Night construction has increased dramatically over the last few years, especially in highway construction. However, it poses unique risks for construction since night-time illumination has not been effectively deployed resulting in decreased visibility for workers and motorists. Also more motorists are likely to be fatigued or driving under the influence of drugs and alcohol, increasing their propensity to accidents. According to national statistics, about 60% of all work zone fatalities occur at night. Our long-term goal is to evaluate safety issues in nighttime construction as a necessary prerequisite to the development of strategies to improve safety, quality and productivity of nighttime construction operations on highways and in other sectors of construction. This 5-year research study will comprise of 3 major components: (1) Exploratory component-Years 1 and 2; (2) Intervention/prevention component-Years 3 and 4 and (3) Translation component-Year 5.
The specific aims of the study are four-fold: 1. Review current production and safety practices contractors during nighttime construction and maintenance in order to examine issues related to safety, efficiency and quality construction during nighttime operations (Year 1). 2. Collect and analyze lighting and construction production and safety data from construction sites where nighttime operations have been prevalent (Year 1 and 2). 3. Develop models for improved lighting and other strategies on such sites, and explore opportunities for implementing them on ongoing and future construction projects and run pilot studies testing the models for validating possible relationships between improving such strategies and construction safety (Years 3 and 4). 4. Translating results from the research environment into the construction industry, based on the outcomes of the models developed and pilot studies (Year 5). Our partners in this research project include the Indiana Department of Transportation, Walsh Construction and Rieth Riley Construction-heavily involved in night-time construction on highways, and F.A. Wilhelm Construction-involved in nighttime operations on commercial, institutional and industrial projects.
