Working on sewer and water pipes almost by definition means working in traffic at times. And accidents in which workers are hit by vehicles or mobile equipment account for many fatal work injuries, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Workers in areas where there are moving vehicles need to take special precautions to ensure their safety. Here are some of the requirements outlined by OSHA in a Work Zone Traffic Safety fact sheet.
General
You must have a traffic control plan for the movement of vehicles in areas where your people are working. Drivers, workers on foot and pedestrians must be able to see and understand the routes they are to follow.
The authority in charge (federal, state or local) will determine how to configure the temporary traffic control zone. The construction project manager decides on the internal traffic control plan within the work site.
Signs
Standard highway signs for information, speed limits and work zones must be posted to help drivers identify, in designated traffic paths, such directives as: Do Not Enter, Reduced Speed Ahead, Road Closed and No Outlet. Using standard highway signs for internal construction work site traffic control will help workers recognize the route they are to use.
Traffic control devices
Standard traffic control devices, signals and message boards instruct drivers to follow a path away from where work is being done. The authority in charge determines the approved traffic control devices, such as cones, barrels, barricades and delineator posts that will be used as part of the traffic control plan. These standard devices should also be used inside the work zone.
Work zone protections
Various styles of concrete, water, sand, collapsible barriers, crash cushions and truck-mounted attenuators are available to limit motorist intrusions into the construction work zone.
Flagging
Flaggers and others providing temporary traffic control should wear high-visibility clothing with a background of fluorescent orange-red or yellow-green and retroreflective material of orange, yellow, white, silver or yellow-green. In areas of traffic movement, this personal protective equipment will make the worker visible for at least 1,000 feet, so that the worker can be seen from any direction, and make the worker stand out from the background.
Check the label or packaging to ensure that the garments are performance Class 2 or 3. Drivers should be warned in advance with signs that there will be a flagger ahead. Flaggers should use STOP/SLOW paddles, paddles with lights or flags (which should be used only in emergencies). The STOP sign should be octagonal with a red background and white letters and border. The SLOW sign is the same shape, with an orange background, black letters and a border.
Lighting
Flagger stations should be illuminated. Lighting for workers on foot and for equipment operators is to be 5 foot-candles or greater. Where available lighting is not sufficient, flares or chemical lighting should be used. Glare affecting workers and motorists should be controlled or eliminated.
Training
Flaggers should be trained/certified and use the signaling methods required by the authority in charge. Workers on foot, equipment operators and drivers in internal work zones need to know the routes that construction vehicles will use. Equipment operators and signal persons need to know the hand signals used on the work site.
Operators and workers on foot need to know the visibility limits and the “blind spots” for each vehicle on site. Workers on foot should wear high-visibility safety garments designated as Class 1, 2 or 3. They should be made aware of the ways in which shift work and night work may affect their performance.
For a comprehensive list of compliance requirements of OSHA standards or regulations, refer to Title 29 of the Code of Federal Regulations, available at www.osha.gov.
