Research to Practice (r2p)

Infrastructure Resources: Keeping Construction Workers Safe as America Rebuilds

Road rebuildingOn November 15, 2021, President Biden signed H.R. 3684 the Bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA).  The IIJA contains $550 billion in new spending and hundreds of billions more in reauthorized spending to rebuild and strengthen the nation’s infrastructure. According to the Administration, this “once-in-a-generation” investment will help grow the economy, improve public safety, and create hundreds of thousands of good-paying jobs.

The IIJA includes a wide variety of new business and employment opportunities for the construction industry in each of the three broad infrastructure funding categories: Transportation; Climate, Energy and the Environment; and Broadband. Details on the types of construction work authorized in each category can be found in the Biden Administration’s Guidebook to the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and in the accompanying online data file that is searchable by category, program name, agency, bureau, funding amount, and funding mechanism.

Building a strong and safe infrastructure for the public begins with protecting the safety and health of the construction workers employed on these federally funded or assisted construction projects, as described in CPWR’s new infrastructure Safety Briefing. CPWR has collected resources to help employers quickly find information and materials they can use to keep their construction workforce safe and healthy as America rebuilds, including:

  • Tools to help plan for safe work, improve a company’s and/or project’s safety culture and climate, and comply with OSHA requirements
  • Safety and health training programs and materials
  • Information on best practices and solutions
  • Research on persistent and emerging hazards.

 

These resources* are available for construction work covered by each of the infrastructure funding categories:

 

Email CPWR’s Research to Practice Director Jessica Bunting to learn more about CPWR’s resources and research.

 

*Please note: Resources may appear in more than one category, and new resources will continue to be added.