The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration dispatched a safety and health compliance officer to begin an investigation of the site Wednesday morning as firefighters and paramedics from the Portsmouth Fire Department pulled the injured man from the hole. The investigation is ongoing. We do not offer a report to the public until we complete our investigation. OSHA has up to six months after the date of the incident to issue a report of finding. Our goal is to find out what happened here and hopefully prevent it from happening again.
Worker protection is our thrust.
OSHA has regulations and standards that are designed to provide a safe and healthy workplace for all employees. The new water main will eventually extend downtown to the intersection of Congress Street and Maplewood Avenue. What this will do is this will give us better control over the water tank and better fire protection in the community. During the next couple of days, two crews will continue the work in the city streets. One crew will lay pipe on Greenleaf Avenue, while another crew will finish the connection at the water tank on Constitution Avenue.