Category Archives: Construction Safety

Highway Construction Safety

Safety on a construction site is perhaps the most neglected part and stress should be put on the company to ensure that they follow the safety parameters at all times. When we talk about safety on construction site, we restrict ourselves to the safety of the employees and workers who work on the jobsite. But when we talk about safety on highway construction, it should not restrict us to the safety of the employees but should extend it to the safety of the people around the site. When you are working on the highway, you have vehicles moving on the road and it becomes the responsibility of the construction company to ensure that the vehicles passing by move safely and do not become a victim of an accident. The fact however suggests something else. It has been noted that a number of accidents and casualties that happen on the highways are because of not following the highways safety parameters. Though efforts are been made to reduce such incidents but the figures are alarming.

Need to have adequate signals:-

Most of the accidents that happen on the highway are due to inadequate availability of signals. The workers are busy doing their work and there is no one to give signals to the vehicles. For instance, when the construction work is happening on the end of a curve, it is crucial that the workers put some sort of impediments to slow down the vehicles or else they might not even see the construction happening because of the steep curve. For a second, they fall in the blind spot from where they can’t even anticipate anything happening on the other side of the curve. So when the vehicles are at full speed and they do not see any signals, they are bound to dash and that may cause severe casualty. In situation like this, the construction company should ensure that the workers deploy men who constantly provide signals to the vehicles alerting them of the work happening on the other side of the curve.

Workers manning the flow of vehicles:-

While the construction on the highway is in its full swing, the workers should man the flow of vehicles. They can close one part of the highway temporarily and ask drivers to use diversions. You only need few men who can control the traffic and show the diversion route. You can also put big blocks of impediments to block the way and use arrow signs to give appropriate signals to the drivers. There should be proper arrangement in place to control the movement on vehicles while the construction on the highway is in full swing. One must ensure that in no terms the vehicles should be passing close to the construction area.

Workers should be vigilant to oncoming traffic:-

It is crucial for the workers to remain vigilant at all times to oncoming traffic. They should make sure that none of the vehicles should pass close to them. During moments of high traffic, proper arrangement should be made to make sure that the vehicles move from a distance from the workers causing no accidents and eventually no casualties.

Let safety of your employees come first

A construction or a mining jobsite is often considered as a danger zone for people who are working in it and also for the ones who steps in for their individual reasons. Accidents are prone to happen in such kind of jobsite where the loss can be limited to just heavy equipment or can even injure the workers working on the site. If the loss is restricted to heavy equipment then that is manageable. You can fix a machine by repairing its dent or simply replacing the vital part and can get back the machine with the same vigor. But if an employee or a group of employees are injured in the accident then that can lead to a bigger problem. You can’t fix that because it if they get seriously injured in any accident that scar will remain for the rest of their lives. It is therefore very important to understand how crucial the safety of your employees is that you just can’t compromise at all on that front.

The steps that you can take to ensure that your employees are safe at the jobsite are as follows.

Train your employees on first aid:-

All the employees on the jobsite should be well trained with first aid procedures. The training should be conducted by experts in the field of paramedics. An employee can even injure himself without even contacting any external force. For instance, he has been given to pick a big sledgehammer and has been asked to disintegrate a strong structure using it and while doing so he sprains up his muscle and is now not able to move an inch. He is perhaps finding uncomfortable to even sit on the ground. The workers around him should know the first aid that they can give him to ease his situation and make him feel comfy till the paramedics show up at the jobsite.

Wearing accessories that keeps you safe is a must:-

Make it mandatory for everyone who is working on the jobsite to wear necessary accessories that will protect him from potential perils. A person who is monitoring the progress on the jobsite should at least wear a helmet so that while passing through a tall rise, if even a small stone falls on his head, he will not get hurt by that. Operators working on heavy equipment should buckle up and wear gloves so that they do not injure their hands by touching something that is hot. They should also be wearing boots all the time while they are inside the cabin and the quality of the boots should be such that it does not hurt their legs and also not make it sore when they remove it.

Water storage should be adequate:-

Employees working during summer get easily dehydrated. They need to drink sufficient water to keep their bodies hydrated and full of energy. Therefore there should be a water storage facility around the jobsite where all the employees can fill in water in their bottles and keep sipping it whenever they feel thirsty.