Protecting your workers on road projects will require a detailed assessment and thorough training. When coordinating a range of tasks and individuals, safety can be overlooked with procedures ignored and short cuts taken. This has lead to injury and even death for road workers. With the correct policies and action plan in place, this could easily be avoided. However, there are many aspects to manage and include in your safety plan, so we've made a list of the few standout techniques.
Common factors that are believed to contribute to work zone accidents involving motorists include:
Be aware of these five contributing factors and prepare for contingencies to reduce the incident rate on your road project.
A lot of thought and planning goes into preventing incidents involving motorists and workers, but there are many other factors to consider when protecting your workers which may involve plant and equipment and other activities conducted within the work zone.
To prevent onsite incidents ensure:
This is a good guide when setting up roadworks, there are many aspects to consider but if these four areas are addressed you'll improve your chances of maintaining a safe work site.
Flow: Affect the flow of traffic as little as practicable
Attention: Get the attention of motorists quickly and effectively
Direction: Provide clear direction to the motorists to guide them through and around the work zone
Separation: Whenever possible, separate hard (vehicles and equipment) from soft (personnel), using barriers or road way closures
Being aware of the factors influencing the safety of your road and highway workers is important. These can have a direct impact on their well-being, your business' performance and the financial position of both your workers and your business. Prevention is key and with the use of an effective safety plan you'll be able to increase the control you have over onsite safety. We have created a risk assessment checklist to help you implement an effective safety plan.
The first stage of road and rail improvements in Port Hedland, Western Australia is now underway, with the $31.48 million construction contract awarded to the Highway Construction and Albem Operations joint venture.
Whether you’re a project manager, site supervisor, or machine operator, it’s your primary responsibility to make sure that your team is safe from any kind of injury or accident while working on site. Unfortunately, in some cases, our quest for project efficiency means that safety measures are cut to make room for further productivity. The link is simple - if you minimise the importance of safety guidelines, you’re increasing the risk of an on-site accident.
The first tranche of road safety upgrades – which is comprised of up to 15 projects – will soon ramp up across South Australia to help reduce road trauma and save South Australian lives.
If you're looking to contact us about other matters, please contact us.