7 Nighttime Construction Safety Tips

For many construction sites, especially infrastructure projects involving roads, highways and bridges, crews perform a large portion of the work at night. With the right safety precautions, and less traffic and vehicle emissions, nighttime construction crews are often extremely efficient and productive. For some project sites, nighttime construction helps keep a project on schedule, all while having less of an impact on nearby businesses and residents.

However, the benefits of nighttime construction are only possible if proper safety measures are in place. In this article, we’ll explore the unique challenges of nighttime construction, key tips for keeping workers safe, and lighting solutions to consider for your nighttime construction site.

Unique Safety Challenges of Nighttime Construction

Nighttime construction is sometimes necessary to avoid hot daytime temperatures. With less vehicles on the road, nighttime construction can also help reduce the risk of traffic-related accidents. In addition, scheduling nighttime crews also extends your available working hours to keep your project moving against deadlines. However, nighttime construction also brings unique safety challenges that are not present during daylight hours.

Reduced visibility is the most obvious challenge of nighttime construction. Glare from headlights and harsh shadows created by incorrect or inadequate construction lighting can jeopardize the safety of your team and the public and make it harder for workers to do their jobs. You must ensure your site has adequate and properly positioned lighting to keep your crew safe and productive.

Additionally, unrested crews are more likely to make a mistake or cause injury. There are also more regulations for nighttime construction to help ensure the safety of the team while minimizing the impact on residents who are trying to sleep. Construction managers have to take all of these factors into account when planning a project.

It’s critical for construction site managers to prepare ways to address the challenges of building or road construction at night. Let’s take a look at seven important things you can do to ensure your crew stays safe.

Nighttime construction safety tips

7 Nighttime Construction Safety Tips

When it comes to protecting workers, visibility is vital. The majority of the following safety tips focus on making sure your teams can see everything required to perform their work safely, and that they are visible to the team and others passing by, such as oncoming traffic near a road construction site. Plus, you’ll also learn tips for increasing jobsite safety while adhering to unique regulations and the needs of the night shift.

1. Equip the Project Site with Proper Lighting for Optimal Visibility

First and foremost, every nighttime construction site must have appropriate lighting. Relying on equipment headlights and streetlights is not enough to comply with regulations or to keep your team, equipment and passersby (i.e., oncoming traffic) safe from danger.

Create a lighting plan before work begins. Consider local lighting regulations plus the needs of your project to decide the type of lighting equipment you need. For example, if you’re working along a long stretch of roadway, you’ll likely need lights that you can move with your equipment. If you’re working near a residential area, you’ll need lights that you can angle so they don’t disturb nearby residents.

Learn how to develop a night work lighting plan with this guide from the American Traffic Safety Services Association and the USDOT Federal Highway Administration.

A lighting plan can also help you identify optimal lighting equipment usage. Renting lighting equipment allows more flexibility to get exactly the lighting solutions you need without having to store or maintain equipment you only need for a short time.  

Rent construction lighting from Herc Rentals

2. Ensure All Crew Members Wear PPE for Nighttime Construction

Proper lighting for nighttime construction is key, but glare and shadows can make it hard for workers and passersby to see construction crews if they’re not wearing the right personal protective equipment (PPE) or high-visibility gear. When it comes to nighttime construction, workers should wear brightly colored and reflective gear and clothing. For example, flaggers are required to wear Class 3 safety gear and be reflective. For highest visibility, have your teams wear gear that is a different color than the traffic barrels and barricades (yellow-green instead of orange, for instance).  

3. Reduce Dust to Increase Visibility

Construction lighting can make a site as bright as day, but unlike the sun’s rays, these artificial lights can make dust in the air much more visible. The dust particles reflect the bright lights, making it harder for workers to see past them into the darkness.

Keep dust to a minimum by using equipment with dust collection mechanisms, dust mediation systems, or by renting a water truck to dampen surfaces so there are fewer particles in the air.

4. Reduce Worker Danger with an Automated Flagging System

When a project requires a short-term roadway lane closure, use automated flagger assistance devices (AFADs) and other lighted equipment such as a message board. An AFAD has either stop/slow signs or red and yellow lights with a gate arm. Flaggers can operate the device via remote control, allowing them to caution or stop drivers without being in the road themselves. Keep in mind that at night an AFAD requires the same amount of illumination as a flagger, so be sure the site has adequate lighting.

5. Account for Noise Reduction Requirements for Nighttime Construction

While daytime construction crews benefit from safety signals workers can hear, such as equipment backup alarms, these audible alerts are typically limited on a nighttime construction site. In fact, many towns have regulations for how much noise a construction site is allowed to make, especially at night when nearby residents are trying to sleep. At night, most construction sites are required to keep the noise at a lower decibel level than they’re allowed during the day.

Nighttime construction site managers must account for these requirements when scheduling tasks and equipment usage. In addition to adding lighting, nighttime construction crews must adjust the way they work and communicate with each other to keep everyone safe. For example:

  • Instead of using loud alarms to indicate equipment is backing up, use visual cues, spotters and have workers pause to watch where the equipment is going.
  • Instead of shouting to communicate, use hand signals and walkie-talkies.
  • Instead of idling engines, turn off equipment when not in use or schedule tasks to minimize idling.

6. Help Workers Adjust to Night Shift Hours

Night work is a type of extended or unusual work shift that is always tough on the human body. Our internal clock is telling us we should be asleep, but we need to work. If crews aren’t given enough time to adjust or enough support during the night shift, productivity can suffer, and team members may unintentionally put themselves or other crew members in danger.

To help your team while they’re off the clock, provide information on good sleep habits and make sure each worker has adequate time off before and after stretches of night work to adjust.

While they’re on the job, use a buddy system to make sure team members are always working near someone else so they can help keep each other alert. Allow workers to take required rest breaks and promote a safety culture where all team members know to speak up if they see a potential danger.

7. Follow Local Regulations

Lastly, and importantly, review and follow all national, state and local regulations regarding nighttime construction. These policies are there to help you keep your teams and the public safe and can give you specific details regarding lighting, gear, noise, and traffic patterns.

For more information, be sure to check out these resources:

Lighting Equipment for Nighttime Construction

Construction lighting is one of the most important factors for keeping your work zone safe, but there are many different lighting options available. It’s important to know types and uses of various lighting equipment so you can create the best lighting plan for your project.

Lighting equipment for nighttime construction

Light Towers

Light towers, also known as industrial lighting units, have a central mast with powerful lights at the top, allowing you to illuminate a large area from above. Most are designed to be easily transported between jobs or multiple locations on the same jobsite. They can range from 16 to 100 feet tall or more, use LED or metal halide bulbs, and are powered by battery, solar, or a diesel engine or generator. This variety allows you the flexibility to choose the towers that work best for your site and budget.

Hazardous Location Lighting

If your construction site experiences extreme temperatures and/or contains combustible or corrosive materials, liquids, or vapors, then you will need hazardous location lighting. Hazardous location lighting are fixtures that are designed to be explosion proof and minimize the chance that they will spark a fire. They are designed to keep combustible and corrosive materials out while keeping any sparks or fire caused by the fixture within the fixture itself. They also give off lower temperatures than other lights.

Small Portable Lighting

Since nighttime construction lights give off beams of light instead of diffusing light like the sun, shadows can be a real problem. Adding plenty of small portable lighting options throughout your site eliminates these dark areas. For example, an LED wobble light can be carried around a site or get bumped around without falling over.  

Rent construction lighting from Herc Rentals

Rent Construction Lighting from Herc Rentals

When night falls, Herc Rentals has all the lighting equipment you need to keep your worksites running smoothly and safely. Our dedicated team of experts can help you create a lighting plan to optimize productivity and safety on your night construction project.

Explore Herc Rentals’ lighting solutions now or give us a call at (888) 777-2700 to talk with an expert today.

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