A construction site is usually extremely busy. From workers to heavy machinery, there’s a lot to account for — but traffic management is the biggest challenge. This is an especially difficult challenge if you’re working in a highway work zone where hundreds of cars pass by every minute. Don’t worry, though, because this easy traffic management guide for construction sites is here to help. Follow the advice below so that you can efficiently manage oncoming traffic from the start of the day to the very end.
1. Protect Your Work Site with Traffic Control Barricades
The first step is easy: use traffic control barricades.
Doing this will enable you to redirect traffic, block certain roads and pathways, and even let drivers know about off-limit areas that they can’t go near.
The best type of traffic control barricade is a plastic one. It’s much easier to move and is also more durable when it comes to the weather and taking damage. Best of all, plastic traffic control barricades are super easy to set up, meaning you and your workers don’t have to worry about wasting time.
2. Put Down Temporary Traffic Lights
In some instances, temporary traffic lights are necessary for a construction zone. When in place, they help to ensure that workers remain safe and that oncoming cars are properly managed. Just make sure that you regularly check your temporary traffic lights, as they can (occasionally) stop working. This can cause confusion for drivers, which is why you need to make sure they’re operating as intended every hour.
3. Provide Workers with Two-Way Radios
During the day, you might find that more cars start to appear, such as right away in the morning or at lunch when people are on their breaks. This is why it’s a good idea to provide workers with two-way radios to ensure they can communicate efficiently. For example, if there’s a sudden overflow of traffic and one of your signs has gone missing, you might need a worker to manually rush over and direct traffic in another direction with their own hands.
4. Use Speed Limit Signs
If your construction site has lots of workers and is full of big machinery, you should use speed limit signs to keep drivers under control. In the past, there have been countless instances where drivers have driven dangerously fast to escape traffic at construction sites, which has ultimately caused them to crash into construction workers or nearby machinery. Therefore, you need to use speed limit signs (indicating 10, 15, or 20 mph limits) to remind drivers of the enforced limit.
5. Prepare to Make Changes to Your Traffic Management System
As your construction project progresses, there’s a strong chance you’ll have to make changes to your traffic management system, whether it’s adding more traffic control barricades or directing traffic down a completely different road. The more prepared you are, the better. As soon as you identify that a change needs to be made, you can get to work on getting the right equipment and signage so that it can be implemented as soon as possible.
