Contractors Fined $300K Combined for Trench Violations in Washington

A general contractor and sub were issued a combined $300,000 in fines recently for trench violations in Washington.

The general contractor also disregarded stop-worker orders after initial inspections, and repeat violations occurred, according to the Washington State Department of Labor & Industries.

In July, workers were found in Spokane between a 22.5-foot-high nearly vertical dirt wall and 10-foot-high concrete forms without cave-in protection nor safe escape method.

The citation says multiple employees of V’s Concrete LLC were building cement footings and foundation walls for a home when L&I inspectors arrived on the site.

The company faces fines of $183,040 for seven willful and eight serious violations. The citations include workers walking or crawling along the top of the 10-foot-high concrete foundation forms without fall protection and for workers exposed to unguarded vertical steel rebar sticking up from concrete footings.

L&I also fined the general contractor, Better Builders, $121,840 for four willful and four serious violations, “including not having an adequate engineer’s design for excavations over 20 feet, not ensuring its subcontractor’s workers were protected from hazards and for violating the order of immediate restraint.”

This photo taken by a neighbor July 15 shows employees violating stop work order, says L&I.Washington State Department of Labor & IndustriesL&I said Better Builders repeatedly violated stop work orders the county and L&I issued for the site until the hazards were corrected.

“Better Builders refused to post L&I’s order, so the inspector posted it himself,” according to L&I. “Better Builders removed that order. When L&I reposted it, the property owner took it down again.”

Then less than two weeks after the initial inspection, V’s Concrete workers were again seen working between 10-foot-high concrete forms and the dirt wall.

“The photos tell the story of just how dangerous this worksite was,” says Craig Blackwood, assistant director for L&I’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health. “The stop work orders by the county and L&I remain in place today to prevent these two companies from putting workers’ lives at risk any further.”

Both companies have appealed the violations.