Safety of Nighttime Construction Activities

Details

• Personal Author:
  Abraham DM
• Description:
  Although traffic congestion is reduced, safety in nighttime work zones remains a concern among both transportation agencies and contractors. Highway construction and maintenance workers are at risk of fatal and serious non-fatal injury when working in the vicinity of passing motorists, construction vehicles, and equipment. Crews working during low-light conditions hours are about two and a half times more likely to be struck by a motor vehicle than those working during the day. According to the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), approximately one-half of the fatalities that occurred in work zones nationwide occurred at night. The goal of this study was to evaluate safety issues in nighttime construction as a necessary prerequisite to the development of strategies to improve safety, quality and productivity of nighttime construction operations on highways. The specific aims of the five-year study were four-fold: Review and analyze current production and safety practices contractors during nighttime construction and maintenance in order to examine issues related to safety, efficiency and quality construction during nighttime operations. Collect and analyze lighting and construction production and safety data from construction sites where nighttime operations have been prevalent. Develop models for improved lighting and other strategies on such sites, and explore opportunities for implementing them on ongoing and future construction projects. Move to translating results from the research environment into practice. This research project attempted to address two strategic goals of the National Construction Agenda: Goal 1: Reduction of injuries and fatalities resulting from major causes of injury in construction. Within this goal, the research focuses on sub goal 1.3: Struck by incidents involving vehicles and equipment (in particular, workers being struck by motorists intruding into work zones, and workers being 'run over' or struck, when they are in the blind spots of heavy construction vehicles) Goal 2: Increase understanding of construction sector attributes and contributing factors for improving occupational safety and health outcomes. Within this goal, the research focuses on sub goal 4.1: Improve surveillance resources for tracking construction safety and health performance and emerging issues (the emerging issue is nighttime construction work) With assistance from the Indiana Department of Transportation, INDOT (the primary industry/agency partner on this project), five separate but inter-related research studies were conducted between during the course of this grant. The first study, utilized multiple linear regression to investigate owner and contractor safety management planning for nighttime construction and maintenance operations, while the second study investigated traffic control planning and implementation procedures for nighttime construction and maintenance operations. The third study employed Seemingly Unrelated Regression Estimation (SURE) to simultaneously model mean speed and speed standard deviation in order to analyze the effectiveness of speed control measures on nighttime construction and maintenance projects. Using statistical and econometric models, the fourth research study evaluated the visibility of different personal protective equipment (PPE) worn by supervisors and workers on nighttime construction projects. The fifth study investigated the impact of lighting on the safety and productivity of nighttime construction operations, with specific attention to highway paving operations, which are primarily conducted at night. In this study, an econometric analysis was used to quantify the effects of different lighting factors on the worker's perceptions of safety and productivity. Then, a methodology that incorporated the use of a multivariate regression model and a Discrete Event Simulation model was used to calculate the operation productivity under different lighting scenarios. Finally, a quantitative approach was developed for better understanding of the effect of qualitative nighttime factors on productivity of construction operations using a case study of an asphalt paving operation. During the last two years of the grant, three research-to-practice (R2P) tools were developed to bridge the gap in the knowledge management cycle in the area of safety of nighttime highway construction and maintenance operations. The tools include: (1) A tool for developing safety recommendations for nighttime highway operations, (2) A web-based safety training tool for nighttime highway operations, and (3) Three course modules to engage undergraduate students in civil engineering and in construction engineering and management in discussions related to construction safety. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Automobiles Construction Industry Lighting Mortality Occupational Health Personal Protective Equipment Safety
• Keywords:
  Construction Industry Construction Workers Fatalities Heavy Equipment Highway Work Zones Injury Prevention Motor Vehicles Personal Protective Equipment PPE R2p Research To Practice Initiative Road Construction Safety Practices

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• Series:
  Grant Final Reports
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Final Grant Report
• Place as Subject:
  Indiana ; OSHA Region 5
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  OEP - Office of Extramural Programs
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  1-50
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20061207
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB2022-100327
• Citation:
  Atlanta, GA: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, R01-OH-008554, 2012 Mar; :1-50
• Contact Point Address:
  Professor Dulcy M. Abraham, School of Civil Engineering, 550 Stadium Mall Drive, Purdue University, West Lafayette, 47907-2051
• Email:
  dulcy@ecn.purdue.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2012
• NORA Priority Area:
  Construction
• Performing Organization:
  Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Start Date:
  20050201
• Source Full Name:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• End Date:
  20110315
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:a2288db8be1c09349e8a7fda484aa5e7a90885644216617ba13e2b27677f359ca869601b26621a55fbe3f79c032d37ed4cd8c74265622091966787bb55f8e823
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/219023/cdc_219023_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.47 MB ]