The following article by Evan Milberg, was published on May 5, 2026 at smartbrief.com.

The construction industry wants to be “All In Together” on safety. That’s a lot easier said than done, but new technologies and initiatives are helping.

It’s a big ask. “All in Together.”

That’s the theme of this year’s Construction Safety Week. It’s equal parts aspirational and pragmatic. It recognizes that the industry’s most persistent safety gaps won’t close unless everyone, from general contractors and trades to technology providers and field workers, closes them together.

Recognize, Respond, Stand Down

Kevin Cannon, senior director of safety, health and risk management at the Associated General Contractors of America, says Safety Week programming is structured around the national daily themes, Recognize, Respond, and Wednesday’s National Fall Stand-Down, with an eye toward lasting impact.

“We also understand that it carries on beyond just a single week,” Cannon says. “In my view, it sets the tone for the remainder of the year — a mid-year reminder that safety remains a priority for the construction industry, and that message carries beyond May 4–8.”

Monday’s “Recognize” theme put the spotlight on identifying high-energy hazards early, which Cannon calls “critical in preventing serious injuries and fatalities.” Tuesday shifted to “Respond” — building safety into planning, prioritizing controls and adjusting when conditions change. Wednesday centers on the National Fall Stand-Down, reinforcing awareness of the risks of working at height and making sure that awareness reaches craft workers directly.

Is language a jobsite hazard?

For DPR Construction, one of the most underappreciated hazards on a jobsite doesn’t involve heights, heavy equipment, or electricity. It’s language.

Chris Bell of DPR describes the challenge bluntly. With the Hispanic workforce projected to account for 80% of new construction labor by 2030, language barriers create overlapping risks, such as communication gaps, cultural disconnects and direct threats to worker safety. The most dangerous consequence, Bell says, is silence. Workers who struggle with the dominant language on a site often don’t speak up when they spot a problem. Not because they don’t see it, but because they can’t communicate it or fear embarrassment if they try.

DPR’s response has been to treat language the way OSHA treats any other hazard: As something to be systematically eliminated, not merely managed. The firm’s strategy goes well beyond assigning bilingual supervisors. Through a partnership with Freestyle Languages, DPR offers English classes to native Spanish speakers and Spanish classes to native English speakers. Its “One Voice” program identifies bilingual workers on site through visible markers on vests and hard hats, speeding up communication and reinforcing an inclusive culture.

The model also adapts regionally. DPR accounts for other languages encountered on its projects, including Creole, Russian and Dutch, recognizing that a national language strategy has to flex to local workforce realities.

AI moves from pilot to open platform

Turner Construction is taking a different but complementary approach to closing the gap between safety knowledge and field decisions. The company has announced it is making its AI-powered field safety tool, SafeT Coach, available to the entire construction industry.

SafeT Coach is designed to be the resource workers reach for when conditions shift and the manual isn’t handy. Accessible from any mobile device, the tool answers plain-language safety questions using responses grounded in Turner’s environmental health and safety standards. It can also evaluate uploaded jobsite photos, flag potential hazards, prioritize risk and recommend controls in real time. Outputs are framed as coaching prompts, not compliance directives, reinforcing a learning-oriented culture rather than a punitive one.

The tool emerged from Turner’s AI Innovation Challenge and was refined through field pilots involving more than 80 stakeholders. Since its initial rollout, SafeT Coach has logged over 25,000 interactions across Turner staff, trade partners and field teams. By opening the platform to the broader industry, Turner aims to put better safety decisions in the hands of the roughly eight million workers on US construction sites.

“Nothing we build will ever be as important as the people who build it,” says Steve Spaulding, Turner’s Chief Environmental, Health, and Safety Officer. “SafeT Coach shortens the distance between uncertainty and action, so when someone in the field has a question, the answer is already in their hands.”

A $2 million bet on ending electrocutions

Meanwhile, the McElhattan Foundation, in partnership with CPWR, has launched the Zero Electrocution Challenge, offering up to $1 million each to two winners who propose breakthrough solutions to eliminate fatal workplace electrocutions. The challenge is the inaugural competition under ZERO 2050, a recurring national program aimed at ending workplace fatalities entirely.

The data behind the urgency

New research from STACK, a preconstruction software provider, adds quantitative weight to the week’s themes. Its 2026 State of Women in Construction Report found that 68% of construction workers have felt unsafe on the job. More than one in ten respondents, regardless of sex or gender, reported being injured because potential hazards weren’t spotted in time. Nearly one-third said they’ve had to work longer hours due to the industry’s slow adoption of new technology, and roughly one in five reported working excessive unpaid hours.

The report also flags a communication problem that echoes DPR’s findings from a different angle: 24% of respondents said leadership has gatekept important information, leading to miscommunication and lost projects. On the recruitment front, 63% of C-suite respondents believe that increasing visibility around off-site roles (estimator, director of preconstruction, CMO and similar positions) could encourage more women to enter the field.

The thread that connects it all

The week’s announcements point to a maturing safety culture that’s moving past compliance checklists toward systemic solutions. DPR is treating language barriers as eliminable hazards. Turner is democratizing AI-assisted safety coaching. The McElhattan Foundation is funding moonshot solutions to electrocution. New workforce data is making the case that communication failures and technology gaps are real safety hazards with measurable human costs.

The “All In Together” theme, it turns out, isn’t just about solidarity during a single week in May. It’s a description of what it actually takes to move the needle: everyone contributing, across every level of the industry, to close the gaps that still put workers at risk.