Worker Injury Prevention Strategies

As the trend of increased highway construction and/or rehabilitation continues to grow, the public often demands that delays in work zones be kept to a minimum. Thus, the flow of traffic through the construction zone must be maintained while performing pavement maintenance/repair/reconstruction activities. At the same time, the safety of personnel and property in highway construction work zones must be ensured. Three types of risks are encountered by construction and maintenance workers in construction workzones: (a) risks due to underprotection or lack of protection against potential hazards (including lack of hearing protection, eye protection, respiratory protection); (b) effect of speeding through workzones, and © impacts due to the lack of/inadequate visibility issues (both workers and motorists). This report presents the findings of three separate, yet interrelated projects that explored the hazards in highway construction and maintenance workzones, and evaluated workzone safety strategies. The evaluation of the safety strategies was performed by analyzing the perceptions of three groups of stakeholders (INDOT personnel, contractors, and highway construction and maintenance workers). The report also discusses the use of camera and radar systems to prevent workers from being struck by mobile equipment. Finally, it provides some recommendations for more effective implementation of safety strategies and provides suggestions for further research in the domain of highway construction safety.