Contractor able to resume sewer work in Yarmouth after fatal incident

Town of Yarmouth seal

YARMOUTH – The Town of Yarmouth Select Board has taken action in response to a fatal construction site accident last November.

According to the town, the select board voted to require a full-time qualified safety professional consulting firm to be on-site at all times as a precondition for Revoli Construction to resume any active trenchwork requiring support as defined in OSHA regulations.

The safety professional shall keep detailed daily logs and provide daily construction reports to the town, and will also have the authority to stop work in the event it observes conditions that it deems to be unsafe, and in that case shall report immediately to the designated town representative.

This comes in response to the trench collapse that occurred last November 18th on South Shore Drive in which a worker was killed and another injured.

Since that time, no work has proceeded on that contract.

Although Revoli Construction has denied any wrongdoing in the incident, the case is being actively investigated by OSHA, which is scheduled to conclude its investigation in May.

According to Town Administrator Robert Whritenour, “the Town felt it needed to step in to ensure that safe conditions are maintained on the project site at all times”.

This contract is one of six individual contracts issued to complete the $207 million Phase 1 Yarmouth Wastewater project by 2028.