The Biosolids Digester Facilities Project (BDFP, an MWH/Webcor JV) is finishing up 2025 with two well-deserved safety wins: the National Safety Council’s (NSC’s) Occupational Excellence Achievement Award and Million Hours Award.
The Million Hours Award represents 1 million consecutive hours without a lost time incident (July 2024 – September 2025).
Awards like these reflect the outstanding safety culture that permeates BDFP—a culture tirelessly championed by Health & Safety Manager Jorge Torres (MWH) and Safety Manager Kendall Cantave, who say these moments of recognition highlight the team’s collective commitment to the wellbeing of every team member on-site.
“It’s important to celebrate the successes and milestones on a project as complex and long-lasting as BDFP,” Jorge says. “It’s gratifying to see the mutual support and buy-in between the JV and trade partners culminate in a moment like this. Safety awards are the ultimate TEAM awards!”
In September, Jorge and Kendall traveled to Denver, CO to accept the Occupational Excellence Achievement Award at NSC’s annual Safety Congress & Expo. The experience was made especially memorable by a reunion with former Webcor Safety Director Mario Rodriguez, who met them at the expo and congratulated them on their well-deserved win. “
These awards are a testament to the entire team’s commitment to a higher standard of safety that’s integrated in our daily strategies and operations., Kendall says. They symbolize everyone’s hard work and effort to build an exceptional safety culture, which is the foundation of an incident- and injury-free work environment.”
Connecting with their trade partners and earning their trust. Both Kendall and Jorge embrace active caring, understanding that meaningful actions grounded in empathy always speak loudest. They’ve consistently shown up for BDFP’s field crews by hosting comprehensive, relevant trainings, joining risk assessment walks, meeting with contractors’ safety managers to review upcoming work together, and simply keeping their door open to team members who want to talk. “I genuinely feel our efforts help the workers feel safe and heard,” Jorge says.
The ultimate celebration of BDFP’s culture and people comes around every May, when Kendall, Jorge, and Safety Coordinator Darlene Camara plan five consecutive days of trainings, stand-downs, vendor demonstrations, and team-building events for Safety Week.
“Safety Week is our Super Bowl,” Jorge says. “We invite 20+ vendors, plan thoughtful Toolbox Talk topics throughout the week, and host a huge BBQ with music, raffle prizes for the field crews, and guest speakers from Webcor, SFPUC, and building trades organizations. It’s always fun to put that on for all the hard-working people on our project.”
Austin Webcor Joint Venture, along with NIBBI and Skanska, held a joint LBE outreach event on September 11.
The SFO West Field Garage project provides a clear blueprint for this shift. With the client mandating that at least 20 percent of the labor force (30 percent on the design side) be comprised of Locally Based Enterprises (LBEs), Webcor has undertaken outreach to Bay Area LBEs, including two on-site events.
Instead of hosting a single, siloed event, the Austin Webcor Joint Venture, along with NIBBI and Skanska, held a joint LBE outreach event on September 11.
Webcor also partnered with SFO, including West Field Program Director Kristin Allen. "Because of this partnership, we were able to offer educational components in our presentation that addressed not only multiple contracting opportunities, but also labor compliance, local hire, bonding and insurance for our LBE partners, LBE compliance, and much more," says Outreach & Partnerships Manager Sharla Sullivan.
This multi-project approach significantly increased the range of available work scopes. As Project Director Wayne Campbell explained, "Webcor's project doesn't include every scope of work performed by local businesses, but many that we don't have, the other GCs did." This draws a deeper pool of LBEs.
Key subcontractors, including Rosendin, Cupertino, and Southland, also participated, demonstrating the entire ecosystem's commitment to local inclusion.
What does this intentional engagement yield? More than just signed contracts.
Mentorship in Action: The event functioned as a "mini mentorship program," allowing small firms to gain actionable advice directly from seasoned GCs and subcontractors.
Process Simplified: Airport representatives cut through bureaucratic fog by clearly detailing "what forms needed to be filled out and who they needed to contact" from each project team, making the process welcoming and clear, according to Wayne.
The Outcome: The LBEs who attended – a mix of specialists and small GCs – are now active candidates. This process, driven by Sharla's promotional efforts, directly feeds a pipeline of qualified, local firms into the project.
One example of the outcomes achieved by these events is Webcor’s hire of an LBE who attended the first outreach event. Their specialty: San Francisco’s Contracts Monitoring Division (CMD), which oversees companies’ compliance with LBE requirements.
Wayne expects several of the LBEs that attended the September 11 event to wind up working on the West Field Garage project.
This model exemplifies the spirit of Construction Inclusion Week. By actively developing and connecting with the local marketplace, firms ensure a more resilient supply chain and address the systemic barriers that often sideline smaller, diverse businesses. This isn't just a regulatory mandate; it is a strategic imperative that strengthens the company, the project, and the community.
The Webcor BBQ team joined forces with the CSU Chico recruiting team on October 16 to host a barbecue at the university as part of Construction Inclusion Week.
"We fed over 450 students and faculty from the Construction Management and Civil Engineering departments," says Webcor Concrete Sr. Project Manager David Bischoff. Chico alumni were represented on both the BBQ and recruiting teams.
"We're incredibly thankful to the faculty that helped organize the event," David says.
"The faculty and industry support were paramount to our success and growth while we were at Chico," David says.
"It meant so much to us to be able to give back the support we had while in attendance at Chico during those formative years."
Adrian Meraz and the Webcor Equipment warehouse team worked behind the scenes for the Webcor BBQ team.
Other key contributors to the event included Dennis Heimer, Ivan Ramos, Ron Hanneman, Patrick Haley, Matt Faith, Logan Murphy, Daisy Eggert, and Diane Oliver. From the CSU Faculty, Scott McCuthcheon provided critical support.
