OSHA standards for highway work zone inspection

On October 16 of last year, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued a directive that details how compliance officers should check road construction products. 

For those like myself who are involved in keeping highway work zones safe, it's helpful to know what OSHA inspectors will be looking at before they arrive. If they're looking at it, it's likely a problem area. This is your chance to stay on top of problems and keep ahead of those OSHA visits.

The directive offers guidance on how OSHA inspectors should inspect road construction sites while applying OSHA standards and following safety precautions that apply specifically to work “on or near” roads, such as sidewalk and utility construction, “where vehicular traffic exposes construction workers to struck-by hazards.”  

The directive explains that inspections of road construction sites will focus on construction work and temporary traffic controls. The process also requires inspectors to request a copy of the project’s safety plan and the worksite’s safety measures.  

Additionally, the directive requires each of OSHA's 10 regions to designate a staff member as the “traffic control coordinator” who will provide support to investigations of traffic control issues and ensure that compliance officers receive training on inspecting roadway worksites.

Get informed BEFORE they arrive.

General Assembly to resume work on Work Zone Safety reform

Those who know me, personally or professionally, know that my latest legislative project in South Carolina has been to seek to rewrite and toughen laws on work zone enforcement. While the challenge of making work zones safer has been a professional problem for years, it became much more personal back in March of last year when a drunk driver entered a lane closure, ramming and destroying my personal vehicle while I was doing a site inspection.

I can tell numerous stories and show numerous examples of where my co-workers had close calls, the reality is that work zones are at least as dangerous for motorists. In over a decade in the industry, not a single company employee was killed or seriously injured in a work zone incident, while eight motorists and three pedestrians have died in our work zones.

Work zone safety reform is about protecting workers AND motorists.

Senate Bill 139 is the legislation which was filed by Senators Larry Grooms (R-Berkeley County), Chair of Senate Transportation Committee and Larry Martin (R-Pickens County), Chair of Senate Judiciary Committee. The legislation will add a dedicated penalty to cover law enforcement costs, allowing the state to hire additional law enforcement officers, along with an additional two-point penalty against one's license. Similar legislation was filed in the 2011-2012 legislative session, but died when that session ended back in the summer.

In addition to safety concerns, there are other considerations that are driving this legislation:

Another reason for tougher Work Zone enforcement in South Carolina

Yesterday was another sad lesson in the need to crack down on work zone violators in South Carolina, when a motorist was charged with DUI with an incident which an SCDOT worker was hit and killed on Interstate 20:

The driver of the car that killed a state Department of Transportation worker on Interstate 20 in Lexington County Monday afternoon has been charged with driving under the influence and leaving the scene of an accident, according to the state Highway Patrol.

Thomas Lee Stafford, 39, is accused of driving drunk when his 2003 Nissan SUV hit Nicholas Johnson and fatally wounded Nicholas Johnson, who was walking along the road’s emergency lane near mile marker 62, according to Highway Patrol spokesman Brent Kelly.

Make no mistake about it, the dangers of work zones are real. If you doubt it, I invite you to spend some time in work zones, which is part of what I've done for a living for over a decade as an HR and Safety Manager.

While you might think it's just workers who are in harm's way, think again:

Free safety Food for Thought: "Lessons Learned"

The folks at Safe-T-Net, a safety engineering consulting firm out of Charlotte, NC, have developed a free monthly resource in the form of a one-page look at safety incidents. You can subscribe to "Lessons Learned" and get on their monthly email list.

While they don't offer an in-depth look, they cover a wide range of industries and types of incidents. Some of these incidents and assessments can be useful in reminding us safety professionals to think about these things.

It won't change the world, but it's free and it's written by people who care.

Cracking down on Work Zone enforcement in South Carolina

Meet my car - or rather what's left of it.

Several weeks ago, my car was parked inside two closed-off lanes on one of my company's highway projects. In spite of the distance away from traffic, a driver entered the closed lanes and rear-ended it going 90. Not surprisingly, some time after the collision, he blew a .15.

It's a graphic example of the dangers faced in work zones every day by construction workers, dangers which are all too frequent.

But a lot of research indicates the majority of those who will die in work zones are in cars, not workers. On my company's projects, we've had eight motorists and three pedestrians killed in our work zones and zero workers in the last ten years.

Senate Bill 1464, which was introduced in the Senate today, would establish a work zone penalty which would provided dedicated funds for work zone enforcement costs and an additional two-point penalty.

If you've got any questions, feel free to ask me - or come join me in one of my work zones and see for yourself.

Another reason for tougher work zone enforcement laws

For those who think enough is being done to toughen work zone enforcement, think again.

This took place in our I-26 work zone last night. The truck shown in the first photo entered the lane closure, reportedly traveling through about 1 1/2 miles of closed lanes after demolishing the arrow board shown in the second photo.

The first mile of a closure is ordinarily empty space, set up as a buffer zone with the understanding that some drivers will somehow miss two miles of advance signs, message boards, barricades, cones and flashing arrows.

But the next half mile had workers in it. Of three groups of workers, one was missed by mere feet.

Last time I looked, luck is not an OSHA-approved safety device, yet all too often, it's one of the few safety devices our workers have.

S.C. legislators were asked to support a proposal that would double penalties for moving violations in work zones and dedicate those proceeds just to defray the cost of work zone enforcement. Too often, our workers work with no active law enforcement because there is no money in the construction budget for additional police officers.

But why should money be taken from building roads to pay when offenders could pay? This also could give the additional benefit of being able to keep troopers employed after several years of budget cuts have hammered the Highway Patrol.

More discussion to come on this subject. Count on it ...

Enhancing work zone safety with Type III barricades



On-ramp taper before
Type III placement



A major hazard in highway work zones is when cars enter closed-off lanes clearly marked off by cones. As this small percentage is either not noticing the cones, running them over for sport, or for whatever reason don’t think a closed-off lane is off-limits to traffic. Thus the answer seemed simple: try solutions that are bigger, more noticable and more difficult to get through in order to get their attention.







On-ramp taper AFTER
Type III placement



Type III barricades (the big three-tiered ones shown above) are more visible because they’re much bigger than the standard tall channelizing cones. We had some available from past use on the project. Rather than send them to the company’s storage yard, where they’d just gather dust, I experimented with placing several in areas which were most prone to run-through by motorists.

The areas where the problems seemed worst were just before exit ramps and where entrance ramps were re-routed through closure zones.



The results were immediately noticable: every area where the barricades were placed saw ZERO entry by motorists. Since then, I’ve had my traffic control personnel placing them in high-risk areas and the results continue to show a ONE HUNDRED PERCENT success rate whereever they’re installed.