Meet Cold Spring Construction
Headquartered near Buffalo, New York, Cold Spring Construction is a fourth-generation, family-owned general contracting firm specializing in heavy civil construction projects. The company has completed work on highways, bridges, earthwork, paving, airport facilities, dams, and underground work, mainly throughout the western half of New York state and parts of Pennsylvania.
Company founder Eugene P. Forrestel started Cold Spring Construction in 1911 and bought out his partners over the next decade. Eugene’s sons, Richard and John Thomas took over the business after World War II. Under their leadership, Cold Spring did a great deal of work on various expressways in Western NY as part of President Eisenhower’s national effort to build the interstate system. Richard and Thomas ran the business from the 1950s through the 70s when Richard’s son Steve returned to the company after serving in the US Navy. Steve Forrestel is currently CEO of the company, and his son Ryan Forrestel is President. Jeff Borden, Ryan’s cousin, is Vice President.
For over 100 years, Cold Spring Construction has been committed to providing the best quality work for every owner they work for and the taxpayers and public that those owners represent. They encourage all their employees to deliver quality work they can be proud of and treat everyone in the workplace with respect.
For Cold Spring Construction, safety has always been a top priority. They strive to ensure that despite challenging and dynamic projects and job sites, no stone is left unturned to provide the safest environment for their employees, subcontractors, owners, and the public. Everyone going home safe every day is their ultimate goal.
The Challenge
Cold Spring Construction oversees various projects and job sites as a general contractor specializing in heavy civil construction. Ensuring the safety of everyone involved is essential, but managing it across multiple job sites can be challenging. With so much going on, it’s easy for things to fall through the cracks.
In addition, with over 100 years of history, the company has a wealth of experience and knowledge to share with its employees. But, ensuring that all workers have access to this valuable information can be difficult, especially as the workforce changes and grows.
Like many construction companies, Cold Spring Construction struggled to find an effective way to manage safety and train their employees across all of their projects and job sites. They needed a solution that would allow them to easily share information and resources with their employees, no matter where they worked.
In the past, they have primarily relied on paper-based forms and checklists, with some integration to their electronic time card system. But, this was not an effective way to manage safety or train employees, as it was challenging to track compliance and ensure everyone had access to the latest information.
The aQuiRe™ app makes site training simple and presents safety information in a way that is easy to understand while still covering all essential topics. It makes tracking employee compliance simple and ensures everyone on and off-site has access to the latest safety data.
The Approach
The aQuiRe™ platform offers various features relevant to Cold Spring’s safety and training, including custom content, surveys, and quizzes.
Cold Spring Construction is taking full advantage of CAHill’s Custom Content feature to create unique training materials and surveys for their organization. Certain operations and equipment require technical knowledge, and the Custom Content feature allows Cold Spring to deliver that information in a more targeted way.
Maintenance and preventive maintenance of unique, specialized equipment is crucial to ensuring proper function and preventing unanticipated breakdowns. CAHill’s Custom Content team worked with Cold Spring to create custom training modules and surveys that prompt employees to check the equipment and ensure that preventive maintenance is done correctly.
The training modules and surveys are delivered through the aQuiRe™ app, which makes it easy for employees to access all the information they need without leaving the construction site.
The Results
Since implementing the aQuiRe™ platform, Cold Spring Construction has significantly improved safety and compliance across its organization.
The app has helped Cold Spring deliver more targeted and effective employee safety training. While it may be hard to quantify the impact of this improved training, Ryan believes it has contributed to more engaged and safety-conscious employees.
Looking into the future
The aQuiRe™ platform is constantly evolving to meet the changing needs of construction companies. As safety and compliance regulations become more complex, the app will become even more valuable for organizations like Cold Spring Construction.
The construction industry is not a one-size-fits-all, and similar companies often operate very differently. aQuiRe™ can adapt to these different scenarios very well, making it a valuable tool for any construction company looking to improve safety, training and compliance on their site.
Ryan Forrestel is confident that aQuiRe™ will continue to help Cold Spring Construction meet its safety goals, maintain equipment, train employees, and stay compliant with regulations for years to come.