Health And Safety – Working On Construction Sites With Limited Space

construction site supervisor

Construction sites can be dangerous places to work, but working on a site with limited space only increases health and safety risks. Places such as urban building sites, roadworks, and mines are common examples of this. When working on these types of construction sites, it’s important to take extra precautions for the safety of all workers.

PLAN OF ACTION

The first step to working safely on a construction site with limited space is to put together a plan. This should include a detailed layout of the site. As well as a list of all the equipment and machinery that will be used. Building this plan is also a good opportunity to identify potential health and safety risks within the space, such as tight corners or low ceilings. Then you’ll be able to develop a plan to avoid these hazards.

PROPER TRAINING FOR YOUR WORKERS

When it comes to working on any kind of construction site, it’s important to ensure all of your workers are properly trained. This becomes especially important when working on sites with space constraints. They’ll need to know how to properly operate any equipment that will be used on the site, and should be familiar with all safety procedures being put in place. 

At the Diggerland Plant Training School, we offer a range of NPORS accredited courses that will help you and your team work more safely on a site with limited space.

SAFETY AWARENESS

A great place to start is with a safety awareness course. The aim of this course is to highlight potential hazards when working on site. It will provide you with practical advice on keeping yourself and your team safe, as well as covering what your individual and employers responsibilities are. Our Safety Awareness course is one day in length and your certificate will be valid for five years.

PLANT MACHINERY MARSHAL

Another of our plant training courses that would be helpful for this type of work, is the Plant Machinery Marshal course. This course gives individuals the knowledge needed to be able to guide machinery through confined spaces and blind areas efficiently. As well as being able to conduct safety checks in the working area, such as stop blocks and tipping areas. 

APPOINTED PERSON

Taking an Appointed Person training course will be beneficial if you’re working on a constrained site for something like urban building construction. The NPORS Appointed Person course at the Diggerland Plant Training School is for those with the responsibility for lifting operations and will enable those to gain a better understanding of how to better plan for lifting procedures.

Diggerland Plant Training School course

PLANT MACHINERY FOR SITES WITH LIMITED SPACE

Deciding what plant machinery to take with you onto a site with limited space can be a real challenge. You’ll need to be strict with what you use and try to identify machines that can perform multiple functions to help maximise productivity. Machines such as excavators, telehandlers and backhoe loaders can be great choices. All of these machines can carry out multiple jobs with the help of different attachments and are generally small but powerful enough to work effectively on constrained sites. 

If you’re looking for some great examples of these machines, check out BuyADigger. They specialise in the sales of used plant machinery and currently stock Komatsu excavators, Manitou telehandlers and JCB backhoe loaders.

HEALTH AND SAFETY COURSES AT DIGGERLAND PLANT TRAINING SCHOOL

As well as the courses mentioned above, the Diggerland Plant Training school also offers a variety of other health and safety training courses. These include: first aid, harness and fall arrest, working at height, and plant loader securer. 

We also offer a large selection of courses for plant machinery operation, including excavator, telehandler and dumper courses. So no matter what type of construction site you work on, we’ve got a course to cover you. 

You can view our full list of plant training courses here.

Our main training site is in Kent, with more locations in Devon, Durham and Yorkshire. We’re also happy to carry out training on a site of your choice if required. Give us a call on: 01634 295355 or email: mail@digger.school to discuss our courses.