Work Zone Safety

Safe Work Practices

Each employee needs to be instructed in the recognition and avoidance of unsafe conditions and the regulations applicable to his work environment to control or eliminate any hazards or other exposure to illness or injury. This includes but is not limited to:

  • Work zones should have traffic controls identified by signs, cones, barrels and barriers.
  • Workers exposed to struck-by hazards should be provided with warning clothing such as reflective vests or other warning type of garments (reflective, orange, red).
  • Drivers, workers on foot and pedestrians must be able to see and understand the proper routes.
  • Construction project managers should provide traffic control plans within construction/demolition worksites.
  • Traffic control devices, signals and message boards should instruct drivers to follow paths away from where work is being done.
    • Approved traffic control devices, including cones, barrels, barricades and delineator posts, are also used inside work zones.

Struck-By Truck

Provides the investigative process after a fatality involving being struck-by a truck.

Lighting

  • Flagger stations should be illuminated. Lighting for workers on foot and for equipment operators should be at least 5 footcandles or greater.

  • Where available lighting is not sufficient, flares or chemical lighting should be used.

  • Glare should be controlled or eliminated.

Highway Work Zone Safety

Additional resources for work zone safety.

Work Zone Protections

  • Various concrete, water, sand, collapsible barriers, crash cushions and truck-mounted attenuators can help limit motorist intrusions into construction work zones.

Training

  • Flaggers must be trained/certified and should use authorized signaling methods.

Driving

  • Seat belts and rollover protection should be used on equipment and vehicles as recommended by the manufacturer.

Flagging

  • Flaggers should wear high visibility clothing with a fluorescent background made of retroreflective material.

  • High visibility clothing makes workers visible for at least 1,000 feet in any direction. Check the label or packaging to ensure that the garments are performance Class 2 or Class 3.

  • Drivers should be warned with signs that there will be flaggers ahead. 

  • Flaggers should use STOP/SLOW paddles, paddles with lights, or flags (only in emergencies).

Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices

Provides access to Federal Highway Administration’s Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD).