Traffic Management Tips for Construction Sites

Whether you’re a public construction worker on the roads, or you’re working on-site building a new property, you and your team need to have a traffic control plan in place. This will help to keep your fellow colleagues safe, but members of the public too, as trucks, cranes and materials are moved in and around the construction sites. A traffic control plan needs to consider how the flow of traffic is managed – including how heavy equipment or materials are transported, and how public vehicles on the roads around the construction site will be able to safely drive around the area.

We’ve come up with some tips to help you develop a traffic control plan for your next construction project, to ensure the safety of everyone involved and those passing nearby.

Designate Zones

There should be separate work areas for carrying out different construction activities, storing materials and parking vehicles, so that traffic accidents and employee injuries can be avoided. These different areas should be clearly signposted so that members of the public are aware of any potential parked vehicles that could suddenly move, or any materials that could fall. It is also good practice to have different zones on a construction site, so that there are areas for employees to take a break without facing any danger.

These zones can be cordoned off with cones, barrels and water filled barricades. Using water filled barriers to separate areas away from the public and from other areas of a construction site can be effective solutions because they are harder to move than cones or regular barriers, and they will not blow away with the wind. Buyers Barricades in particular offer water filled barriers rental, which means that you don’t need to fork out a fortune for traffic management solutions. Their water filled barriers can be given extra height and security with additional fence panels attached to the barricades, which makes them versatile for a number of different areas on a construction site – particularly if you want security!

Managing the Public

All construction sites should be clearly fenced off from members of the public, who don’t have the correct training or protective equipment to be able to enter the site safely. There are usually hazards created from building or demolition projects, like noise and dust. There should be warnings in place about these hazards, in addition to the fencing around the construction site that should keep the public at a significant enough distance away from the hazards – so as to not be impacted by the noise or dust.

If the construction site is near a school, shopping centre or park, there may need to be more formal entry and exit points that are manned by a member of staff in order to monitor whether everyone on the construction site should be there! When vehicles are moving in and out of the construction site, trained signallers or temporary traffic light systems should ensure that the road and pavement is empty enough for the construction site’s vehicle to move safely. Also, to manage the traffic on the construction site, you can use Structural Engineers Cumbria that have exceptional experience in this field.

Make Your Team and the Public Aware

You should have signs not only around the construction site, but placed at regular intervals on the roads that are leading up to where you are working. This will give drivers and other road users sufficient warning about any lane closures, diversions and temporary traffic light systems in place. It is particularly important to enforce a temporary speed limit around construction sites, to prevent any pedestrians or construction workers from being injured as they cross the road. If the construction site is on busy fast roads, the recommended speed limit should be around 80kph, whereas a quieter residential area should have a much lower speed limit of 20kph.

Making all construction workers on-site wear protective equipment like helmets and bright high-visibility jackets as mandatory uniform, will help to make other road users aware of their presence. This can help to reduce road traffic accidents involving collisions with pedestrians. To aid in visibility when staff are driving vehicles, consider installing CCTV cameras, parking sensors and mirrors around the construction site, so that staff moving the vehicles are aware of any hazards and people around them. This can help to reduce vehicle related accidents in and around the construction site, as well as help to avoid unnecessary damages to the construction work which could slow down progress.

Proper traffic management and prioritizing vehicle safety on a construction site can dramatically reduce the serious fatalities and injuries that construction workers and members of the public face on a regular basis. The most important thing that you can do for the safety of everyone, is ensuring that there is proper training in place so that construction workers on-site are aware of how the traffic management works – so that it can be used correctly!