Work Zone Safety

General Precautions

  • Workers struck by vehicles or mobile equipment account for many fatal work zone injuries. Work zones need traffic controls identified by signs, cones, barrels and barriers.

  • 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.

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.

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).