SAFETY FOR THE INFRASTRUCTURE GEOLOGIST
drop, employees work together seamlessly, and productivity increases. The responsibility of management and supervisory personnel throughout this process is to keep communication levels high, provide and encourage the use of PPEs, and provide training to employees in the performance of their work func- tions. Any mandated safety policy MUST be accompanied with training. Any state, Federal, or government safety regulations will be included in training, and management must lead in this process, providing immediate follow-up to employee concerns. Supervisors must lead by example, committing themselves to safe work practices and wearing appropriate PPEs.
Once a safe work environment is achieved, focus on safety is maintained by continuing an emphasis on safety, and by recognizing those who have achieved safe work practices in the long term and have contributed to their safe work environ- ment. The commitment must be ferocious, but the reward is huge. Everyone goes home at night, safe and sound, to enjoy life with their family. The responsible and ethical geologist should be a major contributor to that effort.
There are some who might think that it can’t be done, that no one person can see into the future sufficiently to protect every person from every incident that can happen. Additionally, each incident is unique. With experience, most geologists are able to prevent incidents by learning to recognize and avoid what CAN go wrong, and take appropriate steps to prevent tragedy. Applied common sense can help sort out the most serious and imminent hazards so that they may be avoided or mitigated against. Then, when the work day is done, you can go home intact to your family. That may be the greatest motivation of all.
References
American Gas Institute, 2014. Internet page “What causes natural gas pipeline accidents?” at http://www.
aga.org/Kc/aboutnaturalgas/consumerinfo/Pages/ CausesofNGPipelineAccidents.aspx Accessed Dec. 26, 2013.
John Berry, CPG-4032
The Zambesi River flows from the northwestern tip of Zambia 1000 km (625 miles) to the Falls across Pan-African (550Ma orogeny) metamorphic rocks. Just above the Falls it flows across 180 Ma basalts of the upper Karroo system. These were extensively broken by E-W faults (with very small offsets) during the break-up of Gondwanaland. Weathering widened the fault planes, and sand and clay filled the weath- ered zones. Until the Miocene, the upper Zambezi flowed SE along the Zimbabwe/Botswana border to join the Limpopo River. Uplift of central Zimbabwe at about 15 Ma gave rise to a large lake (perhaps as big as Lake Victoria in East Africa) in the area of the present falls. This was drained by headward erosion of the ancestral lower Zambesi, which integrated the Zambesi drainage into its present form and gave rise to the Falls. Since then the Victoria Falls have excavated a series of eight narrow E-W gorges as they retreated 3 miles across the weathered fault zones.
Reference:
Brett Hilton-Barber and Lee R. Berger. Copyright © 2010 Prime Origin. Map accessed at
http://www.siyabona.com/ explore-victoria-falls-geology.html, 2017/02/09.
Section News
Can now be found on the AIPG website at
http://aipg.org/sectionnews
More about Victoria Falls
Occupational Safety and Health Administration, 2009, Internet page “Statement of fundamental principles of the Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices” at: https://
www.osha.gov/doc/highway_workzones/mutcd/6b_funda- mental.html Accessed January 22, 2014.
South Carolina Overhead Powerline Safety Initiative, 2006, internet downloadable Powerpoint presentation at http://
lookupandlive.org/education.htm accessed Jan. 22, 2014.
Wikipedia.org, article “Infrastructure” at http://en.wikipedia. org/wiki/Infrastructure accessed Dec. 23, 2013.
George H. Davis is both the Central District Geologist and the Central Office Geologist for the Missouri Department of Transportation in Jefferson City, Missouri. He graduated in 1985 with a B.S. in Geology from Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, Tennessee and received his M.S. in Geology from the University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri in 1989. Besides being a full-time employee of the Missouri Department of Transportation, he is also an advisory board member at the Center for Underground Infrastructure Research and Education at the University of Texas in Arlington as well as an adjunct faculty member at Missouri State University in Springfield, Missouri. He has been an AIPG member since 2008, and is also active in GSA, AEG, and the Association of Missouri Geologists, whose annual meeting he has not missed in 24 consecutive years. Finally, in the fall of 2016 he began PhD studies in geology at the University of Missouri.
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