The Scaffold & Access Industry Association has named the winners of its 2026 Project Awards at the President’s Gala in Nashville, Tennessee.
The ceremony closed the association’s annual convention, which drew 792 attendees to the JW Marriott Nashville. SAIA said the figure was 29% higher than its previous attendance record.
DH Glabe & Associates left the gala with two awards. The engineering firm won the Suspended Access category for its work on the SR-28 Pearl River Bridge and the Shoring category for the Honoli?i Stream Bridge in Hawaii.
BrandSafway also collected two awards.
The company won the Mast Driven Hoists and Platforms category for the US 181 Harbor Bridge project. It shared the Industrial Collaborative award with McCarthy Building Companies for work at Hangar One at Moffett Federal Airfield in California.
Hangar One is a vast former airship hangar built during the 1930s and remains one of the largest freestanding structures in the world.
The Commercial Collaborative award went to DH Charles Engineering and Performance Contracting Inc. for the SFO International Terminal project in San Francisco.
Fraco Products won the Innovation category for its work at 989 Sixth Avenue in New York, while Canadian contractor Skyline Scaffold Ltd. took the Supported Scaffold award for the Stal??w?as?m Bridge.
Gidish receives lifetime honour
The gala also included SAIA’s annual individual awards, decided through anonymous peer nominations and a vote of the association’s membership.
The night’s highest individual honour, the SAIA Lifetime Achievement Award, went to Harold Gidish of Sky Climber.
Gidish is a former SAIA president and has chaired the association’s Suspended Scaffold Council for more than 20 years. Nashville was his 48th consecutive SAIA convention.
“Everything I ever did was never for me,” Gidish told the room. “It was for us.”
David Johnson received the Coupling Pin Award, while Pat Connolly was inducted into the SAIA Hall of Fame.
The Victor Saleeby Award went to Wendy Larison and Safewaze was named Outstanding Company.
The evening closed with Matt Morgan being sworn in as SAIA’s 28th president. He succeeds Mike Bredl and will serve a two-year term.
The convention also drew visitors from outside North America. NASC chair David Brown was among the UK delegates, while representatives from 8 countries attended a board meeting of the International Access & Scaffolding Association during the week.
The 2027 SAIA Annual Convention & Exposition will be held at the JW Marriott Tampa Water Street in Tampa, Florida, from 9 to 12 August.
Full list of 2026 SAIA Project Award winners
Commercial Collaborative: DH Charles Engineering and Performance Contracting Inc., SFO International Terminal
Industrial Collaborative: BrandSafway and McCarthy Building Companies, Hangar One at Moffett Federal Airfield
Mast Driven Hoists and Platforms: BrandSafway, US 181 Harbor Bridge
Innovation: Fraco Products, 989 Sixth Avenue
Suspended Access: DH Glabe & Associates, SR-28 Pearl River Bridge
Supported Scaffold: Skyline Scaffold Ltd., Stal??w?as?m Bridge
Shoring: DH Glabe & Associates, Honoli?i Stream Bridge
