Blog
Safety Focus of the Week: Roadway Work Zone Safety (revisited)
Construction in roadways pose a hazard to the travelling public and the traffic poses a hazard to the construction worker. Both concerns need to be addressed in a work plan for any operations along or within an active roadway. Our work within a roadway might range from the unloading of a truck where proper temporary signage, cones, PPE, and qualified worker might be necessary, to a full construction zone traffic control package designed and submitted to the appropriate highway jurisdiction for review.
Our specific responsibilities include:
- Preparing a work plan to address the safety of all parties.
- Working with the local, county (in NY), or state highway department in coordinating, scheduling, and implementing their standard traffic control requirements.
- Implementing all necessary PPE to make the workers visible for the work conditions.
- Providing qualified flag persons or uniformed traffic officers.
- Providing standard warning devices like stop/slow paddles, cones, barrels, and appropriate signage.
- Proper maintenance of the warning devices, including resetting of knocked over cones/barrels, removal of a flag person sign when the flag person is not present, an moving of the warning devices as the project moves.
The procedures for any activity on a roadway work zone are specifically detailed in various documents from the state/county/municipal highway authorities, the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD), and OSHA.
http://www.aot.state.vt.us/caddhelp/DownLoad/Standards/Standards.htm (E-series drawings deal with traffic control)
http://www.osha.gov/SLTC/etools/hurricane/work-zone.html#index
