Current trends indicate that more and more contractors are likely to find themselves working on the wrong side of the clock. While there's specialized equipment to consider, one of the biggest challenges may involve safety and delivering quality work at night.

By Penelope Grenoble O'Malley

"Working at night is totally different from anything you've done before," maintains Tony Bodway, crew superintendent for Payne and Dolan Inc., a paving operation in Waukesha, WI. "Until you do it, you can't fathom working at night."

Rick Longstaff, president of Vista Training Inc. in Burlington, WI, agrees. "Crews working at night are usually under a tight schedule. They have to be able to produce a certain amount of work in a specific amount of time. There's glare from the artificial light, which leads to issues like not being able to see dust and smoke and equipment coming at you. How a contractor maneuvers both people and equipment in a light-versus-dark scenario involves issues of both safety and productivity."

"It scary out there at night," admits Jack Murphy, vice president of construction for Conti Enterprises Inc. in South Plainfield, NJ. "You can't just walk out there and not be prepared. Night work is more prevalent everywhere, and one of the reasons is that it minimizes impacts on the public."

Russell Hutchison, director of product safety and technical services for the Association of Equipment Manufacturers, thinks the construction industry will see more night work, especially on road and highway contracts. "We're falling farther and farther behind with regard to the construction and restoration of our highways," explains Hutchison, "while at the same time, the use of those highways have increased dramatically. We can't just shut down the roads when we want to work." The Associated General Contractors (AGC) of America traces the current trend to the 1998 Transportation Equity Act (now coming up for renewal), which allocated funds to repair bridges and roadways and correct hazardous road conditions, but Murphy thinks night work is more widespread. "Night work is part of the culture of our company because it's cost-effective," he points out. "When the equipment's parked, it's still eating, so it just makes more sense to run two shifts." Jack Lockwood of Allmand Brothers Inc. in Holdrege, NE, agrees that economics will continue to drive night construction. "Someone owns a piece of property and plans to build, let's say, a shopping center. He's made a huge investment and he wants to get it working for him as soon as possible. This means contractors are working around the clock."

Night work is here to stay. The challenge is how to work safely and effectively under lights.

So What's the Problem?

"When you go into night mode, right away you have a different kind of equipment," observes Bodway. "You have to have personal equipment like safety vests, obviously, but you also have lights and whatever it takes to set up those lights and get them running."

"Quality is a big issue," states Murphy, "especially when there are penalties. We did our runway work up at Newark airport almost all at night, and they didn't tell us we could slack off because it was night work. There's no question delivering good-quality work is tougher at night."

"The time crews can work at night is often compressed," continues Longstaff, "and many times everything in the work zone has to be put back to normal at a specified time, and this often leads to rushing. Which is why people working at night need to work smart. One of the key areas we're concerned about in our training materials is visibility, given the glare and dark spots from night lighting. During the day, for example, you can see a cloud of dust coming at you, and at the least you can avoid particulate matter from going into your eyes and nose by turning or moving out of the way." Jerry Woodson of J.J. Keller & Associates, a safety equipment supplier in Neenah, WI, suggests that crews who work under lights are at additional risk from the particular hazards of jobs that tend to be done at night, including silica dust from breaking up concrete and asphalt and paint fumes.

A further challenge of night work is that contractors working on or near roadways are responsible for traffic control in and around the work zone (defined roughly as the area between the first warning sign and the last traffic control device), including signage that alerts motorists and directs detours, as well as setting up cones, barrels, and protective barriers to separate the public from workers and their equipment. AGC cites figures common in the industry that some 1,200 people were killed in construction zones in 2000, a significant jump over the 870 lives lost the year before, and that some 100-150 of these were construction workers. Data summarized on J.J. Keller's Web site (www.jjkeller.com) suggest these deaths and the 20,000 injuries that occur annually are related in part to inadequately developed and enforced safety procedures. Notably half of the annual deaths are caused by equipment and vehicles operating in and around job sites.

"There are an awful lot of incidents out there involving people and machines," reports Bill Powell, marketing manager for Preco in Boise, ID, "even though the machines are equipped with back-up alarms. When you're working at night, there are a lot more distractions and a lot of things you have to compensate for–both for equipment operators and the crews working around them. In many cases, the operator can't see, and the idea always has been that people will get out of the way when they hear a back-up alarm. But what we find is that some folks are ignoring the alarms and people are getting hit because they're not paying attention." Which leads to the issue cited by industry insiders as the most difficult challenge, what human resources experts call "human factors."

"The most significant issue about working at night is the social impact on the crews doing the job," offers Murphy. "They may have logistical problems like getting their children to daycare, but by far one of the biggest problems is that the guys who work at night are not getting the proper rest. Not only is this unsafe, but it also means I'm not going to get a whole lot of productivity out of them."

"You've got the question of whether people working the second and third shift are alert," agrees Hutchison, who notes that there has been an increased dialogue among equipment manufacturers about providing additional safety equipment for nighttime conditions. "The stress factor is huge," states Brian Deery, senior director of AGC's Highway Division. "People just don't like working at night. They're out of synch, they're tired, and they're less aware of what's going on around them, which puts them at risk. Because of this, we're seeing contractors having a difficult time keeping a work force. Guys will work a night job occasionally, but when it's job after job, a lot of them will be looking for some other place to work." Both Deery and Murphy note that night work often takes its biggest toll on management. "Sometimes the supervisors are working 14 to 16 hours a day," continues Murphy. "They're the first ones in, the last ones out. They have to coordinate with the day guys to make sure they have everything they need–you can't pick up the phone and order a bulldozer in the middle of the night."

Validation for these insider observations comes from a recent study undertaken by City College of New York for the New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT). Researchers interviewed 30 construction workers on four New Jersey highway construction projects along with a focus group of additional union laborers. One of the study's most significant findings was that all of the workers were chronically short of sleep. The amount of sleep among the study respondents ranged from a minimum of three hours a night to a maximum of six; 32% reported sleeping four hours or less and 32% reported six hours. No one reported getting a full eight hours and most complained about the difficulty of sleeping during the day when the household is active. The workers interviewed unanimously agreed that nighttime work had a negative effect on their body rhythms and all reported that their families reacted negatively when they worked at night. Seventy-two percent of the workers interviewed reported working long shifts, 12 hours or more, and 50% reported they drove two or more hours to work everyday. Almost everyone in the study said working at night made it difficult to follow a regular meal schedule and this resulted in poor nutrition. Only 17% indicated they received additional pay for working at night, and they all said they'd be willing to forfeit the benefit in exchange for daytime work.

NJDOT is not the only organization taking a serious look at night work. Last year AGC hosted a national conference that brought together industry representatives to look at work-zone safety. Likewise, the Federal Highway Administration has a senior working group looking at the same issues. The AGC-hosted workshop developed some 70 safety recommendations for road and highway workers, including standardizing the criteria for doing roadwork at night. The International Union of Operating Engineers is lobbying for standardized work-zone regulations "with some teeth in them," including such factors as the use of positive protection barriers even when the work zone is temporary. "Our goal," states a union spokesman, "is a set of basic rules that will apply to all construction work done at night so contractors don't have a choice. The direction we're working in is that whatever standards are developed will be legally enforceable so there's a level playing field in all states."

And while other organizations and agencies insist the problem needs study, the International Safety Equipment Association has committed itself to action, filling in where the Occupational Safety & Health Administration leaves off in regulations to protect nighttime workers. "We try to fill in the gap," comments association spokesman Dan Glucksman. One result is a standard for retro-reflective clothing the organization developed with the American National Standards Institute (ANSI-ISEA 107-1999), which stipulates the level of reflectivity of jackets, vests, and other clothing based on a worker's function and the conditions under which the equipment will be worn. But while 107-1999 goes further than what the federal government mandates, it represents a voluntary industry consensus, and as such carries no enforcement provisions.

Can There Ever Be Too Much Light?

Despite an increase in nighttime operations, where traffic is routed around highway construction, state DOTs provide very little guidance to contractors on how to establish lighting to improve motorist safety. As Bob Cavan, vice president and branch manager of Ingersoll-Rand's East Hanover, NJ, office explains, "Where you have a lot of lighting in one spot–a bridge, for instance–the drivers' eyes have to adjust rapidly to increased and then suddenly decreased conditions." Motorists need to be especially careful until their eyes have readapted to the dark. It's not so much a matter of overlighting an area as it is making sure there's adequate lighting on the perimeter to allow some accommodation to take place.

"There's no such thing as too much light," Cavan asserts. "We proved that at the World Trade Center," where in the wake of the September 11, 2001, disaster, the Office of Emergency Management and officials from the City of New York asked Ingersoll-Rand to provide emergency lighting. In fact Cavan's company responded immediately, and before nightfall, trucks carrying 150 IR LightSource units–four metal-halide bulb self-contained systems–had been dispatched to Ground Zero where onsite contractors took charge of them and placed them where needed. "There was always a need for more light," he says. "After all, the most that could happen is you turn night into day."

Tips From the Field

To help meet the challenge of producing quality work at night, Murphy collaborated with NJDOT to design a system that utilizes equipment-mounted lights. "Unless you're right in front of them, light towers along the side of the road don't provide the proper lighting for the work we do," stresses Murphy. "Two weeks after we installed the night lighting system we developed in conjunction with NJDOT–and we weren't even thinking about this–our crews volunteered that they weren't nearly as tired in the morning. They said it was so bright around the paving machines it was almost like daylight." All well and good, says Lockwood, but Allmand Brothers thinks the big issue in job-site lighting is not just that crews can see to work, but also safety–workers have to see and be seen when they're not in areas directly lighted by equipment. "A guy working away from a paver," rejoins Lockwood, "is not going to be able to see if that's the only light on the site. He's liable to end up in a trench or hole and do some damage."

"When you go out to light a job, you almost have to create a daytime atmosphere," remarks Bodman, "because anytime you use artificial light, you've got shadows. At Payne and Dolan, we've experimented with different types of lighting on our equipment, but we also use portable lighting, which means we're attaching generator systems, depending on the operation." To keep crews up to speed on night work, Payne and Dolan holds winter training seminars, including first aid, traffic control, and equipment maintenance. "Lights go off at night. Crews have to know how to put their hands together in the field to fix the equipment and get it working again."

Preplanning Is Crucial

"Construction companies should develop a detailed reconstruction plan that analyzes a job for potential hazards for workers and includes specific strategies for addressing each one of them," cautions Steve Rupard, technical director for Liberty Mutual Insurance in Boston, MA. "Each construction job should have a safety plan in place that can be modified as the job changes. Preplanning is important for signage, lighting, determining the traffic patterns on and off the site and within the site itself, for protecting employees from moving equipment and from traffic, as well as the means by which workers will be identified on the work site." Among the questions such a plan needs to address is the use and identification of spotters to manage traffic and keep workers and equipment separated, whether law enforcement will available to control public traffic on roadways, how the contractor will comply with any state lighting standards, and finally job-site design so workers aren't exposed to traffic crossing from one part of a job to another. Jeffrey LaBarge, also a Liberty Mutual technical director, emphasizes that all of this should be specified in a written safety plan that includes methods for assessing compliance as the job progresses. "Even though you do a great job of preplanning, construction projects change frequently," states LaBarge, "so your safety plan needs to be reviewed on a regular basis. You may need to replan safety weekly or even daily in some cases, depending on the circumstances and how the job is going." Both LaBarge and Rupard emphasize the need for contractors to have experienced personnel involved in the contract bidding process who are capable of anticipating what the projects will require to keep workers safe and how to factor in the cost. Both agree that public law enforcement is critical to controlling speeds in highway construction zones, and where states don't provide the service, contractors should be prepared to arrange their own.

LaBarge and Rupard also emphasize the effectiveness of Liberty Mutual's Managing Vital Performance program (MVP), which provides what LaBarge refers to as "a living document" that contractors can apply to ensure that employees are performing according to the guidelines established in the preplanning documents. "If you have a construction site where crane safety might be one of the crucial factors," explains LaBarge, "the MVP will identify the key operating functions that have to be accomplished by the operator to ensure safety. The observer, whether it be a Liberty Mutual loss professional or someone on the construction company's crew, uses this document to match performance with the planning standards to come up with a percent determination of how safely a specific function is being performed." (This process also can be accomplished using a portable digital assistant that generates an immediate assessment of multiple job-site functions.)

Improved Technology

Manufacturers also are stepping up to the bat with new equipment to help make the work zone safer. Preco has developed an object detection system that uses pulsed radar to detect objects up to 26 ft. out from a vehicle. "The system puts the emphasis back on the operator," reports Powell. "The closer the operator gets to an object, lights flash and a there's a beeping in the cab that gets louder and faster." Preco also markets a self-discriminating back-up alarm that adjusts itself to environmental noise levels so workers can discriminate between multiple alarms sounding at similar volumes.

At least two companies are marketing video systems to help with rear vision. Safety Vision Inc. in Houston, TX, which started in the solid waste industry, now is targeting its rear-vision video camera for construction and dirtmoving equipment, and Intec Video Systems in Laguna Hills, CA, which began with closed-circuit surveillance, offers a top-of-the-line, high-resolution, black-and-white video system that, according to company spokesman Jon Lovejoy, operates "very clearly" in almost zero light. "A full moon, a few streetlights in the area, and you get a good, crisp, high-contrast image. And it's not just a safety issue. A video system also makes for better efficiency. You can monitor parts of the equipment that are crucial to your performance but out of your line of sight, like the level of condition of a blade on a loader."

Alert and Responsible

"Crews working at night have to pay particular attention," declares Bodway. "Whatever you're doing, you have a second job, and that's paying attention to what's going on around the job site. You are constantly taxing your mental abilities. At Payne and Doland, we've found it's best if crews work on the buddy system, which means each individual has to trust everyone else who's out there with them. As a supervisor, I spend time out with my crews at night. As I said, it's different out there, and because of that, we make sure our people attend safety meetings so everyone understands what they have to wear and use safety-wise at night and how the equipment they're working on has to be identified. We've even equipped our crews with lights that attach to their hardhats–small flashlights–so they can see what they're doing if they have to fix something on the machine or they're checking fluids. These are the kinds of things you adapt to working at night."

"There are always issues with employees," observes Murphy, "but as a union contractor, this is the work we're offering, and the unions are obligated to send us people who are willing to do what we need to have done. Sometimes we have problems with guys who have been with us for many years, but I tell them, ‘No exceptions. Everybody has to take a turn working at night. That's the way it is.' We've done things to help people the best we can, specifically additional salary and wage increases."

The researchers who conducted the NJDOT/City College study suggested there was no "best" solution to the problems the workers they interviewed identified with night work. At best, working on the wrong side of the clock requires a "complex tradeoff" between the societal benefits of nighttime work and its impact on those who do it. Suggestions to help mitigate the effects included a four-day workweek, company-supplied transportation to and from the work site to minimize the stress of commuting and provide a few extra hours of sleep, sleeping accommodations at or near the work site, and standardizing a pay differential for crews who work at night. (Murphy reports that all his salaried personnel who work at night receive a 10% pay hike and suggests this could be applicable across the board, as long as the differential was adopted as an industry standard and reflects a minimum 10-15% hike over daytime compensation rates.)

From the loss-control perspective of the insurance industry, LaBarge and Rupard emphasize that employers have to step up to the bat when it comes to helping their crews manage nighttime conditions. "Contractors have to recognize that, just like anything else, these human-factor issues have to be managed," points out LaBarge. "If you are a night superintendent, you have to manage the job to make sure your workers are on top of what they're doing and that they will remain that way until the next morning. I've been to many tailgate or weekly safety meetings early in a project where crews discussed how to maintain a good diet or how to get enough sleep."

"For years," adds Rupard, "field superintendents have been taught to recognize drug and alcohol abuse. The same thing applies when someone comes to work tired and sleepy. The idea is to have a plan so you know what to do if you find yourself with several workers on a project who obviously are not performing because they're tired."

Where From Here?

One of the most practical observations to emerge from the NJDOT/City College study was the need for data on the degree to which workers are at increased risk at night, the extent to which night work is more cost-effective, the conditions under which it's economically justified, and how quality and productivity–as well as safety–are affected when crews work on the wrong side of the clock. "I don't know what the answer is," admits Deery. "I don't know that there is an answer. Despite all these problems, night work is going to continue. In regard to highway work, I think the state DOTs are going to have to look at why they work at night and review other options like rerouting traffic and perhaps choose night work only when it's the last possible option." But as Murphy points out, traffic and public inconvenience are not the only incentives for contractors to work at night. As long as construction work involves a capital investment in machinery, as more and more projects are put on the fast track, night work will continue to be a fixture on the construction scene.

Journalist Penelope Grenoble O'Malley is a frequent contributor to Forester Communications publications.

About | Subscribe | Current Issue | News | Events | Services
Register | Discussion  | Advertise | Contact Us | Search | Jobs

Erosion Control Magazine | MSW Management Magazine
Stormwater Magazine | Forester Communications

© 2001-2002 FORESTER MEDIA, INC.