Picture this: A safety innovation breaking literacy & language barriers

BY TY JOHNSON

When he entered the construction industry 14 years ago, Safety Director Dwayne Edmondson was looking to build.

That’s why he was intrigued when a recruiter told him to stop by Gallagher Asphalt Corp. even though he had other offer letters on his desk.

“I fell in love with it,” Edmondson remembers of his first visit. “I met Dan Gallagher right away and he was eager, happy, optimistic: The same energy I carry.”

After his second interview, Edmondson declined the other offers. That was eight paving seasons ago.

“They gave me the opportunity to help build the safety culture and safety program here at Gallagher,” he said.

The investment appears to be paying off, as Gallagher has received the 2025 Asphalt Safety Innovation Award, the company’s second nod in that category in as many years. NAPA Awards winners were announced during the Annual Meeting in Scottsdale, Ariz.

SAFETY FROM THE GROUND UP

While safety is a top priority across construction, its importance can make some companies hesitant to make changes.

Edmondson said he was drawn to Gallagher because there was an openness to trying new approaches.

“They allow me to explore ideas and continue to grow those ideas and become even more innovative,” he said.

That growth mindset meant Edmondson worked with others, including Application Lead Don Gallagher, on the confined spaces submission that was named a finalist in the 2024 Operational Excellence Awards.

He also pioneered text message alerts for drivers to keep them informed on road conditions, as well as a credential verification program that utilized QR codes to keep qualifications and safety advisories in a convenient, digital location.

Included among those safety resources are the pictograms that earned Gallagher its 2025 award, but the communication issues the safety innovations aim to solve were something Edmondson realized growing up in Chicagoland, which has a burgeoning Spanish-speaking population, especially among the laborers that work for the Thornton-based company.

“One of the major focuses is making sure that all workers fully understand what the expectations and requirements are,” he said. “From a safety standpoint, it starts with personal protective equipment (PPE), because that’s your first line of defense. If we give them our pamphlet, I’m sure these guys just chuck them away, but now we have a visual that shows a worker wearing a pair of safety glasses, hard hat, and safety boots.”

The full set of pictograms represent task-specific PPE requirements across more than 150 jobs, from face shields for grinding work to earplugs for when decibels exceed safety thresholds.

But Edmondson said the program aimed beyond just meeting safety standards; his real goal was to push ownership of Gallagher’s safety program down to the laborers involved in its adoption, regardless of how well they can read English.

“I genuinely care about the safety of our employees, and if we can get these guys to wear their PPE, that is the first step to creating that safety culture,” he said. “We need to make sure that everybody understands what’s needed, and these pictograms help that effort.”

SAFETY AUDIT

Chronicling every PPE application across Gallagher’s business operations meant Edmondson needed to gather information from every division from mix plant to the paver, and everything in between.

The process began with a spreadsheet and involved months of conversations about what requirements were entailed with each position. Then, Edmondson compared their present policies to the standards from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to ensure the pictograms reflected all the latest guidelines.

Working with Gallagher Communications & Marketing Manager Lizzie Holewinski, the company contracted with external partners to generate templates for the pictograms, and once the process was streamlined, the finished graphics began to trickle in.

Once the organization-wide PPE pictogram set was complete, it was deployed, with the goal of making workers feel comfortable enough with the requirements to adapt their habits to meet the most up-to-date safety standards.

CELEBRATING SAFETY

A Chicago native, Edmondson said being able to create a resource to benefit the next generation of workers from Chicagoland means his safety efforts at Gallagher are personal. He’s served for years as a board member for the Harold Colbert Jones Memorial Community Center in Chicago Heights, which provides skills training and educational services for children, adults, and seniors.

“It’s such a passion for me because I want to see everyone succeed. If you can tap into that one thing in an individual that’s coming from a not-so-great situation, you can help them get to that place that they want to get to,” he said.

He chronicled his upbringing in a memoir, Twist of Fate: Finding the Silver Lining, which he said earned a mention during the awards presentation in Scottsdale. Not wanting his personal story to outshine the safety accomplishments at Gallagher, Edmondson said he decided to seize the opportunity.

“Before I got off stage, I held the award up and said ‘This is for all my safety professionals,’ and I did that because we deal with incidents, claim management, and sometimes we’re like therapists to the workers out in the field and we’re rarely ever recognized for what we do,” he said. “It’s just something that we do, and I don’t think we ever think about getting recognized for it. It was the greatest feeling, being on stage to receive this award.”

Not long after that feeling faded, however, he was eager to get back to work.

“I’m a pretty progressive guy when it comes to thinking outside of the box and being innovative in my approach to safety, but I’ve already come back and it’s like ‘What’s next? How can we continue to push safety forward.’ Gallagher is an innovative company where we try to raise the standards, but from a safety standpoint what are we not doing here that we can do?”

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PAVE IT BLACK SEARCHES FOR THE SILVER LINING

Dive deeper into the story of Gallagher Asphalt Safety Director Dwayne Edmondson and his work to enhance the company’s safety culture in the Season 10 finale of Pave It Black, NAPA’s flagship podcast.

Edmondson shares how attitude shapes not only job site safety, but personal growth, leadership, and long-term success. He reflects on his journey from challenging situations to building a meaningful career rooted in resilience, faith, and continuous improvement.

Stream Pave It Black wherever you get your pods. PLUS: Find Edmondson’s book, “Twist of Fate: Finding the Silver Lining,” at your favorite online book retailer.