Massachusetts Safety is Wicked “Smaht”

They’ve got baked beans, clam chowder, the Red Sawx….

And a leading safety culture.

If you want to understand how a culture of safety is built, you don’t need to fly to Geneva or benchmark the oil fields of Norway.

You just need to look at Massachusetts.

A few weeks ago, I looked into the numbers to see how safety incident rates differ around the globe. It highlighted underreporting in Eastern Europe.

And it got me thinking again about how we do things here in the U.S.

We’re made up of 50 (or more) different reporting areas.

There must be a discrepancy between various states.

Turns out that yes, there is. And it’s stark.

According to the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Massachusetts, New York, and Connecticut report some of the lowest Total Recordable Case (TRC) rates in the nation, hovering around 2.1 per 100 full-time workers. On the high end, states like Alaska (3.1), alongside others such as Oregon and Washington (around 3.4), report recordable injury rates meaningfully above the national average.

The disparity reflects geography and job mix, but also how states approach prevention, accountability, investment, and reporting.  

To see how Massachusetts built this culture, we have to look at the largest infrastructure project in the state’s history…

The Big Dig

Boston’s Big Dig transformed not only the city’s infrastructure, but the city itself.

It buried the elevated Central Artery, built the Ted Williams Tunnel, and reconnected neighborhoods long split by highway.

At the center of the plan was Frederick P. Salvucci, a civil engineer and transportation secretary under Governor Dukakis. He envisioned a project that would fix traffic congestion and revitalize the urban core.

But Salvucci’s vision needed money, and Washington wasn’t eager to pay.

Dukakis had an idea that only a politician could dream of: Since the Central Artery was built before federal highway funding existed, Dukakis convinced Washington that it deserved retroactive credit.

Meaning, had the legislation existed at the time, Washington would have had paid for it, therefore now, they owed the State.

It’s Washington, the only place an argument like that has a shot.

Plus, this was Massachusetts. The entire congressional delegation were Democrats. Tip O’Neill was Speaker.

Ted Kennedy was, well, a Kennedy!

The Federal Highway Bill of 1987 passed both chambers and landed on President Reagan’s desk.

Reagan vetoed it, remarking, “I haven’t seen so much lard since I handed out blue ribbons at the Iowa State Fair.”

He even went to Capitol Hill to personally lobby against overriding the veto.  It didn’t work.

102 Republicans in the House joined 13 in the Senate to cross the aisle and push it through. A sitting president was rebuffed by his own party in defense of a Boston megaproject.

(Can you imagine the Truth Social tweets this would generate today?)

The fact that two cabinet members, George Shultz and Casper Weinberger, were ex-Bechtel, the GC on the job, oddly worked against Reagan.

The funding came through, and the green shoots of the Massachusetts safety culture began to grow…because of tragedy.

Four workers died.

OSHA violations mounted.

One worker was killed when a steel beam pierced his head.

Silica exposure underground went unaddressed until citations were issued.

The injury rate was estimated at four times the national average.

In 2006, a tunnel ceiling panel collapsed and killed a motorist. That incident finally triggered a broad safety audit and intense public scrutiny.

The Big Dig gave Boston better traffic flow and more urban cohesion. It also gave the state a grim reminder that safety systems must be built in from the start. After that string of preventable tragedies, state leaders and unions had a powerful case for reform.

Executive Order 511

I’ll be frank, I wouldn’t have guessed Massachusetts as a leader in workplace safety.

Maybe it’s the icy roads, the pints after work, or the Dunkin’, but call me a skeptic.

Yet, in 2009, Massachusetts issued Executive Order 511. The catalyst was a growing frustration among public-sector unions who were seeing a steady stream of preventable injuries go unchecked.

“For years, Massachusetts safety advocates and public sector unions had urged past Governors and the legislature to extend safety protections to public employees.”

Union leaders had been pushing the state for years to address what they described as a patchwork of safety standards with no real oversight or accountability.

"Our members were getting hurt, and the state had no consistent system to fix it," said a representative from the Massachusetts AFL-CIO. "We weren’t asking for gold-plated helmets. We were asking for someone to care before the ambulance showed up."

EO 511 required every executive branch agency to adopt a formal health and safety management system: designating safety coordinators, forming joint labor-management committees, standardizing injury reporting, and tracking performance.

You might think the state HS&E lobby earned its bonus that year, but the results were strong.

From 2010 to 2014, workers’ compensation claims in the state’s executive branch dropped by more than 12 percent.

A control group of public colleges not covered by the order saw smaller gains.

Structure drove the results. EO 511 created accountability and transparency. 

A common language for identifying and managing risk.

Even in government, strong systems can work.

Where the Policy Meets the Pavement

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to construct a building extension and renovation over a fully operational hospital?

As the father of two, I can’t imagine having the maternity unit in an active construction zone.

But that was the challenge Walsh Brothers took on during the Newborn Intensive Care Unit (NICU) Expansion and Renovation at Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston.

They built a 34,600-square-foot NICU addition and renovated the existing 6th floor directly above the active Labor, Delivery, and Recovery Unit and adjacent to an occupied NICU.

Custom safety protocols, infection control measures, and real-time noise and vibration monitoring were all part of the plan.

Yet, the firm implemented a non-rigid steel platform crash-prevention system designed to work over sensitive zones.

And they finished the job with no safety incidents! (Except maybe a complaint or two from some sleepless moms).

That performance earned them the AGC Build America Award in 2019.

By the time EO 511 arrived, Massachusetts had already developed tools and incentives for the private sector. Insurance incentives. Grants, etc…

Companies like Walsh Brothers are leading the way. The company made the decision to invest in safety.

The company hired dedicated safety staff, redesigned planning processes, and built a system that responded to risks with structure. Safety became part of project orientation, field operations, and executive reviews. The changes touched every part of the company.

Now, Walsh Brothers is a leader in Safety Culture.

In 2024, it received the AGC Safety Award in the 275,000+ work-hour category. It has reported a zero incidence rate across several major projects. The company also won AGC awards in 2021 and 2022, and a Merit Award in 2017. These results come from operational consistency and leadership alignment.

The Takeaway

People had been pounding the table for reform in Massachusetts, but the Big Dig forced the issue. The state couldn’t afford more high-profile incidents, and safety finally moved from talking point to priority.

Today, Massachusetts blends policy and accountability into a working system.

It builds the muscle behind the message, a system of grants, consulting, audits, and recognition that push real change.

Walsh Brothers shows what that looks like on the ground, in real life - as the kids say. Process and culture reinforcing each other. Performance over compliance.

The numbers tell the rest.

Fewer injuries. Better outcomes.

A state that’s pulled ahead by building a system others can study.

If you want to know how to do it, the blueprint’s already there.

Stay in touch 

If you enjoyed this piece, please reach out, I’d love to hear from you. You can contact me at [email protected] or LinkedIn. 

Stay safe out there!