One million safe hours and counting; 1,076,096 hours at this point, to be exact. DPR Fortis--a joint venture between DPR and Fortis Construction, who regularly team together for Mission Critical projects--and Facebook celebrated this safety milestone at the Facebook Prineville Data Center in Oregon. Facebook and DPR Fortis threw a memorable celebration last week to honor the construction crew's one million hours of work with no serious injuries or lost time accidents. 400 workers enjoyed the celebratory, joint barbecue lunch.

“I have never been part of a project where the workers seem to have a genuine interest in raising the bar for themselves when it comes to safety,” commented Ron Stocker, Safety Superintendent, DPR Fortis Facebook Prineville Datacenter jobsite. “We talk often in our weekly safety meetings about the importance of doing things safely, not just for ‘compliance sake,’ but because it is the right thing to do for everyone out there. This goes beyond safety to create a culture where we take care of one another, despite your individual trade. It is truly impressive when 400 folks make a conscious, collective decision to pull together, with the ultimate goal of going home each night safe to their loved ones.”

You may have heard of Facebook; the social media giant has now grown to 901 million monthly active users. Ken Patchett, Facebook Pacific Northwest Data Center Manager said, "We’re now at one million hours of labor on this project, and that’s the direct result of a lot of hard work from the public leaders and other members of the community who helped bring us here. It’s a good day in Central Oregon.”

The safety announcement marks approximately two-and-a-half years since Facebook first announced its intention to build this data center in January 2010. The facility covers 643,800 square feet.