How To Keep Your Crew Safe When Working Near Roads
When you manage a construction or other type of crew, you know that worker safety should be most important to everyone on the jobsite. When working near roads, safety becomes even more of a challenge. There may be legal requirements and guidelines you should follow for marking off the street and even for marking off your jobsite, but as a manager you may want to go above and beyond the minimum requirements in order to keep your crew safe. Consider how to do this.
1. Add expandable barriers
Expandable barriers from places like MS Unlimited fold out and provide a fence of sort around your workers. Because it's easy for a construction crew to get distracted when on the job, this type of barrier can keep them from getting too close to a road or other hazards simply because they aren't paying attention as they move around. An expandable barrier then also allows for access to these areas when needed, without having to take down the barrier itself. Use these around holes that have been dug, any type of element that juts up from the ground such as sewer caps, or simply between workers and the road.
2. Add convex mirrors to barriers
For another layer of security around the jobsite, consider adding convex mirrors to those barriers. These can allow your workers to see if cars are coming their way, if someone is getting too close with a backhoe, and so on. The more mirrors you have, the greater worker safety and since these can easily be attached and then taken down from barriers, there's no reason to not have them available on the jobsite.
3. Use speed bumps on residential roads and in parking lots
To ensure that traffic slows down where your workers are present, put down temporary speed bumps. These can force cars to slow as they approach and if not, your workers will be alerted to them running over the bumps as they approach.
4. Post windsocks
A windsock can alert your workers to changes in weather so that they can make adjustments to their work quickly and easily. For example, if you have a backhoe that is approaching a trench from one side and the wind suddenly kicks up, it may be best for worker safety if the backhoe starts digging from the other direction. This will prevent dust and rocks from being directed at workers. With a windsock on your jobsite, an operator can know to make this adjustment as soon as possible.