Agency probes safety violations on road project

A state agency is investigating reports of safety violations at the Laaloa Avenue construction site.

William Kunstman, a spokesman for the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, confirmed Tuesday a Hawaii Occupational Safety and Health employee visited the site to follow up on complaints filed with the agency on Monday.

Someone who lives near the project, and is familiar with federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration rules for construction sites, filed the complaint and contacted West Hawaii Today on Monday. That person, who asked not to be identified, did provide several photos of two of the major concerns he noted. One was uncapped metal posts used in the sidewalk forms, which he said had been left exposed over the weekend. Those posts are considered to be an impalement hazard. The other was a concern about what he believed to be minimal barricading around open pits at the construction site.

Scott Yoshimura, project manager for Isemoto Construction Co., which has the county contract for the work on Laaloa Avenue, said at most a few of the metal posts were left uncapped.

A photograph, which the camera data said was taken at 8:30 a.m. Sunday, showed at least half of the posts were uncovered.

Yoshimura said he knew HIOSH, which is Hawaii’s version of the federal OSHA agency, visited the construction site Tuesday. He said he did not have a report from them yet.

Kunstman said an investigation can take up to six months to complete.

The state rules governing construction sites said that “all protruding reinforcing steel, onto and into which employees could fall, shall be guarded to eliminate the hazard of impalement.”