Managing concerns in rapid renewal highway construction projects

H CONSTRUCTION WORK can be demanding and exhausting. It requires intense focus and physical exertion, the use of heavy mobile equipment and repetitive work tasks, and it is performed adjacent to traffic (NIOSH, 2001). These factors all contribute to the relatively high injury rate in the construction sector (BLS, 2007). Traditionally, roadway construction has been performed during normal, daytime work hours. However, as America’s highway infrastructure continues to degrade and congestion becomes an increasing concern, roadways must be renewed quickly. As a result, rapid renewal strategies such as nighttime work, continuous work, extended shifts and modularization are employed to compress schedules and minimize traffic disruption (Transportation Research Board, 2009). While these strategies enhance overall schedule performance, the associated conditions contribute to worker fatigue, which compounds the safety risk factors inherent to highway construction. Rapid renewal projects are especially susceptible to two types of fatigue: cognitive fatigue and localized muscular fatigue. Cognitive fatigue is the lassitude of thought and decision processes, while localized muscular fatigue is the reduction in peak tension of a specific muscle group due to prolonged or excessive use. Researchers have found that conditions in work environments similar to rapid renewal projects contribute to both types of fatigue because construction laborers perform repetitive tasks for extended work shifts and must continuously communicate with the other crew members while performing complex, dynamic and fast-paced work (Sauer, Wastell, Hockey, et al., 2002; Matthews & Desmond, 1998). However, few available references promote effective fatigue management on con-