Mr. EVANS. Well, my figures have only referred to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, as to the other Federal agencies. I don't know what percentage they constitute of the total.

Mr. O'HARA. Anyway, your program amounts to about 3 percent and the other programs I would guess wouldn't amount to a great deal, would not add by a very large amount to that figure. Perhaps your total would almost certainly be less than 3 percent of it. Mr. EVANS. Yes, sir.

a

Mr. O'HARA. Thank you very much, Mr. Evans, for your testimony today.

I think that it demonstrates that Congress has an obligation to look into this question and there is a need for more attention to his problem of safety in the construction industry. I am sure the committee will very seriously consider just what should be done in that regard.

Mr. EVANS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. O'HARA. Our next witness will be Mr. John A. Erlewine, who is Assistant General Manager for Operations for the Atomic Energy Commission.

Mr. Erlewine, would you take your place at the witness table.

Mr. Erlewine, we have a copy of your statement which we have had an opportunity to examine but we would like to have you summarize for the benefit of the committee just what information you can provide us that would be helpful in our consideration of this legislation.

(The statement follows:)

STATEMENT OF JOHN A. ERLEWINE, ASSISTANT GENERAL Manager for OPERATIONS

I am John A. Erlewine, the Assistant General Manager for Operations, Atomie Energy Commission. It is a pleasure to be with you today and to describe for you our construction safety program, and how construction safety standards are formulated, administered, and enforced.

AEC GENERAL ORGANIZATION

Since the establishment of the Atomic Energy Commission by the Atomic Energy Act of 1946, the AEC has been responsible for the management of a complex of Government-owned nuclear energy facilities. The design, construction, and operation of these facilities have been accomplished by contracting with industrial, academic, and nonprofit organizations, rather than by Government em ployees. There are approximately 123,000 contractor employees and 7,500 AEC personnel; approximately 9,000 of these contractor employees work on activities involving the construction, alteration, or repair of facilities. The operations at these facilities include the production and processing of special nuclear and radioactive materials, the development of nuclear reactors, the development and production of nuclear weapons, and research in the physical and biological sciences. The total investment in these facilities is in excess of $9 billion.

The Commission's General Manager, with operation and promotional staffs, administers and directs operations being conducted for the AEC. Field Offices are located at or near its major sites to assist the General Manager in conducting AEC operations. Each Field Office administers contracts within its area of assigned jurisdiction with organizations operating the facilities or otherwise under contract with the AEC.

AEC CONSTRUCTION PROGRAM

The magnitude of the AEC construction program underway during the past 10 years varied from a high of $582 million in 1963 to a present low of $243 million in 1967. During the same period, construction contractor employment has ranged from 13,400 in 1962 to 8,500 in 1966. The construction employment as of June 30, 1967, was about 9.000. During the latter part of 1967, approximately

200 AEC professional engineers were responsible for the administration of construction programs which was accomplished through approximately 500 contracts (prime and sub); of which 15 were cost-type.

AEC OPERATIONAL SAFETY PROGRAM

In carrying out the mandate from Congress to "develop, utilize and control atomic energy" in such a way as to "protect the health and safety of the public". the AEC has made health and safety a line management responsibility extending from the General Manager, who discharges the administrative executive functions of the AEC through the Field Office Manager to the contractor who .constructs or operates a facility for the AEC. This recognition of safety as a primary management responsibility is consistent with the basic premise that job-site health and safety cannot be isolated and treated differently from other project management considerations, such as cost, performance, and scheduling. Accordingly, the AEC has made detailed assignments of health and safety responsibilities to Field Office Managers to assure that appropriate consideration is, given to the protection of the health and safety of Government and contractor personnel and of the general public from the hazards associated with assigned functions. During 1967, there were about 300 engineers and technical employees in the health and safety program of the AEC, Of these, it is estimated that about 26 were involved in the construction program to some extent.,

In addition to the general health and safety responsibilites assigned to Field Office Managers, AEC policy directives establish standards for health, safety, and fire protection, and require Field Office Managers to utilize these standards to assure a satisfactory level of performance of health, safety, and fire protection in all Field operations, including construction projects. Wherever applicable, the standards, codes, and guides furnished are nationally accepted ones promulgated by Associated General Contractors of America, Corps of Engineers, National Safety Council, United States of America Standards Institute, Underwriters' Laboratories, National Fire Protection Association, and others. Some of these standards are required for use on a mandatory basis; others are for permissive use at the discretion of the Field Manager. In recognition of the fact that local codes may differ from the nationally accepted norm, each Field Office has the authority to adapt the local safety code requirements where these provide a higher level of protection.

AEC construction work is accomplished by competitive bid lump-sum prime contractors and subcontracts with AEC operating contractors. However, costplus-fixed-fee (CPFF) contracts are utilized when competitive bidding procedures are impracticable. In any event, all construction contracts, whether fixedprice or CPFF, take into account the bidder's safety performance, and contain a contract health and safety clause as follows:

"The contractor shall take all reasonable precautions in the performance of the work under this contract to protect the health and safety of employees and members of the public and to minimize danger from all hazards to life and property, and shall comply with all health, safety and fire protection, regulations and requirements (including reporting requirements) of the Commission. In the event that the contractor fails to comply with said regulations or requirements of the Commission, the Contracting Officer may, without prejudice to any other legal or contractual rights of the Commission, issue an order stopping all or any part of the work; thereafter, a start order for resumption of work may be issued at the discretion of the Contracting Officer.”

Field Office Managers have responsibilities for the management and administration of construction contracts assigned to them, and for health and safety of construction contractors' workers on their various projects. The Manager generally accomplishes these responsibilities by utilizing a construction engineering organization and industrial safety engineers as assistance to the contracting officers. The industrial safety engineers are usually part of the Field Office health and safety staff. Training programs are provided by each Field Office for construction engineering personnel as needed, as well as idustrial safety personnel, in order to insure that each technical group fully understands the requirements of the most recent standards, codes, and procedures involving construction activities. These personnel jointly conduct an orientation meeting on safety matters with new construction contractors, prior to the start of work and during

the progress of the construction work conduct frequent inspections to assure compliance by the contractor in all safety aspects of the job. Failure of the construction contractor to maintain a satisfactory level of health and safety during the progress of the construction work is brought to the contractor's attention for corrective action. These actions include discussions with top management officials of the contractor's organization to assure satisfactory job safety, and, if necessary, ultimately could involve termination of the contract by AEC.

ACCIDENT REPORTS AND INVESTIGATIONS

The AEC has developed standard procedures for the reporting and investigation of all accidents in AEC and AEC contractor operations for the purpose of obtaining, utilizing, and disseminating information relating to health and safety conditions, and to determine the cause or causes of accidents involving bodily injury, loss of life, or property damage, in order to prevent recurrence of the same, or similar type of accidents.

Actions to be taken following accidents occurring in AEC activities vary widely according to the degree of seriousness of the accident and the type of function or activity affected by the accident. AEC policy requires that all major accidents be reported immediately to Headquarters; management can then establish the appropriate administrative level for the investigation. Normally, accidents are investigated at Field level by committees established by the Field Office Manager (minor accidents can be and are investigated by AEC contractor personnel with Field Office Manager approval). Procedures for selection of committee members emphasize: (1) the necessity for competence in the specialties appropriate to the accident, and (2) the requirement that a majority of the members shall have no progammatic interest in the project involved. AEC also prescribes procedures for the collection and compilation of data and reports related to accident experience, controls, and performance, and collects, compiles, analyzes, and disseminates summaries, tabulations, and conclusions based on the data and reports.

PERFORMANCE

Experience resulting from AEC management efforts, as stated briefly above, has indicated that AEC personnel have generally been successful in obtaining a satisfactory level of health and safety performance by construction contractors. Consequently, it has not been necessary for AEC to employ the ultimate enforcement measure available to correct or eliminate unsatisfactory health and safety conditions, i.e., "termination of the construction contract."

In 1953 the AEC adopted a plan for recognition of superior safety records of contractors, subcontractors (construction included), and AEC offices. The plan parallels in certain respects, the current plan of the National Safety Council for recognizing good safety records. This plan is strongly endorsed by AEC top management, and, at times, personal presentations are made by these officials.

ATTACHMENT

AEC CONSTRUCTION SAFETY EXPERIENCE

It is, of course, impossible to completely eliminate accidents from any program. Since 1947, however, the injury frequency rate in the AEC's construction program has been about a fourth of the nation's construction average as published by the National Safety Council. The AEC and its contractors received the National Safety Council's Award of Honor for five consecutive years, 1962-1966, for outstanding industrial safety experience (construction included). Attached to my statement is a detailed summary of AEC Construction Safety Experience.

This completes my testimony on the AEC construction safety program. I will be pleased to answer any question subcommittee members have on my testimony.

AEC CONSTRUCTION SAFETY EXPERIENCE

Since 1947, the injury frequency rate of 4.50 (the number of lost-time injuries per million man-hours) in the AEC's construction program has been about a fourth of the nation's construction average of 16.83, as published by the National Safety Council (comparison of frequency rates and severity rates is given in Table I). Over 1-billion man-hours of construction operations are represented in AEC's 21-year history with 5030 construction lost-time injuries. (See Table II. AEC Injury Experience.) Also, in the same period there has never been a major construction property damage loss ($50,000 or more). As a result of this experi

ence, AEC CPFF construction contractors' Workmen's Compensation insurance costs, where statistics are available, are about one-third of the average rates charged by insurance companies.

The National Safety Council's Award of Honor for 1955, 1960, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, and 1966 was received by the AEC and its contractors for their outstanding industrial safety experience (construction included). The AEC Federal employees received the President's Safety Award for 1957, 1959, 1960, and 1962. A new safety record was established by the 131,500 employees of the AEC and its contractors during 1967 (injury frequency rate 1.41) the best in AEC's 21-year history, according to the latest available figures. Over one-half of the AEC contractors had no lost-time injuries during 1967.

1 As reported to and published by Bureau of Labor Statistics, "Handbook of Labor Statistics, 1967" (contract construction).

As reported to and published by National Safety Council Accident Facts Handbook (all U.S. construction). 3 Frequency rate: The number of lost-time injuries per 1,000,000 man-hours.

Severity rate: The number of days lost per 1,000,000 man-hours.

Not available at this time.

Lost-time injury as defined in United States of America Standards USAS Z16.1.

STATEMENT OF JOHN A. ERLEWINE, ASSISTANT GENERAL MANAGER FOR OPERATIONS, ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION: ACCOMPANIED BY DR. MARTIN B. BILES, DIRECTOR, DIVISION OF OPERATIONAL SAFETY, AND MR. JOHN A. DERRY, DIRECTOR, DIVISION OF CONSTRUCTION

Mr. ERLEWINE, I would be pleased to do that, Mr. Chairman.

I am John A. Erlewine, Assistant General Manager for Operations. Atomic Energy Commission and it is a pleasure to be with you today and to describe for you the AEC's construction safety program and how construction safety standards are formulated, administered, and enforced in this program.

I have with me Dr. Martin B. Biles, Director of our Operational Safety Division, and Mr. John A. Derry, Director of our Construction Division.

I will summarize briefly my statement which has been submitted for the record.

Within the program there are approximately 123,000 contractor employees and 7,500 AEC personnel; approximately 9,000 of these contractor employees work on activities involving construction, alteration, and repair of facilities. The magnitude of the AEC construction program during the past 10 years varies from a high of $582 million in 1963 to a present low of $243 million in 1967.

The total plant investment is greater than $9 billion.

During 1967 there were about 300 engineers and technical employees in the health and safety program of the AEC. Of these it is estimated that about 26 were involved in the construction program to some extent. In addition, there were about 200 professional engineers involved in the administration of construction programs.

In carrying out the mandate from Congress to develop, utilize, and control atomic energy in such a way as to protect the health and safety of the public, the AEC has made health and safety a line management responsibility extending from the general manager who discharges the executive functions of the AEC through its field office managers to the contractors who construct or operate facilities for the AEC. This recognition of safety as a primary management responsibility is consistent with the basic premise that jobsite health and safety cannot be isolated and treated differently from other project management considerations such as cost, performance, and scheduling.

Whenever applicable the technical construction standards, codes and guides used are nationally accepted ones promulgated by the Associated General Contractors, Corps of Engineers, National Safety Council, United States of America Standards Institute, Underwriters Laboratories, National Fire Protection Association, and others. Recognizing that local codes may differ from the nationally accepted norms. each AEC field office has the authority to adopt local safety code requirements where these provide a higher level of protection.

The AEC, in order to insure proper attention to construction safety, includes in all of its construction contracts, both fixed-price or costtype, a contract health and safety clause. I would like to quote the clause as it is generally stated:

The contractor shall take all reasonable precautions in the performance of the work under this contract to protect the health and safety of employees and