Companies Face More Than $300,000 in Proposed Fines for Excavation Hazards

The Washington State Department of Labor and Industries said two construction companies face more than $300,000 in combined fines for allegedly exposing a crew of concrete workers to life-threatening cave-ins and excavation hazards and ignoring an order to stop work at the site. The department said employees of VS Concrete were working next to a 22-foot-high, nearly vertical dirt wall without adequate cave-in protection. The workers were in a gap next to a concrete foundation with no way to escape if the dirt wall collapsed. L&I said it issued a stop-work order, ...