Construction sites are subject to many activities and movements, from heavy equipment to vehicles and pedestrians. The many activities make construction sites hubs for possible fatal accidents. Workers could injure themselves, and construction vehicles could hit objects on site, destroying them or causing accidents. Due to all the chaos, traffic management is a must-have on-site.
As the name suggests, traffic management ensures continuous traffic flow to minimize accidents and boost site efficiency. How can you improve traffic on your construction site as a construction manager or contractor? This article gives a guide to assist you in implementing this; read on!
It’d help to:
- Separate Work Zones
During construction, your workers can’t stop working to pave the way for vehicles. Such a scenario will reduce productivity, affecting project completion time. So, it’s best to create work zones for each to counter such possibilities, says HSE.
Here, you must invest in cones and barriers. They’ll help you outline the work zone boundaries. Ensure that the concrete jersey barriers are heavy so they can’t tip over should vehicles accidentally hit them or if there’s strong weather. The cones don’t have to be heavy. You can use them to adjust the traffic path should the need arise. As you lay out your barriers and cones, be sensitive to the amount of space you allow for traffic. It should be enough to accommodate your current numbers while allowing additional space if needed. If you’re looking for one online, you can visit this page, https://www.carolinatraffic.com/concrete-jersey-barriers-for-sale, or similar ones.
Consider putting up signs to guide the traffic paths. There can be signs on the path users (vehicle or pedestrian), a stop sign, and signs showing the direction to take from step to step, especially if there are corners. Ensure they’re bold for visibility.
- Create A Traffic Plan
Planning is essential when implementing any action. It more or less ensures the success of your plans. In this case, it’s best to create a traffic plan.
Start by studying your site and identifying how traffic flows daily. What safety risks do you observe? How many paths are there on your site? What’s the average number of workers and vehicles on site? This insight will help you identify ideal traffic paths for the resources on your site.
In addition, consider using software that projects traffic flow on your site. It’ll give you several routes you can adapt based on your daily activities.
As you create paths for your vehicles and workers, ensure they’re independent of each other. The aim is to avoid head-on meetups or collisions that could cause traffic and unproductivity due to work stoppage. It’d help to plan traffic flow for vehicles and pedestrians from the entrance to the exit, keeping them separate.
- Train Your Team
Even with the traffic plan on the ground, it’ll only work if your workers understand and implement it. Therefore, they should be part of your traffic management system.
Ensure you teach them about your traffic plans and work zones. Explain what each zone means and how it affects their work. The training should also extend to any signs you’ve adopted on-site. Besides training them in a meeting setup, it’s best to walk them to the zones and explain the traffic flow; it’ll enhance their understanding.
Teaching and guiding your workers on the traffic plan is of no use if they don’t understand the reason for its existence. They might interpret it
as a way of making their work challenging on-site, even if it’s not the case. It’d help to inform them that the traffic plan aims to ensure their safety as they work. It’s reason enough for them to take your plan seriously and implement it.
With your traffic management, it’s not enough to only train your workers on signs and the aforementioned aspects. It’s crucial to ensure the drivers handling your heavy equipment and vehicles are qualified for the job. They should have the necessary licenses and experience. On the site, safety mostly lies with this team; hence, they need to be experts at their job.
- Ensure Visibility
Visibility is crucial for construction sites, especially in the initial construction stages. Many dark spaces often cause accidents, hence the need to illuminate your space.
As stated earlier, you’ll use barriers, cones, and other signs along your traffic path. Ensure you illuminate them with neon colors like orange and green. These colors will make them pop, so they’re hard to miss, whether during the day or at night. Drivers won’t hit them at night as they deliver materials.
Your workers and everyone else on the construction site need to have neon-colored visibility jackets. The jackets will ensure everyone is seen to avoid accidentally bumping into someone or a vehicle knocking down a worker since they didn’t see them in the dark.
Conclusion
Traffic flow is one of the aspects that affect the efficiency of a construction site. From the discussion, it’s clear you can easily manage traffic to eliminate redundancies caused by traffic collisions. With the tips given herein, you’ll restore efficiency to your construction site. Therefore, be sure to implement them accordingly on your site.