News Aggregates Pits & Quarries Safety
Dufferin Aggregates’ Acton Quarry scores OSSGA safety award

TORONTO – The Ontario Stone, Sand & Gravel Association presented its 2023 Safety Innovation Award to Dufferin Aggregates’ Acton Quarry project at the association’s Operations, Health & Safety Seminar last week in Toronto.

The award recognizes innovative practices, programs and projects across Ontario’s aggregates operations that drive improvements and innovations in the health and safety of employees, subcontractors and the public.

Acton Quarry’s honours came from their safety improvements made to the hydraulics of a portable crushing plant commissioned last year. While the design’s hydraulic cylinders allowed for easy raising and lowering of screens, there were no mechanisms in place accounting for safety in the event of system failure and the required maintenance.

To accommodate this safety gap, Dufferin Aggregates designed a blocking system for the crushing plant to hold the screen in place, ensuring that a hydraulic system failure would not result in screen deck movement.

Michael McSweeney, executive director at OSSGA, commended Dufferin Aggregates’ innovative approach to addressing the quarry’s safey needs.

“The aggregate industry is committed to providing a safe, healthy and prosperous working environment,” McSweeney says. “By being proactive and innovative, this year’s Safety Innovation Award winner has made a meaningful contribution to reducing risk and improving the health and safety of the industry.”