This past weekend, I had a meeting in Baltimore for the state Recovery Friendly Workplace initiative DCA has been assisting with over the past six months. The drive provided me lots of opportunities to see infrastructure investments being put to work on large projects. When driving past these projects, I think of the workers who are out there getting that work done and how we can utilize best practices and technology to keep them safe in construction work zones.

It may be almost a decade now since legislation was passed to place speed enforcement cameras in school zones. With DelDOT’s leadership and support from DCA, this initiative was brought to highway construction work zones first through a pilot project and then into Delaware law. On a recent regional Associated General Contractors of America virtual meeting, I learned how far out ahead of other states Delaware was in getting this law in place. In both Delaware and Maryland, I was pleased to see signs announcing the speed enforcement cameras in the construction work zones and the consequences of violating the law. Not all, but many drivers did appear to slow down. As tickets are increasingly issued, I think some positive driver behavior modification will begin to take place.

With this past Monday setting the highest temperature record in global history, heat exposure is a serious health risk for our workforce in particular. Around this time last year, OSHA issued the first heat national emphasis program addressing outdoor and indoor heat-related hazards. They also released a heat safety app that works with both Android and iPhone allowing workers and supervisors to calculate the heat index for their worksite while displaying the heat risk level. It also provides reminders about the protective measures to be observed on high heat risk days. The app is available in both English and Spanish.

This is the industry’s busiest time of the year resulting in the highest exposure risk to our workforce. Through the utilization of mechanisms (signs and fines) that slow drivers through work zones to heat safety apps, we are modernizing our industry’s protections of the people who are out there every day building a better Delaware.