The contractor overseeing stone restoration of the Missouri State Capitol recently settled with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and paid reduced penalties for cited safety violations at the worksite.
Chicago-based Bulley & Andrews Masonry Restoration LLC is overseeing the more than $28 million restoration of much of the Capitol's exterior stone work.
OSHA issued several citations against the company in July 2019, after opening a file on Bulley & Andrews' work at the Capitol in January 2019 and doing an unannounced inspection of the worksite after a complaint.
The federal workplace safety agency initially cited Bulley & Andrews for four serious violations and issued fines for three of the violations - $6,630 for each of three violations, for a total of $19,890 - related to noise level control and respiratory protection from stone dust for workers.
Bulley & Andrews' marketing director Sloan Watson emailed in October the company was appealing OSHA's findings. OSHA indicated the company had in August begun contesting its findings.
As of Feb. 15, the company had formally settled with OSHA, and the case was closed the week before that, according to OSHA's online records.
Instead of the initial $19,890 total for penalties on three violations, Bulley & Andrews paid $9,945 on two violations, which were reduced from being categorized as "serious" to "other."
The company was not ultimately penalized for what had initially been a $6,630 fine related to the monitoring of air quality for workers' exposure to crystalline silica - a lung cancer-causing agent found in the airborne dust that results from chipping, cutting, drilling or grinding stone.
Another $6,630 fine related to noise levels was reduced to $3,315.
A third $6,630 fine, also related to workers' respiratory protection from stone dust - that regulation specific to workers tasked with using certain equipment - remained unchanged.
Watson did not immediately return a request Monday for any further comment on the formal settlement and closure of the case.
The renovation work on the Capitol is about 70 percent complete, the Office of Administration said Monday.
"The substantial completion should be completed by December, so inaugural proceedings can take place in January 2021 on the south lawn," OA spokesman Chris Moreland said.