How to Make Construction Site Entrances Safe
Construction has always been a dangerous business. Better safety equipment and better training has gone a long way to mitigating those dangers. Most construction companies go far out of their way to make construction sites safe, but it’s not easy to know where your money, time, and effort are best spent on safety.
The good news is that innovative companies continue to roll out better and better safety solutions. With the right setup, you can make construction site entrances much safer. We’ll walk you through several components of a safe construction entrance.
In this article, we’ll discuss the following key construction safety takeaways:
- A safe construction site entrance starts with layered safety measures
- Trackout control improves both jobsite safety and environmental compliance
- The right equipment makes construction safety easier to implement
- Solid training gives your safety equipment the best chance to work
You start with safe construction site access
It’s easy to avoid an accident if you’re not there in the first place. An adequate access control solution will prevent civilians from accidentally wandering onto your worksite.
Typical access control starts with construction fencing around the whole work site. Clear warning signage reinforces the importance of the fence. Secure gates are needed, of course, so your work vehicles and work crew can come and go as needed.
These three simple preventative measures go a long way toward securing a construction site–reducing the risk that the wrong parties end up in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Use Tracking pads at your construction site entrance
As vehicles assist in your construction project and move around the site, they’ll pick up dirt, mud, gravel, and other debris. Even before we talk about the need for trackout control, this is a risk. Dirt and mud can reduce traction, making vehicles harder to control, among other things.
More importantly, dirt, mud, and debris tracked out of your work site and onto public roads can eventually work its way into shared water systems, degrading their quality. That’s why there are local, state, and federal guidelines regulating trackout control.
With trackout control mats, you can safely knock all that crud off of tires and other parts of vehicles. These mats agitate and jostle the wheels sufficiently to dislodge most caked-on dirt and debris.
Traditional stabilized construction entrances require excavation of the entrance area, followed by filling it with gravel or stone. This gravel pit needs to be constantly turned as vehicles drive over it to maintain effectiveness, and the whole thing needs to be cleaned back up when the job is done. It’s a huge expense of time and money.
Trackout control mats simplify the process
Mats like our RubberForm® Trackout Control Mat can be laid down in any configuration to fit the size of your entrance. From storage, all you need to do to install a mat is lift it with a front loader, lay it out, then get to work. Some mat manufacturers require brackets or chains to hold the mats in place, but ours will stay right where you leave them.
To clean them, just lift them again, shake them out, and lay them out once more.
Three easy steps to set up our mats:
- Just lift
- Lay out
- And get to work
Bonus! Three easy steps to clean our mats:
- Lift
- Shake out
- Lay back down
Install cameras for a secure construction site
Nobody wants the extra expense, but it’s a good idea to monitor the entire construction site with cameras. This way, should an accident or other event occur, you’ll be able to figure out what happened. Further, when employees, civilians, contractors, and others know that cameras are monitoring activity, they often put increased emphasis on safety.
It’s a good idea to set up signs to let people know they are being monitored, and at least a few cameras should be highly visible. Entrances and exits especially should be closely monitored.
Cameras reduce both the risk of an accident happening in the first place, and help you avoid liability if one does occur by helping you observe exactly what happened without relying on the recollection of the folks who were there.
Provide lots of construction job site safety training
At the end of the day, the best construction entrance infrastructure and safety tools will only go so far without proper safety training. It’s smart to hold regular training workshops to encourage employees and contractors to emphasize safety, including when entering and exiting the work site.
In these workshops, you can explain the importance of safety equipment, like tracking pads, and how they improve safety. The best equipment in the world doesn’t matter if it isn’t used correctly.
What’s my next step?
When you’re ready to improve the safety of your construction site, you should take a look at our whole slate of construction safety products. Our trackout control mats are the last trackout solution you’ll ever need to buy. These newly designed pipe and hose ramps take the headache out of protecting pipes, cords, and cables from vehicles at a job site. And our portable electric cable support towers make elevating dangerous electrical cords out of work areas the easiest part of your site setup.
When you’re ready to see how simple construction safety can be, give us a call.
Date Published: January 2, 2024
