Building Construction Safety Tips in 2021
Construction is a thriving yet dangerous industry. It is crucial to our economic health and overall job creation. Unfortunately, it has a high accident rate: ,ore than 200,000 injuries and 1,000 deaths per year. These risks scare off potential workers and lead to costly litigation and project delays.
How can construction project managers make their sites safer and help the industry recover? Here’s what the industry is like in 2021 and how you can ensure your workers are happy and healthy. Please note that this is not an exhaustive or complete list of safety tips. For full coverage and information, please see a licensed professional. These are some key features we picked out.
1. Know the Common Causes of Injuries
Most construction site injuries are the result of falls, being struck by an object or vehicle, electrocution, or getting crushed or trapped. Thankfully, most of these incidents can be avoided with proper safety procedures and training.
First and foremost, optimize your project schedule to ensure efficiency. This decreases the pressure on your team to rush through their tasks or cut corners. Then, ensure that everyone is thoroughly briefed on safety procedures. Implement these procedures and requirements to reduce the risk of injury:
Falls
Keep the work site tidy and well-lit.
Use scaffolding and harnesses to ensure three points of contact at all times.
Install nets and guardrails to protect workers in case of a trip or fall.
Require everyone on site to wear shoes with good grip.
Object strikes
Store items securely. Never put top-heavy items on top of unstable materials. Strap items in place when transporting them.
Maintain clearance between moving and static objects.
Install backup alarms and cameras on all vehicles.
Electrocution
Require protective equipment and clothing for anyone who may come into contact with energized items.
Turn off power to all devices before servicing them.
Crushing and traps
Maintain clearance between heavy equipment and static objects.
Ban loose-fitting, long-sleeved clothing and jewelry from the worksite, and make sure any workers with long hair have it tied up out of the way.
Check all mounds, waterways, and funnels to ensure that they are properly drained and stable.
2. Open Lines of Communication
No one wants to worry about being penalized for pointing out a safety issue. Keep the door open for workers to report potential risks and make recommendations for a safer, more efficient project workflow. There are now many “smart” construction management tools on the market. These allow site managers to optimize the project timeline, collect feedback, and easily contact all workers with site requirements, safety training, and more. Remember, communication is key to avoiding accidents and injuries!
3. Measure Twice, Cut Once — Organize Your Worksite
Once the project is green lit, it’s tempting to get started and address any issues as they emerge. Unfortunately, this can lead to project delays, confusion about tasks and requirements, and pressure that leads workers to rush. All of these are major factors in accident rates. To keep things running smoothly, follow an adage from construction itself: measure twice, cut once.
Get as many of your required devices and materials onsite before workers arrive.
Ensure that all supplies are stored safely.
Minimize the transportation and movement of people and equipment around the site.
Train all team members on proper safety protocol, attire, and PPE before they start working.
New smart construction management programs give project managers unprecedented opportunities to get everyone on the same page. Coordinate your investors, vendors, and other stakeholders to ensure that all materials are available on time and within budget. You can also optimize your project plan to avoid delays or crunch times — both of which contribute to onsite accidents.
Then, once the project gets moving, keep an eye on your data. Those smart management platforms make it simple to assess your daily progress, incident reports, and other details. From there, you can adjust on the fly, preventing dangerous obstacles or lagging workflows from disrupting your project.
4. Ensure Your Workers’ Health and Comfort
No matter how safe your site is, you can’t change the weather. Did you know that heat-related illnesses are one of the top health risks on construction sites? If workers are suffering from heat exhaustion, they’re more likely to make dangerous mistakes. They also may end up severely ill or even hospitalized!
Beat the heat and keep workers healthy by:
Providing water onsite. Aim to have one quart per worker per hour — ideally more.
Offering shaded, air-conditioned break areas. Workers must be able to cool off if they begin experiencing heat exhaustion or other heat-related illnesses.
Aligning intense work with low heat-index days. With new forecasting tools, it’s easy to avoid having workers doing energy-intensive labor on extremely hot days.
Having protocol for heat exhaustion or heatstroke. Don’t take these conditions lightly! Anyone showing signs of either illness requires immediate care.
Wrapping Up
To keep your site productive, you must keep it safe. That means monitoring workers’ health, providing them with the training and tools they need to stay safe, and optimizing your site’s workflow, schedule, and operations. Remember, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. The more you can do to prepare your worksite for logistical and health needs, the better your workers will perform — especially during what’s shaping up to be one of the hottest summers on record!
