Data center speed is outrunning contractor safety programs

Engineering News-Record reported on July 24 that the data center building boom is bringing new scrutiny to jobsite safety, and one number in it explains the whole problem. Marc Hutson, who runs construction operations at JE Dunn, told the magazine the firm puts $60 million to $70 million a month in place on a hyperscale data center, against roughly $15 million a month on a $200 million hospital.

Why it matters

For a construction company weighing its first data center package, that ratio is the decision. Four times the monthly volume moves through a safety program sized for something else, and the exposure lands on your experience modification rate, not the hyperscaler’s. A single lost-time claim reprices your workers’ comp for three years, on every other job you run.

Owners are also sending mixed signals. Caterpillar Safety Services, which has talked with contractors representing six of the biggest data center companies, describes owners pressing hard on recordable injury rates and then spending most of the meeting on schedule. That is downward pressure on the clock dressed as a safety conversation.

The subcontracting math compounds it. One general contractor ran a safety perception survey across 90 subcontractors on a single job. An ABC survey cited by ENR found contractors above $100 million in revenue are taking the largest share of this work, so smaller subs arrive as one of ninety rather than as a partner with leverage.

The numbers

We pulled BLS Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries Table A-1 for 2024, released February 19. Construction recorded 1,034 fatal injuries, more than any other private industry, 389 of them from falls, slips and trips. Electrical contractors and other wiring installation contractors, NAICS 23821, recorded 59 deaths. Commercial and institutional building construction, the code most data center shell work bills under, recorded 58.

Insurance is repricing around the same exposure. Swiss Re Institute puts global data center premiums at $10.6 billion today, rising to $24.2 billion by 2030, with construction cost at a single location reaching $20 billion.

What’s next

Price safety staffing into the bid instead of carrying it as overhead, and get the owner’s recordable-rate expectation in writing before you sign. “If you approach that with an old school mentality, you will continue to come up short on preventing injuries,” Hutson said. More national coverage.