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Augusta Plant Renovations Start with Contractor Safety Considerations
Before contractors set foot on the grounds of the Augusta, Georgia, nitrogen plant in 2007 to begin renovating the nitric acid plant and, later, the ammonia plant, PotashCorp officials met with project managers and safety managers to pore over all the details.
During the separate projects, nitric acid production was shut down for 14 days. Nearly 300 contractors worked on the project, and the month-long ammonia plant turnaround involved about 1,000 contractors.
"While production and efficiency are both much better, the real gratifying thing about this project is how we managed safety," said Warren Stroman, Augusta General Manager.
The day before each shutdown, Stroman, his safety manager, project manager and purchasing manager assembled their counterparts from each contracting company, he said.
"We held three-hour meetings in which we started off by reviewing our safety expectations and detailing our safety process," Stroman said. "We explained that PotashCorp people would be doing safety observations throughout the project, to keep everyone safe and secure.
"The effort was appreciated, and the meetings were just a great way to kickoff the projects," Stroman said. "The contractors were very organized and very well managed, and it seemed like they took our safety process to heart.
"In the end, we saw only one lost-time incident and two recordable accidents among contractors," he said. "Of course, you would like to go through these projects without any accidents, but this safety record is an improvement over previous projects."
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