Housekeeping in road construction

Abstract

This long essay aim at analysing good and bad housekeeping. To gather this information, questionnaires were sent to various contractors both to road contractors and trench contractors. To complement this analysis a direct observation study was carried out on both large and small sites. The results show that the majority of the contractors have a health and safety officer but do not have a health and safety representative. Enough funds are not available in the contract to cover health and safety. All contractors consider where to store materials on site. They regularly collect rubbish and debris from site and place barriers/signs on the construction site. There is lack of sanitary facilities on sites. Not all workers are aware of the dangers that oil spills can cause. More than half of the interviewed contractors had at one time or another accidents or near- misses related to bad housekeeping. The majority of the contractors claim that they give high priority to good housekeeping. The findings show that the contractors are not so much in favour of health and safety, due to the fact that it slows down the projects. But in fact the findings show that they are implementing certain issues of good housekeeping. Bad housekeeping comes up from lack of awareness and indifference that certain workers have regarding danger that an unorganised and unplanned site might have.