Looking Back on the World's Deadliest Construction Projects

We hear and see everyday how safety is stressed in the construction industry. However, we continue to see examples and news stories about many contractors and construction projects that continue to ignore safety hazards and procedures.

Construction is a dangerous industry, but all construction workers and construction business owners have the power and the responsibility to make sure all every laborer has what they need perform their jobs safely and get home safely every night.

Safer America recently published an interactive timeline taking a look at the modern era's most deadliest construction projects. The research takes a look at both the total number of construction worker deaths during the construction projects as well as where the projects rank in highest death rate per 1,000 construction workers.

Interesting to note is the seven skyscraper building projects included totaled the least amount of construction worker deaths at just 82. Bridges, which included five projects, followed closely with only 90 worker deaths (although even 90 is still far too many).

Canal projects had the highest total of construction worker deaths with 163,609 deaths in only four projects. Railway projects also had a large number with 107,200 spread across only two railroad projects. Tunnel and dam projects recored a total of 772 and 733 construction worker deaths respectively.

Five other projects including the Titanic, the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, Los Angeles Aqueduct, Karakoram Highway and the Qatar World Cup have totaled 5,383 construction worker deaths, with 4,000 of those worker fatalities on the Qatar projects.

Taking a look at the death rate per 1,000 workers, the Panama Canal is by far the deadlist construction project with 408.12 construction worker deaths per 1,000 workers — a total of 30,609 deaths. On the opposite end of the spectrum, the Chrysler Building had zero construction worker deaths.

The other three canal projects included the Erie Canal, which recorded 1,000 deaths from its 50,000 workers. The Erie Canal deaths are attributed to disease from swampy terrain, careless use of gunpowder while blasting, drowning and frequent canal collapses which buried workers under tons of rubble. 

The Suez Canal had 120,000 deaths among its 1.5 million workers during the 11 year excavation project — the most construction worker deaths of the four canal projects. The White Sea-Baltic Sea Canal project took the lives of 12,000 of its construction labor workforce, which was made up entirely of inmates. Unofficial estimates have the death toll running as high as 25,000 workers who died due to starvation, cold and physical exhaustion.

Like the Chrysler Building, which had 3,000 workers and zero deaths, the Eiffel Tower kept its construction worker death toll down to one worker with much credit going to extensive use of guard rails and safety screens. The other U.S. skyscraper projects included the Empire State Building, which had five deaths among its 3,400 workers during construction; the 1970s World Trade Center construction which recorded 60 construction worker deaths; the Sears Tower which recorded five worker deaths in two incidents; and Las Vegas's CityCenter project which resulted in the deaths of six construction workers. 

The only other foreign skyscraper on the list, the Taipei building, also recorded five construction worker deaths after a 6.8 magnitude earthquake caused cranes to collapse.

Hawks Nest Tunnel is a three-mile-long tunnel through Gauley Mountain in West Virginia constructed in 1931. The project is known as one of the worst industrial disasters in U.S. history, and while the Safer America research says the project caused the death of 764 construction workers and had the third highest death rate per 1,000 workers at 152.8, the exact number of fatalities is hard to pinpoint. Many workers died from an incurable lung disease known as silicosis, which can take a few years to become fatal. 

Research estimates that at least 764 workers who worked underground for only two months died within five years of the tunnel's completing. Other estimates figure the death toll to be over 2,000.

The Gotthrad Base Tunnel suffered much less loss with eight construction worker deaths, although the world's longest and deepest traffic tunnel is still under construction.

While canal projects did have the highest death totals, railway projects were probably the most dangerous recording over 100,000 deaths on just two projects — The Transcontinental Railroad with 1,200 deaths, although this number has never been verified, and the Burma-Siam Railway with 106,000 construction worker deaths. The Burma-Siam Railway was also known as the "Death Railway".

Of the four dam projects that made the list, the Aswan Dam was the only one that recorded more than 100 deaths with 500 construction worker fatalities. The Hoover Dam recorded the next highest number with 96 followed by the Grand Coulee Dam at 77 and the Fort Peck Dam at 60.

Surprisingly, bridge construction projects have been relatively safe over the course of history. The Brooklyn Bridge recorded 30 construction worker deaths, the highest total of all the bridge projects featured. The Sydney Harbour Bridge in Australia recorded 16 deaths, with only two of those resulting from falls off the bridge.

The San Francisco Bay Bridge and the Golden Gate Bridge recorded 28 and 11 construction worker deaths, respectively. The San Francisco Bay Bridge fatalities helped spur the creation of safety nets for use on similar projects in the future. The Golden Gate Bridge was completed just months after the Bay Bridge. Of the 11 fatalities, 10 happened in a single incident when a 5-ton work platform broke. Chief Engineer Joseph Strauss made safety a top concern and spent $130,000 on safety nets. The Golden Gate Bridge was also the first construction site in America that required construction workers to wear hardhats.

Finally, the Mackinac Bridge recorded five deaths.

What can the construction industry learn from these historical and modern construction projects in regards to safety on the jobsite?