January 23, 2003

Engineering a Safer Life for Others

– Civil Engineer Roberto Nuñez Guides Hispanic Construction Workers in U.S. Safety Practices

	Roberto A. Nuñez, lecturer and senior construction extension specialist of civil engineering and construction, is involved in the programs to assist Spanish-speaking workers in North Carolina’s construction industry.

As a boy in Ecuador, Roberto A. Nuñez watched his civil engineer father work at a profession that involved a start-to-finish approach to building. In Ecuador, civil engineers fill the role of designers, developers, architects and construction workers during a project. After following his father into the profession, Nuñez came to NC State University in 1985 to obtain a master’s degree in civil engineering. Here he found that U.S. engineers are specialized, and he chose as his specialty learning and applying new techniques and systems to construction.

Nuñez, a registered professional engineer and a lecturer and senior construction extension specialist of civil engineering and construction at NC State, soon discovered that construction procedures in this country include an emphasis on safety not present in his home country. “For me, coming from Ecuador where I know that safety is not highly regarded, I realized that Hispanic construction workers coming to North Carolina have very little training and concern for safety,” he said. With support from NC State, Nunez is determined to change that situation.

In recent years the number of Hispanic residents of North Carolina has increased substantially. According to the 2000 census, Hispanics now make up 4.7 percent of the state’s population. Many of these new residents are employed in the construction industry. They bring with them a strong work ethic and practical construction experience, but many would like to improve and refine their skills, as well as learn about American construction regulations. And they should be aware of and follow U.S. safety practices.

Unfortunately, these workers may lack a basic education. According to Nuñez, many do not read either Spanish or English and they do not speak English fluently, which creates challenges as they seek employment and/or advancement opportunities through training, education and certification.

Nuñez wanted to find a way to help these workers succeed in their new home. He started small, holding classes on Sunday after services at Avent Ferry United Methodist Church, where a dual ministry in English and Spanish exists. The ten workers who attended that initial six-month training program were the first group to earn an Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) certificate stating that they were trained under OSHA and U.S. safety guidelines.

From that first group grew an innovative program for Hispanic construction workers, supported by NC State’s Department of Civil Engineering. The construction safety training program is the first offered in North Carolina in compliance with OSHA aimed at Hispanic construction workers. Now other organizations, such as the North Carolina Associated General Contractors (AGC), have recognized this need and also offer safety classes in Spanish to their membership.

Eligible workers take a 10-hour, seminar-style course given in Spanish that focuses on the four causes of 90 percent of the fatalities in construction identified by OSHA:  falls (e.g., floors, platforms, roofs), being struck (e.g. falling objects, vehicles), being caught in/between (e.g. cave-ins in excavations and trenching, unguarded machinery) and electrical hazards (e.g., overhead power lines, power tools). Upon successful completion of the course, the workers earn an OSHA course completion card in construction safety and health that can help them achieve better supervisory status and wages through their knowledge of safe work practices.

Nuñez lives in Durham with his wife, alumna Melanie Mann (BSCE ’88; MSCE ’95) and his son Jonathan. Roberto enjoys golf, swimming and travel. A dedicated “soccer dad,” he is a team coach for his son’s neighborhood soccer league. He has lived in the Research Triangle area since 1985.

Two special challenges for these courses have been the need to rely heavily on nonwritten communication and the need to establish trust among the workers. Nuñez has had to design visual aids that don’t rely on written language. The tougher problem, though, is the trust issue. “Many Spanish-speaking workers don’t distinguish between OSHA and the immigration service,” Nuñez said. “It takes time for them to gain trust that this program is really something that is going to help them rather than something that is going to expose them to surveillance by immigration.”

Nuñez is involved with another program sponsored by the American Concrete Institute (ACI) and the first of its kind in North and South America. Nuñez is one of two course developers that allowed ACI to offer training classes in Spanish at NC State University for North Carolinian concrete/flatwork finishers, 50 to 80 percent of whom are believed to be Hispanic. The exam given at the end of the course is also in Spanish. This ACI certification program is now being implemented in several states in North America and in at least three countries in Central and South America.

According to Nuñez, these programs give Hispanic workers unique opportunities to improve their job skills in a competitive market. As they build their skills with courses like these, these newly certified craftsmen find better jobs and fill a growing niche in the workforce. In turn these highly skilled workers create high-quality buildings for communities — a winning situation for everyone.

Nuñez and Edwin C. Weaver, also an extension specialist in civil engineering at NC State, are involved in other innovative programs that help not just Hispanic workers but the construction industry in general. “We have a unique agreement between the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) and NC State University in the area of training in which we offer a certification for any company that has workers involved in any concrete infrastructure project for the NCDOT,” he said. “This is the first time that the university has been directly involved with the NCDOT in certification.”

Another project, which he works on with Dr. Sami H. Rizkalla, Distinguished Professor of Civil Engineering and Construction and director of the Constructed Facilities Laboratory (CFL) at NC State, will help companies develop products in compliance with the stringent International Conference of Building Officials (ICBO). According to Nuñez, “NC State will have one of the few labs in the country that can help small- and medium-sized companies test any construction product/system to get approval under ICBO building code requirements.”

In addition to his involvement in applied research, industry certification projects and continuing education, Nuñez teaches classes at NC State. He likes the challenge of teaching and sharing his experiences with young people who will later take that knowledge into the field. “I enjoy my association with the university and the people that opened a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to a foreign engineer. Also, I have the opportunity to link our unique university resources with domestic and international industry and organizations and thereby make a contribution to their economic development,” he said. “The power of the university to make a difference is an attractive feature of being here. Last year, for instance, I was able to generate the first international agreement between NC State and my home country university (the Escula Politechica National or EPN). We have small goals such as setting up a civil engineering library at the EPN by shipping used books donated by NC State faculty as well as larger goals such as helping set up Ecuadorian government guidelines, processes and structures for a new program focused on competitiveness and quality systems for the entire country.”

Making a difference is what Nuñez, along with his civil engineering colleagues, set out to do, and he has indeed made a difference at NC State. Through his determination to change things for the better — whether he is making a better professional life for construction workers, helping the construction industry or inspiring students — his work benefits us all.

— rudd —

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