Traffic Management on Construction Sites

About this course.

Traffic is one of the most serious hazards on a construction site because heavy, powerful vehicles and mobile plant operate in close proximity to people on foot, often in confined, changing and congested spaces, and when a vehicle or machine strikes a person the consequences are frequently fatal or life-changing. Unlike many construction hazards, traffic combines great energy, poor visibility from within cabs, unpredictable human movement and constant change, so the margin for error is small. The interaction of vehicles, plant and pedestrians — being "struck by" moving plant, being crushed against a fixed object, or being caught in a reversing or slewing movement — is consistently among the leading causes of death and serious injury in construction, which is why managing it deserves the same seriousness as falls from height or electrical risk.

The core of the problem is energy and vulnerability. A loaded truck, an excavator, a front-end loader, a telehandler or a mobile crane carries enormous mass and momentum; a person on foot has no protection against it. Even at low speed, a vehicle that strikes or runs over a person, or crushes them against a wall, stack of materials or another vehicle, can cause fatal injuries. This asymmetry means that traffic controls cannot rely on a pedestrian's agility or a driver's quick reaction to prevent harm; they must be designed so that vehicles and people are kept apart in the first place, because once a collision is imminent it is usually too late.