Plan It, Brief It, Build It: A Guide to Safer Utility Work Zones

Utility work zones often place serious hazards on the same strip of pavement as your crew. Where a driver observes another row of traffic cones, a worker sees the hard edge of their worksite. Danger lurks in the space between those two perspectives.

Fortunately, industry employers can take three steps to reduce this risk. Begin with identifying site-specific hazards that could generate significant injuries. Build a traffic control plan (TCP) with those hazards in mind. Then, as needed, integrate tools and technology into the company’s field practices that are designed to calm and redirect drivers.

These activities are not a substitute for employer procedures or the rules promulgated by OSHA and the U.S. Department of Transportation. Instead, consider them additional guidance intended to further boost workforce well-being.

Where Harm Tries to Hide
Predictably enough, the most catastrophic work zone events result from high-energy contact between vehicles and pedestrians, equipment or other vehicles. Three patterns show up repeatedly across line work, broadband builds and pole changeouts.

1. High-speed approaches. Drivers roll in fast, then suddenly notice a mix of signage and lane shifts. By the time they react, they’re at the first line of cones, drums or barriers – where most intrusions occur.
2. Task pressure. Crew members may feel pressure to work quickly during zone setup and teardown, amplifying risk exposure. For instance, a company truck eases out to shield the lane as a worker places the first cone or other channelizing device, only for a driver to attempt to beat the lane change.
3. Incomplete separation. TCPs require tapers (i.e., angled lines of cones or barrels that redirect lane traffic) as well as buffers that separate crews and equipment from traffic flow. Risk to workers increases where one or both are not built to spec in the field.

Successfully controlling these patterns reduces exposure, which should be an organizational goal that steers planning and review processes for every utility work zone.

From Signage to Safe Exits
A compliant work zone consists of the five sections outlined below. When in the zone, all personnel must wear high-visibility clothing and any other appropriate personal protective equipment based on the site’s hazard analysis.

1. Advance warning area: Signage is displayed at the zone’s start to alert drivers of work ahead.
2. Transition area: Tapers route traffic outside the typical travel path, past the work zone, then back to normal.
3. Buffer space: This section provides recovery room for an errant vehicle. Workers must be trained never to stand, park or stow items in buffer spaces.
4. Workspace: Here, employees execute their tasks and store equipment and materials.
5. Termination area: Signage clearly communicates to drivers that the work zone has ended.

Note: Don’t forget the crucial step of assigning flaggers to conspicuous spots on the roadway shoulder, making sure to avoid curves, hills, shade and other low-visibility areas.

Share the Plan
A strong traffic control plan aligns with Part 6 of the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, organizing work zones by target traffic pattern, supporting devices, and device positioning and removal sequences.

To foster greater employee understanding of the work setup and plan, employers should cover the following seven areas during each of their OSHA-required job briefings (readers can review the agency’s briefing rules at 29 CFR 1910.269(c)).

1. Tasks and limits. Identify goals for the day’s work. Provide a map that clearly delineates the activity area.
2. Approach conditions. Confirm the posted speed limit, sight lines and peak traffic windows for each approach.
3. Review the zone to verify the taper start point, buffer length and appropriate device spacing.
4. Assign employees to monitor the traffic queue and manage radio calls or other alerts regarding phase changes and vehicle intrusions.
5. Setup and removal. Determine who will set up and/or remove channelizing devices, and in what order. Doing so early allows more time to build buffer space between crews and vehicle traffic before work begins.
6. Change triggers. Discuss specific circumstances that require a phase change or a stop-work directive. Triggers could include the traffic queue reaching an extended length, approach speeds exceeding the posted limit and sudden weather shifts.
7. Escape routes. Point out the nearest safe retreat (e.g., the road shoulder, behind a barrier, inside the buffer’s far edge) on a map. Agree on a clear call, such as “Clear right” or “Clear left,” and ensure that each worker knows where to go should a vehicle intrusion occur.

Digital Assist
Today’s technology offers employers tools that move workers outside active traffic lanes and give motorists early, unambiguous instruction.

Physical separation is the first objective. Remove human flaggers from harm’s way by installing automated flagger assistance devices (AFADs), which replace hand signals with a bright, steady indicator that’s tough to miss. These devices do not experience fatigue or distraction as they work, and many models log their activity, assisting users with hazard detection and troubleshooting.

Position AFADs anywhere a human flagger could be exposed to risk, such as near fast approaches and narrow shoulders. Always pair AFADs with a clean taper and an empty buffer. Locations that force complex, multidirectional driving decisions and/or heavy pedestrian negotiation may justify an upgrade to temporary signals or manual control.

Next, design a smarter, more modern approach. Portable message signs and queue warning systems help to reduce a driver’s speed before they encounter channelizing devices. Push alerts upstream through local partners and navigation apps so that a portion of traffic is rerouted and simply never enters the zone.

Finally, consider investing in cones or barrels that can broadcast their location and status to company trailers and dynamic signs. Messaging that automatically updates as the taper moves reduces the need for mid-shift radio calls that can distract workers. Up-to-date signage also helps to mitigate driver confusion.

Keep in mind that digital or connected solutions aren’t needed for every job but can enhance worker and public safety when warranted.

Establishing Proactive Safety Measures
Numerous organizations rely on their injury statistics to gauge safety performance. These metrics provide valuable historical data but do not necessarily convey the hazardous site conditions and worker behaviors that could prompt future incidents. To elevate safety culture, organizational leaders must proactively implement and continuously refine field processes for hazard identification, control checks and workforce engagement.

Developing a structured way to conduct site checkups and work area inspections is one effective starting point. Visit employees in the field to better understand the realities of their work, the problems they contend with, and the site conditions that could lead to a serious injury or fatality. These interactions often create opportunities to reinforce safe work practices as well as identify potential improvements to engineering, administrative and operational controls.

Yet observation alone is not enough. Processes also must be established to spot and rectify persistent issues (e.g., work zone intrusion events) and systemic deficiencies related to company policies, procedures, training and work planning. Once identified, management will ideally formulate corrective actions and assess their impact over time.

Tracking vehicle intrusion events in company work zones provides insight into operational limitations and helps employers determine how well their existing controls protect workers and the motoring public. Employers that manage traffic control themselves or contract with third parties must have confidence that unauthorized vehicles will not enter any of their work zones.

The Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices and other regulatory requirements are the foundation, but leading organizations layer in more protective measures, observe jobsites on a regular basis and continuously improve controls to prevent future intrusion events.

Conclusion
A safe utility work zone results from a combination of clear plans, defined roles and helpful tools. More specifically, it is the output realized from engaging in four activities the right way every time, without exception.

1. Conducting a pre-job briefing after planning the work zone, helping to ensure all crew members own the plan.
2. Rapidly building separation between crews and road traffic while keeping watch for potential exposure to vehicle intrusions.
3. Using appropriate tools to move people out of harm’s way.
4. Measuring what matters while striving to create a culture of continuous improvement.

Employers that take these steps shift after shift will almost certainly begin to see cleaner work zone setups – and fewer close calls.

About the Author: Michelle Marsh is senior vice president of EHS for AWP Safety (www.awpsafety.com).