Thursday March 1st, 2018
The days have been getting longer over the last few weeks in France, but temperatures remain stubbornly low. In these conditions, working outside can be difficult. The cold creates health and safety risks at construction sites. Now, more than ever, prevention and vigilance are essential.
Temperatures have plunged overnight. At the Tour Alto construction site in the La Défense district on the edge of Paris, Fabrice Jouan, the logistics and general services manager from Construction Privée (Bouygues Bâtiment Ile-de-France) makes sure that it is safe for site workers to move about and access their stations before anyone begins working. “Any risk of an employee slipping or falling needs to be addressed,” he explained while checking that lighting levels were sufficient.
Organising sites so that site workers can take breaks out of the cold, making sure that there is plenty of warm food and drink available, trying to reorganise the work so that as much of it as possible takes place indoors… These are some of the steps that construction sites take to limit cold exposure, which can cause fatigue, numbness, loss of dexterity, or even hypothermia. All of our entities regularly issue information flashes about extreme cold, and the Health, Safety, and Risk Prevention department publishes and distributes risk prevention sheets about working in such conditions.
We’re also adapting in terms of the personal protective equipment we use: Distrimo provides clothing that is adapted to extreme cold: insulating glove liners, hoods and hats that can be worn with a helmet, wool mufflers that don’t retain dampness, slippers, soles, and more, enough to cover up from head to toe to the tips of your fingers so that your extremities, which allow heat to escape, are kept warm.
Lastly, a special warm-up exercises are used during the winter, when it takes longer for the body to heat up: these exercises involve activating the joints and muscles, unlike classic warm-ups, which have three different phases. Maude Demenois, Bouygues Construction Ergonomics Manager, specifies that, “We’ve focused these warm-up exercises on activating all of the joints and muscles, ensuring that site workers are in the most dynamic phase of their warm-up when they start working.”
Tour Alto (la Défense) buried under the snow. ©Véronique Mati
When temperatures fell to -5°C, this glacial cold makes machines and tools more fragile, and makes it impossible to pour concrete without affecting its quality and resilience, ultimately risking the strength of the final construction.
If snow begins to fall, blurring edges and hiding black ice, it makes the situation even more dangerous. Fabrice Jouan, logistics and general services manager, stated categorically that, “As soon as conditions become unsafe, we stop work on the construction site automatically”.
No matter what limitations we face and how we adapt, employee safety remains our priority. Safety first!
Tour Alto (la Défense) buried under the snow. ©Véronique Mati
Philippe Bonnave, Bouygues Construction CEO, signed an operational reserve policy support agreement on 10th November, alongside Florence Parly, Armed Forces Minister. This agreement will allow reservist employees to be more responsible and committed than ever.
8 March is International Women’s Day. A day to denounce inequalities. A day for society to move forward and modernise. On this occasion, Bouygues Construction is launching a recruitment campaign geared towards women, for more gender equality in the Group.
The “Maison des femmes”, or “women’s home”, inaugurated in Saint-Denis at the beginning of July 2016 after a year of construction works, is finally ready to welcome and care for female victims of violence and mutilation. Here is a look back on this project led by a committed woman, the Doctor Ghada Hatem, and supported […]
The days have been getting longer over the last few weeks in France, but temperatures remain stubbornly low. In these conditions, working outside can be difficult. The cold creates health and safety risks at construction sites. Now, more than ever, prevention and vigilance are essential.
Disability employment week will take place between the 14 and 20 November. During this time, we will be looking to reaffirming our commitments in relation to disability, and highlighting some of the actions carried out. Our subsidiary, Bouygues Energies & Services, the first company in its sector to have signed a disability agreement, is committed […]
As Bouygues Construction's corporate foundation, Terre Plurielle provides financial support to projects sponsored by employees who are actively involved in the areas of education, employment and healthcare Since it was first established in 2008, in excess of 200 projects have received support, sponsored by almost 250 employees.
Bouygues Construction’s top priority is the health and safety of the teams who work on its construction sites. 13 June 2017 marks the launch of a global awareness campaign intended to reinforce the Bouygues Construction Health and Safety policy and achieve “zero accidents”.
Bouygues Construction and Centrale Lille formed Chaire Construction 4.0 in 2017. Its aim was to support the digitisation and industrialisation of the sector. Thomas Danel, a PhD student in this field, has been working on a prototype for a remote-controlled crane. He talked to us about his project.
Since 2006, Bouygues Energies & Services has raised the awareness of over 900 managers and employees and carried out over 400 actions to help people with disabilities stay employed. In France, the staff currently counts 343 people with disabilities.
0 CommentYour comment has been sent, thank you! It will appear after validation by the webmaster.