on Tuesday, November 13. The Honorable Howard “Skip” Elliott, Administrator, USDOT-Pipeline & Hazardous Materials Safety Administration was the honorary guest this evening. Safety award recipients included Cliff Hunt and Howard Copper for the The Dutra Group, Devon Carlock of Cottrell Contracting, and John Cannon, U.S. Army Corps, Chief of Safety, Portland District.
