Bad weather can ruin a day’s work at any construction site. You have to deal with delays, postpone plans, and even spend extra money on damaged resources. At the same time, you also need to take care of your construction crew and equipment. These people and machines are vital to your project. Hence, you cannot compromise their safety at any cost.
You cannot ask the crew to evacuate the construction site during such weather. Nor can you drive the equipment or heavy machinery to a safe location. Thus, you need to protect them at the site. And here is how you have to do so.
Planning Ahead
Planning is an important step for any sort of project management. Be it a construction site or a marketing campaign, by planning, you can prepare yourself for different emergencies. Such planning is vital at the construction site if you want to protect your crew and equipment from severe weather conditions.
Preparing for the day or week should begin with a quick look at the weather forecast. Modern weather radars are quite advanced. Hence, you can rest assured that the information you get from these forecasts is accurate.
You can use different apps to get a free weather forecast; it is no big deal. They will provide you with all sorts of temperature, humidity, and rainfall-related data in real-time. Plus, in the event of a storm or any other type of appalling weather condition, they will send you regular alerts. You can then forward these alerts to your crew or trigger warning sirens at the site to make them aware of the situation.
Building a Temporary Shelter
All construction sites should have a temporary resting area for the crew. This area can also be used as a shelter during appalling weather conditions.
Commercial construction sites usually cover a large area. Hence, they require a large crew. The tents or shelters for such sites should be built accordingly. These shelters should be strong enough such that strong winds or heavy rainfall cannot damage them.
There are a lot of options for you to choose from when it comes to construction site tenting. These structures, sometimes, can be as tall as a two-storied building, and as long as a football field. It all depends on your requirements. The shelters can not only house your crew but can also accommodate some of the bigger machinery like cranes, diggers, and trucks.
Although temporary, these shelters are quite rigid. The material used to build these tents are usually strong and weather-resistant. That means that even during heavy rainfall or scorching heat, the environment inside the tents will feel normal.
Inspecting the Heavy Machinery After the Weather Ordeal is Over
Assume that it has rained a lot for the last few hours. Heavy winds were sweeping through the entire construction site. A bit of flooding has taken place as well. There is dirt everywhere around the site. Thankfully, the crew and all your equipment are safe. The crew made it to their shelters on time, and the equipment was covered properly.
So now, once the storm has passed, you and your crew head back to work. However, before you begin working with the equipment and heavy machinery, you should first spend a good amount of time inspecting them. Although you managed to cover everything up, you still need to run these checks, just to be sure.
After a rainstorm, many things can go wrong with the machines.
Firstly, it is possible that water got into the fuel tank of the trucks or diggers. These machines will not even start properly if you do not clear out this mixture.
Secondly, mud and dirt can accumulate inside the engine. The accumulated dirt can even clog up the fuel filter. That in turn will lead to misfires and engine failure. Unless you unclog the filter or replace it, you cannot operate those machines.
Besides these, there are many other types of problems that can arise if you do not check with your machines after the storm. Thus, it is always a good idea to run these inspections before restarting work.
By maintaining all these points, you can keep your crew and equipment safe during poor weather conditions. These are some small investments that you have to make for the safety of your crew and the overall well-being of the project.