How To Do Night-time Construction
Night-time construction is any kind of construction work that's being completed once and there's no natural light to provide visibility on the job site.
Although night-time construction presents some extra and unique challenges for contractors and workers on the job site, there are also a few advantages that are important to note. Even before planning for night-time construction work, contractors must have a good understanding of what the night-time construction process is and what unique challenges might arise.
In order to understand how to do night-time construction and be well-informed when considering if this kind of working condition is appropriate for your company's next project, we're going to explain the advantages and disadvantages of night-time construction, the challenges that you'll face, and other important factors that go into night-time construction work.
Table of Contents
- Advantages & Disadvantages of Night-Time Construction
- City laws & Regulations of Night-Time construction
- Lighting Requirements for Evening Construction
- Invest In Safety
- Reducing Noise
- Reducing Dust and Sediments
- Next Steps
Advantages & Disadvantages of Night-time Construction
It may seem like there would only be disadvantages to night-time construction, but that's simply not true. Night-time construction boasts a few advantages that could outweigh its disadvantages depending on who you're asking.
Advantages
When it comes to the advantages of night-time construction, less traffic and foot noise experienced on the job site is as noticeable as it is very important. No matter if it's residential road work, highway road work, or building a structure in a busier city, the less traffic on roads and sidewalks at night makes working easier for workers to get the job done and safer for everyone commuting during the day.
Next, depending on where you are and what time of the year it is, night construction can provide the advantage of cooler temperatures. As we all know, hot summer days can pose risks, like heat stroke or fainting, to workers on the job. That same job done at night would mitigate or even almost eliminate the issues that come with excessive heat on the job site during the daytime.
Disadvantages
Beginning with its disadvantages, night-time construction obviously presents the issue of visibility. Although flood lights are a necessity in night-time construction, visibility at night is never better than the visibility during the daytime from the natural light of the sun. Dust and sediments that are kicked up into the air are also more visible at night from the artificial floodlights, posing another issue of visibility.
No matter what kind of job or industry, working the night shift is more taxing on sleep than the day shift, thus causing fatigue. First, switching up a normal sleep schedule to a night-shift sleep schedule can cause workers fatigue issues from a lack of sleep or any other troubles from switching their sleep routine.
Depending on the type of work being done, noise complaints from nearby residents can pose an issue. Although this shouldn't be too much of an issue if you have the proper permits and are following regulations, noise complaints aren't exactly great to deal with and can create annoyed members of the community.
Finally, the overall risk of job site injuries is greater during night-time construction compared to daytime construction. With the undesirable combination of lower visibility and fatigue, injuries are more likely to happen.
City Laws & Regulations
Now that you have an understanding of the different pros and cons of night construction work and can weigh them out to see if this kind of work seems appealing for your next project, the next thing to do is check your local laws and regulations for night-time construction.
Every state, province, township, or municipality is different, so we can't explain exactly what to do for anyone's specific situation. However, we definitely suggest that you research your governing body's website to determine the different laws, by-laws, and regulations surrounding night construction in your area.
Make sure you know the different lighting requirements for night-time construction, pedestrian safety requirements for road work, and any other bylaws that would be required to follow. Find out if you need to acquire permits in order to work at night. If you do need permits, find out what you need to file for them, and acquire them before starting.
Lighting Requirements
Once you know the legal lighting requirements for your job, you should also consider the practical lighting requirements that you need for your job. Here are some questions to ask when considering lighting for your projects:
What kind of work are you doing? Know the tasks that are required for the job and how that could affect what kind of lighting you'll need.
How big is your work zone and how will you adequately light it? Decide how much lighting you'll need in relation to the area of your job site Also, determine how much room your job site has for the different kinds of lighting devices.
What lighting system will you use? Determine what kind of lighting devices and systems are adequate to use based on the type of work your doing and the area of the job site.
Where will your lighting be located on the job site? Determine the best locations for your sources of light by considering the area of their light emissions and ease of accessibility.
For Road Work: What kind of automated flagger assistance devices do you need? Although it might not be a necessity depending on your local laws, consider investing in automated flagger assistance devices to keep human flaggers out of risky traffic.
Now that you know what you need for lighting up your job site, make sure to invest in the proper lighting equipment in order to reduce risk and increase productivity.
Invest In Safety
Apart from the safety that your lighting provides, your workers must also have the proper safety gear, equipment, and training for night construction. This of course also depends on the rules and regulations that you have to follow in accordance with your local governing body, but there are some universal night-time construction safety tips that everyone can follow.
Investing in high-visibility gear is essential for safety in night-time construction. This can include essentially anything that's wearable and reflective, like the classic high-visibility safety vest. Other kinds of high-visibility reflective wearables can include reflective pants, high-visibility gloves, and high-visibility gear like backpacks and hard hats.
Just as necessary as high-visibility gear is crew member training. Although official training may not necessarily be required in order for crew members to work at night, developing your own training program, or even finding an agency to educate crew members on night construction safety, is a valuable investment. While this training program should definitely include best practices and educational safety tips while on the job site, it should also include a section about sleeping habits and the prevention risks due to on-site fatigue.
Noise Reduction
While night-time construction may be safer and more convenient for pedestrians than daytime projects, the noise that comes from night construction could overshadow its safety benefits.
Depending on where your night project is taking place, you may be required to reduce noise as much as possible because of your proximity to residential areas. Governing authorities may also require you to reduce noise seeing that they could have night-time construction rules to keep noise below a certain decibel level. If you are required to reduce noise, here are some things you can do.
Installing different kinds of barriers can help prevent noise pollution. These can either be fabricated on-site or can be constructed from commercially available panels. There are some temporary and construction-specific noise barriers that help with this issue, like aluminum barriers, precast absorptive noise walls, and PVC barriers.
Being aware of your job site's biggest noise-makers is another way to prevent them from creating too much noise in the first place. Some frequent noise generators on a night-time construction site are; backhoe rams, grinding machines, backup alarms, cutting machines, and tailgates. Reducing the time spent with these machines and devices can significantly reduce noise on your job site.
Your construction isn't going to be quiet. That just isn't the nature of the job or machinery. However, if you use the right equipment at the right time, you can work with a reduced noise level that is respectful to everyone in the area.
Reduce Dust and Sediments
Just like noise reduction, reducing dust and sediments is a unique problem for night construction. Unlike during the daytime, the dust and sediments that are kicked up into the air on your job site at nighttime are much more visible from the artificial light, causing less visibility for your crew. This actually poses quite a significant problem for almost any kind of job being done at night.
In order to combat this, a proper dust control plan must be put in place on the job site. On that dust control plan, there should be water trucks. Water trucks are vehicles that carry and spray water from their large tanks and are used to dampen the ground on-site. These machines effectively keep dust out of the air by weighing it down, thus preventing it from becoming airborne and making it so that dust doesn't have a major factor on job sites.
Next Steps
Now that you know the advantages and disadvantages of night-time construction and have a fundamental understanding of the challenges and tasks your company needs to tackle in order to start a project at night, it's time to start developing your plan.
Good luck with your next night-time construction project.
