Safety Policies Every Construction Worker Must Observe at Jobsites

Snyder Construction Group is based in Springfield, Missouri, in the heart of the Midwest. We require several safety practices to be in place for every trade partner who works with us.

Emergency Action Plans

OSHA requires that all employers have an emergency action plan, including one for construction sites. For employers with more than 10 employees, that emergency action plan must be written.

Review this policy before every job you begin, and make sure your employees and contractors understand what to do in an emergency.

Accident Prevention

The best way to prevent accidents on a job site is through knowledge. All employees on site must follow any signs posted before entry, such as wearing hard hats. They must also be aware of all moving equipment.

OSHA mandates all equipment, machinery and tools must be safe for use. Heavy equipment must have backup alarms. All electrical cords cannot be frayed or have exposed inner wires.

Confined Spaces

Only workers properly trained and assigned can enter permit-only confined spaces, per OSHA regs. These spaces have limited exit and entry, such as sewers, pits, boilers, and sometimes elevator pits.

Employers need to have a written confined space program. As the general contractor on a project, we will outline when construction workers will need a permit to enter certain confined spaces.

Hearing Conservation

OSHA requires hearing conservation at a minimum when exposure is for 85 decibels for eight hours in a working day. At 115 decibels, hearing conservation efforts must be in place if the duration is for 15 minutes or less to protect the hearing of construction workers.

Hearing conservation devices can include earplugs, noise-reducing headsets/earmuffs, and canal caps.

Examples of loud equipment include:

Masonry drill (100 decibels)
Nail gun
Concrete saw
Jackhammer
Pile driver
Hammer drill (120 decibels)

Fall Protection

Fall protection must be implemented for any open spaces in floors as well as scaffolds, ladders, and cherry-pickers. Workers must have proper fall protection when walking on high spaces, navigating scaffolds, and ascending in movable equipment.

Loads for portable ladders cannot exceed four times their maximum load. Before ascending any scaffolding, workers must be trained by someone with knowledge of how to properly use scaffolds.

Snyder Construction Group, Building Safe Partnerships That Last

These are just some of the instances where safety regulations are paramount on a job site. We’ll review and distribute safety policies ahead of the projects we work on to make sure our team and our trade partners comply with all applicable regulations.