UCOR has earned its seventh consecutive national innovation award, continuing a multi-year record of improving workplace practices while safely advancing environmental cleanup across the Oak Ridge Reservation (ORR).
UCOR President and Program Manager Jim Blankenhorn accepted the Voluntary Protection Programs Participants’ Association’s (VPPPA) Innovation Award at its annual national conference this week. VPPPA, representing 300,000 employees across the United States, supports worksites in achieving continuous improvement in occupational safety and health.
The award presented to UCOR recognizes the company’s one-of-a-kind Vegetation Management Program, a standardized approach to safely perform vegetation removal, land management, and landscaping operations across the ORR.
Tree felling, a key function of the Vegetation Management Program, is extremely hazardous, with fatality rates among the highest in U.S. industry. It requires strict adherence to Occupational Safety and Health Administration safety standards, proper personal protective equipment, appropriate training, and hazard mitigation before each operation.
UCOR recognized the industrial hazard, and a multidisciplined team developed a program that would eliminate injuries associated with vegetation removal activities by proactively providing direction, protective measures, and guidelines for decision making in a challenging cleanup environment. The program consists of unique combinations of administrative controls and advanced protective methods, providing the workforce with what they need to recognize hazards and employ appropriate measures, ensuring a safe, standardized, and consistent approach toward vegetation management of approximately 180 acres on the ORR.
The innovative program led to the safe clearing of over 40 acres at the Environmental Management Disposal Facility, an onsite disposal landfill that will accept debris from the demolition of legacy facilities at the Y-12 National Security Complex and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Removing these facilities makes land available for continuing national security and research missions.
The program also paved the way for UCOR’s first-time self-performance of large-scale tree felling at a legacy disposal area used during the Cold War. The site contained contaminated equipment and debris generated by legacy operations. The program equipped crews with the guidelines needed to safely clear 39 acres and process the resulting timber without an injury or illness, despite navigating difficult terrain and a heavily wooded area. This progress positions the site for upcoming remedial activities, a vital step to prepare the 100-acre footprint for future development.
Photo: UCOR President and Program Manager Jim Blankenhorn, UCOR Senior Vice President of Safety, Security, Health, and Quality Assurance Jimmy Hughes, and UCOR teammates with the 2026 VPPPA Innovation Award
