Middletown - Norwalk: Bringing Safe and Reliable Energy to Southwest Connecticut

Any sports fan will tell you that his favorite team is at peak performance when its starting lineup is on the field and injury-free; in fact, just one injured player can reduce the efficiency of an entire team.

The team that worked on CL&P's Middletown-Norwalk (M-N) transmission upgrade is a testament to this principle. M-N is a combined 69 miles of overhead and underground transmission lines that improves southwest Connecticut's electric reliability and reduces the region's energy costs. Working like a well-oiled machine, with safety as their top priority, more than 700 employees and outside contractors worked on the M-N project, racking up more than 1 million man-hours over the past two years without an Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recordable injury. To put this in perspective, industrial construction businesses have a average OSHA-recordable rate of 6.3 injuries per 200,000 man-hours, or more than 30 OSHA injuries per 1 million hours.

The health and safety system implemented by CL&P and the M-N program manager, Burns & McDonnell, undoubtedly contributed to the team's remarkable record. It takes an unwavering dedication and a personal commitment to safety by hundreds of contractors and employees, and a system that includes a mandatory safety training class for all employees and contract workers, thorough job hazard analysis, daily pre-work plans and strict enforcement of safety standards in the field.

Putting safety first not only helped ensure that employees and contract workers remained injury-free, but also protected against lost time on the project. The new transmission system began serving customers in 2009. In a letter to Northeast Utilities employees, NU Transmission President Jim Muntz wrote, "Logging 1 million man-hours without an OSHA recordable injury on one of the largest transmission construction programs in America is another example of how NU is leading the way as a major regional and national transmission builder. Let's continue to focus on safety as we strive for the next million man-hours without a lost-time accident."