Lotte E&C honors 8 ideas at 2026 Smart Safety Contest

Lotte E&C is tapping fresh ideas from frontline employees to build safer working conditions and drive safety innovation at its construction sites.

The company held an awards ceremony for its 2026 Smart Safety Contest at its headquarters in Jamwon-dong, Seocho-gu, Seoul on Wednesday, selecting and honoring a total of eight teams.

The contest ran from April 13 to May 8, inviting employees to submit ideas under the theme "Keep Safety! Better Tomorrow!" The competition focused on uncovering practical ideas and real-world cases that could improve on-site work efficiency and enhance safety.

A total of 92 ideas were submitted covering improvements to work practices as well as smart technology and products, drawing strong interest from across the company. Safety and technology teams evaluated entries on criteria including field applicability, differentiation, specificity and expected impact. After rigorous judging, eight ideas were selected, including two grand-prize winners: a below-ground floor communications system and an automatic tilt-detection and self-correction device for pile drivers.

Lotte E&C plans to go beyond simply recognizing the winning ideas, putting them through proof-of-concept testing before rolling them out sequentially at actual construction sites.

"We designed this contest to strengthen real-world site safety by drawing on the firsthand ideas and experiences of employees working at the front lines of our construction sites," a company official said. "We will refine the selected ideas further and actively incorporate them on site, building an environment where workers can carry out their tasks with confidence and safety."

Meanwhile, Lotte E&C developed a "steel pipe crossbeam method" to prevent collapse accidents during bridge construction, and the technique has been designated Disaster Safety New Technology No. 2026-4 by the Korea Disaster Prevention Association.