Maryland Pipelayer Awarded 2025 Safety Honor
Alberto Aguilar (left) awarded 2025 Year-End Safety Excellence Achievement Award from Foreman Keith Collins (right) for displaying a consistent dedication to crew-wide safety
When proudly looking back at our performance throughout 2025, we watched employees display an unwavering commitment to individual and crew safety. We saw those with the confidence to speak up while working and took the extra effort to inspect tools and equipment prior to work. When it comes to Alberto Aguilar, he checked every box, earning him the 2025 Year-End Safety Excellence Achievement Award.
Recipient: Alberto Aguilar
Title: Pipelayer
2025 Year-End Safety Excellence Achievement Awardee – Maryland
Throughout his three years with Gaines and Company, Alberto has shown a consistent dedication to safety – not just for himself, but for his entire crew. In Q2 2025, he was recognized with the Safety Excellence Achievement Award. His unwavering commitment to keeping the jobsite safe didn’t stop there, earning him the 2025 Year-End Safety Excellence Achievement Award.
“Alberto approaches work with an ‘above and beyond’ mentality,” said Safety Director Dominic Pope. “He comes to work every day with a positive attitude and never cuts corners to compromise safety.”
Alberto’s Foreman Keith Collins added, “Alberto is an all-around safety advocate. He immediately takes tools out of service if they are damaged and is not afraid to speak up when necessary to make sure our crew stays safe all day, every day.”
Year-End Awardees
At the end of 2025, Dominic and a team of other managers reviewed all the year’s quarterly safety award winners to identify year-end winners at both Gaines’s Maryland and North Carolina locations. They identified employees who went above and beyond to enhance the company’s safety culture, instilling an instinctive focus on safety throughout their crews.
“We had such a strong pool of recipients this year, so we chose two year-end winners at each location,” Dominic said. “This proves that our safety culture is not driven top-down, rather all employees understand the significant role they each play in ensuring that our workforce remains safe each and every day.”
Alberto shares the recognition of the 2025 Year-End Safety Achievement Award winner with three other Gaines and Company employees – Jose Cruz (North Carolina), Andy Lucas Hernandez (North Carolina), and Juan Valles (Maryland).
Crew members Alberto Aguilar (left) and 2025 Q4 Safety Excellence Achievement Award recipient Mardo Leon (right) with Safety Director Dominic Pope (center)
2026 – Positive Safety Persistence
So what’s next for Gaines and Company’s safety culture in 2026?
“Our primary goal is to always finish each year with zero accidents or injuries. It is feasible but difficult. As our safety director, I instead focus on creating a positive culture throughout our organization to continue focusing on safety, health, and wellness to achieve this goal,” said Dominic. “We’ve built a successful safety program that empowers all employees to actively advocate for safe work, and it’s awesome to see them drive the program themselves.”
Safety Manager Tommy Trent added, “Our employees know that safety is part of everyone’s job. This gives them all the power to enforce and enhance it – from vice presidents and superintendents to all crew members. It’s a positive work environment that feeds off of the cooperation of the entire workforce. I look forward to where our workforce will take this culture in 2026.”
Gaines and Company is a full-service grading and excavation company with offices in Maryland and North Carolina. The organization has 70 years of experience in underground utilities, grading and excavating, sediment and erosion controls, and road work. Gaines and Company delivers safe, reliable, turnkey site development services in Maryland, North Carolina, Washington D.C., and Delaware on time and within budget.
