The construction industry has changed rapidly over the last30 years with a series of new health and safety regulation introduced across construction sites nationwide. According to figures released in 2014, 2.1 million people are in employment acrossthe industry in the UK, with 50% of these working for SME or self-employed contractors. When setting up a public construction site, it’s important to be vigilant when it comes to the health and safety of your staff as well as the public. Below are three main points of focus to consider when it comes to setting up a public construction site in our towns, cities, and rural areas.
Public Safety
Construction sites can be dangerous places when you consider the nature of the work that’s being carried out. Often there’s heavy machinery and vehicles in operation around the site and across surrounding public roads that areused for transporting materials in and out the site. Your employees will always be covered by employee liability insurance but it’s always good to consider taking out Construction Public Liability Insurance to help cover you when it comes to incidents involving the general public.
Public Liability insurance covers you across any expense, loss, liability or claim for any personal injury or death to members of the public in relation to work on your construction site.
Transport and Accessibility
According to Health and Safety Executive around 7 people per year die in traffic related incidents on construction sites with a further 93 seriously injured. It’s always a good idea to make sure plans are in place to ensure safe transport and accessibility links are available for heavy machinery and vehiclesacross the site. Often construction sites are located in populous areas which means there’s a lot of public traffic congestion close by. It’s always a good idea to work closely with local council when setting up your site to ensure your vehicles and staff have ease of access to the site as well as maintaining roads that are free from congestion for the public to use.
Overnight Security
During the day your construction site can be a hive of activity with workers and machinery operating across all cylinders. However, once your staff go home your site becomes a quite place filled with expensive and important machinery, valuable materials, and specialist vehicles. As site foreman you should always consider employing an overnight security service to monitor your site. Additionally, you should also strive to implement an alarm system, as well as CCTV cameras and monitors to safeguard your site and building project against internal and external threats of theft or vandalism.
There’re many other components to consider when planning a public construction site but the above three options will certainly go a long way in safeguarding and insuring your workers against both internal and external threats to their health and safety. Act on these three simple steps today to ensure your next construction project sticks to the blueprint and runs safely and smoothly throughout its development.