OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY & HEALTH

ALERT
Issued By: QHSE ‐ ALDAR Projects Date of Issue: 13/04/2023
Ref. No: OSHA/03/13/04/2023 Expiry Date: Until Further Notice
For Enquiries on this Alert Please Contact your OSH Department. Target ‘Zero’ Incident
Road Works and Asphalt Activity

Unsafe Practice – Lack of demarcation and

Appropriate demarcation shall be provided
operatives too close to the manoeuvring
during road works and asphalting along with
plant and equipment
competent banksman

Description
Road works and asphalt activity in the construction is considered as one of the high‐risk activity and evidently the task involves several stages such as but mot limited to,
surface preparation, subgrade, geo textile, asphalt spraying, base and wearing course, binder course and final course. During each stage of the process numerous significant
hazards and risks are involved which may lead to serious or fatal incident. The following are few of the significant hazard areas but not limited to: Plant and Equipment
Interface resulting in pedestrians struck‐by hazard; Hazards from overhead and underground services due to presence of existing utilities; Serious Health hazards ‐ Exposure
to Hazardous and carcinogenic substance/chemicals such as bitumen, tar, mineral oils, etc., Burns and Fire hazard from hot roller asphalt; Incident involving Member of the
Public such as road users while working beside live roads; Falling hazards especially from moving plant or equipment; Noise hazard from plant and equipment; Hazards from
Dust, Fumes and Smoke which may result in silicosis, dermatitis, burns, lung scarring, cancer, etc.
Therefore, taking into consideration the serious inherent nature of the activity and the potential hazards and risks involved, it is imperative to exercise due diligence by the
involved parties that appropriate strategic planning along with ‘Safe System of Work’ based in the ‘Hierarchy of Safety Controls’ are implemented to prevent or mitigate any
serious incident during road work preparation and asphalt activity.
Proactive Safety Control Measures to be Established and Implemented to Prevent Incident Includes (but not limited to):
 Task Specific Method Statement and Risk Assessment (MSRA) shall be developed, communicated to all the involved workforce, implemented accordingly together with
close level of supervision and monitoring throughout the entire duration of the activity.
 Obtaining the required NOC’s and permits from the relevant authorities for carrying out road works and related activities alongside the live roads. Road diversion shall be
carried out considering the provision of suitable hard or soft barricade and sufficient signage in accordance with the approved permit.
 Traffic Management control plans shall be developed for all works, which shall include the travelled routes by plant and equipment during the road work and asphalt
activities.
 Plant and equipment used for road works shall be in good working condition with all the authority documents and required inspections such as pre‐mobilization, ongoing
periodic inspection regime, periodic maintenance, etc. to ensure the safe use of the equipment. Moreover, ensure the competency of the drivers, operators of the various
equipment’s used during road work and asphalt activity and the presence of competent banksman at secure place for guiding the safe manoeuvring or reversing operation.
Speed limits for the work area shall be posted and adhered.
 Permit to work “PTW” system shall be implemented prior commencing asphalting activity with all the necessary checks to verify and confirm that the safety control
measures are effectively provided.
 Prior carrying out any earth removal or levelling works ensure that the underground utility services are identified and protected accordingly to prevent any untoward
incident. Furthermore, utmost care and safety control measures shall be implemented in case of presence of any overhead services, such as high voltage electrical lines.
 Apparently, there is high likelihood of man‐machine interface during the road preparation and asphalting activity therefore utmost attention and safety controls shall be
planned and implemented which must include demarcated exclusion zone and multilingual hazard warning signage to avoid incident involving pedestrian being struck‐by
plant and equipment.
 Establish appropriate safety control measures for bituminous materials supplied and used such as hot rolled asphalt, bitumen or tar boilers. Operatives involved in the task
shall wear suitable task specific PPE’s (impermeable body protection, etc.) to prevent the risk from hot bituminous materials.
 Determine suitable and sufficient control measures (such as for example, minimizing the operatives time of exposure, regular health surveillance and screening program,
etc.) where the operatives are exposed to tar or mineral oils, since over a long period of time may develop skin cancer.
 Establishing appropriate work zone safety controls for carrying out works on live road, such as five specific longitudinal areas, Advance Warning area, Transition area,
Stabilisation area, Work area and Exit & Termination area.
 Provision of appropriate welfare facilities, temporary rest shelters, toilets, drinking water, hand washing facility to wash‐off bituminous materials, cements or oils from skin
especially prior to eating or using toilet facilitates.
 Competent level of full‐time supervision is essential along with diligent monitoring to ensure that the activity is being carried out in accordance with the approved safe
system of work.
 Regular awareness training through safety toolbox talk, daily pre‐task briefing, etc. shall be imparted to all the operatives involved in the road works and asphalting activity
thereby keeping them acquainted of the potential hazards, risks and control measure that must be adhered. Reiterating to all involved personnel on situational awareness
during road works and asphalting activity so as to always position themselves in a safe distance from “Dangerous or blind zone”.
 Fire risk associated with diesel fuel and LPG shall be assessed and controlled suitably to avoid any serious incident. Fuels shall be stored safely and ‘No smoking policy’ shall
be enforced where fuels are used such as petrol, diesel and LPG during the road work and asphalting.
 Fire extinguishers and first aid arrangements shall be provided at convenient locations throughout the roadworks and asphalting operation and with all the plant and
equipment.
 Appropriate task specific PPE’s shall be worn by the operatives such as but limited to, Eye protection, Hearing protection, Respiratory protection, Hand protection, etc. in
order to avoid or mitigate the risk from noise, flying object, dust, fumes, smoke, etc. Foot protection used must be with steel toecaps and with stout heat resisting soles.
For further information, please refer to OSHAD SF CoP 1.0 Hazardous Materials; CoP 2.0 PPE; CoP 22.0 Barricading of Hazard;, OSHAD SF CoP 21.0 Permit to Work systems; CoP 33.0
Concrete Placing Equipment; CoP 36.0 Plant and Equipment; CoP 44.0 Traffic Management and Logistics. https://www.adphc.gov.ae/Legislation/Code‐of‐Practices; Temporary Traffic
Work zone Management Manual ‐ Abu Dhabi.
Issue Details: The information in this document shall be disseminated to all relevant key personnel within your project/entities in order to be read / understood, then shall be
communicated to all the personnel under their control and supervision for understanding and implementation. Failure to comply with this requirement may result in non‐conformance
during OSH Audit & Inspection.
Distribution: All PMC’s, Consultants’, and Principal Contractor’s. CC: ALDAR Projects

ALDAR OSH‐ MS Rev 07 / 05‐01‐2023 1 of 1 Appendix 6