OSHA is the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, a federal agency within the U.S. Department of Labor created by the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970. It has legal authority to set and enforce workplace safety and health standards for most private‑sector employers, including the construction industry. OSHA can enter construction sites (often without advance notice), conduct inspections and accident investigations, require employers to correct hazards, and issue citations with monetary penalties for violations. Because New Hampshire does not operate its own OSHA‑approved state plan, federal OSHA directly covers private construction worksites there, including the Mark Stebbins Community Center project.
An OSHA "strategic partnership" is a voluntary, written agreement between OSHA and one or more employers, unions, or other stakeholders to work together on specific safety and health goals at a company or project. Partners typically agree to develop or strengthen safety and health management systems, share data, participate in regular evaluations, and provide training, while OSHA offers technical assistance and recognition. The partnership does not change the company’s underlying legal duties: employers must still comply with all OSHA standards, and OSHA keeps full authority to inspect and, when it finds violations, issue citations and penalties. Current OSHA policy no longer allows inspection exemptions or other enforcement incentives for new or renewed strategic partnerships, so the main benefits are improved safety performance, access to expertise, and a more structured, cooperative relationship with OSHA rather than regulatory relief.
Harvey Construction Corporation is a New Hampshire‑based construction management and general contracting firm headquartered in Bedford that builds commercial, institutional, healthcare, education, and community facilities across New England. In this project, OSHA identifies Harvey as the Bedford‑based commercial construction company leading construction of the Mark Stebbins Community Center and as OSHA’s formal partner for implementing the site’s safety and health program. Harvey has a track record on similar community and youth projects, including constructing a new Camp Foster facility for the Boys & Girls Club of Manchester with updated cabins, pavilions and other amenities. OSHA’s enforcement database also shows at least one recent serious citation against a Harvey entity for a powered‑industrial‑truck (forklift) safety violation in 2024, indicating that, like many large contractors, it has had some compliance issues even as it continues to operate as an established regional builder.
In construction, a "safety and health management system" (or safety program) is a structured, ongoing way for a company to find and fix hazards before people get hurt or sick. OSHA’s recommended model is built around seven core elements: (1) management leadership (company leaders set clear safety expectations and provide resources), (2) worker participation, (3) systematic hazard identification and assessment, (4) hazard prevention and control (engineering controls, safe work practices, PPE), (5) education and training, (6) program evaluation and improvement, and (7) coordination and communication among host employers, contractors, and staffing agencies. On a job like the Mark Stebbins Community Center, that means having written procedures, routine site inspections, job‑hazard analyses, incident investigations, and regular reviews to make sure controls and training are working and updated as the project changes.
On a construction site, these hazards are typically identified and controlled in the following ways:
The partnership does not change OSHA’s enforcement powers at the Mark Stebbins site. Under OSHA’s Strategic Partnership Program, the agreement with Harvey Construction is voluntary and written, but OSHA still has full authority to conduct inspections (including complaint‑, accident‑, or programmed inspections) and to issue citations and penalties if it finds violations of OSHA standards. Current OSHA policy expressly prohibits new or renewed partnerships from offering inspection exemptions or other enforcement incentives, so partners do not get a legal pass from enforcement. OSHA may also perform separate verification reviews—off‑site data checks, on‑site non‑enforcement visits, or regular enforcement inspections—to confirm that the partnership’s safety goals are being met, but employers’ and workers’ normal rights and obligations under the OSH Act remain unchanged.
Local planning documents show that the Mark Stebbins Community Center was approved by the Manchester Planning Board in January 2025, with construction beginning after a June 2025 groundbreaking at the Kelley Falls apartment complex site and the facility planned to open in fall 2026. OSHA’s news release states that the strategic partnership with Harvey Construction was signed on December 17, 2025 (the underlying agreement is dated November 21, 2025), after construction was already underway. OSHA describes the partnership as assisting contractors in developing safety and health management systems and providing training for employees, employers and supervisors during the project, but it has not publicly released a more detailed training schedule, so only the general timeframe—late 2025 through the remaining construction period—is known from available sources.