Anqing City, Anhui Province Adjusts Summer Construction Hours

The highest temperature in Anqing City reached 35.6°C, and the ground temperature soared to 60.3°C. In the heat, I visited the construction site of a key project in Anqing City and found that the project was progressing as scheduled under the workers' dripping sweat.

I went to the Phase II construction project of Zheshan Road, which runs from Qinglan Road to Qintan Road, with a total length of 3907.723 meters, including roads, drainage, bridges and culverts, pipeline integration, traffic facilities, landscaping, streetlights, and other ancillary facilities. Currently, the soft foundation treatment of the road has been completed, and structural layer construction has begun.

Zhao Enping, a 50-year-old site manager from Hefei, came to this site last October. Zhao told me that the site has adjusted working hours: 6:30 to 10:30 in the morning and 3:30 to 7:30 in the afternoon, mainly to avoid the heat. 'Pile driving continues in the evening, mainly mechanized operations,' said Chen Liu, the safety production manager. In addition, the site is equipped with heatstroke prevention medicines and foods such as mung bean soup and watermelon, and safety training for high-temperature operations has been conducted.

Compared with managers and mechanical technicians, the laborers work the hardest, with lower wages and poorer benefits. Lao Hu and Xiao Guo are two laborers carrying steel bars under the scorching sun, their wet clothes wringing with sweat. Both just came from Lu'an; Lao Hu is 67, Xiao Guo 24. Regarding working hours and pay, they told me, 'We get 100 yuan a day, paid at the end of the project; we work two shifts, from 12 noon to 12 midnight, every day. We can rest on rainy days, but we don't want rain because we'd earn less.' Xiao Guo sawed through bundles of steel bars as he spoke, and Lao Hu shouldered the bars, saying, 'No more talking, we need to take these to the piling area over there.' After walking a distance, Xiao Guo helped Lao Hu unload the bars, and they carried them away together.

At the site, many machines were operating: excavators were raising cofferdams, pile drivers were working, and dump trucks were transporting spoil back and forth. Yao Xinfang, the deputy production manager of the project, told me, 'Currently, there are 4 excavators, 6 pile drivers, 2 road rollers, 2 bulldozers, and 11 dump trucks on the work face, mainly mechanized.'

One area of the site is the project department, with two rows of prefabricated houses and a row of container-style buildings on the bare ground, used as offices and dormitories, exposed to direct sunlight where workers and managers live and work. The office air conditioner was set to 23°C, finally bringing a cool breeze. Next to the office is Zhao Enping's dormitory, with two bunk beds; he sleeps in one, and the others are piled with miscellaneous items; it has an air conditioner. Opposite, the dormitories house two people each, with two floor fans but no air conditioning.

Construction Workers in Jiaxing City, Zhejiang Province, Work at Both Ends and Rest in the Middle

In the hot summer, safety production at construction sites is particularly urgent. To do a good job in heatstroke prevention and cooling at construction sites during high temperatures, I learned from the Xiangjiadang Management Committee of Jiaxing City, Zhejiang Province, that construction units at all sites in the Xiangjiadang area have taken corresponding measures to prevent various safety accidents. Yesterday morning, I walked into the construction site of the first bid section of Xiangnan Apartment and saw workers painting interior walls. It is understood that Xiangnan Apartment has a total construction area of 600,000 square meters and started construction in September 2011. Currently, the main project has been completed, and outdoor ancillary projects will start soon, with delivery conditions expected by October this year. 'As the project enters its final stage, we must tighten the "safety string" to ensure smooth completion,' said the person in charge of the Xiangnan Apartment project. 'To cope with high temperatures, we have adjusted working hours, adopting the "work at both ends, rest in the middle" approach. Now we finish at 11 a.m. and start around 1:30 p.m.; if the temperature rises further, we will delay. Workers have over two hours of rest at noon to avoid fatigue.' In addition, the site has set up shaded rest areas and a tea room.

The project manager said, 'Workers come here to drink water before starting work. Besides drinking water, we have a medical kit; workers can help themselves to medicines.' I saw in the site's medical kit a rich variety and sufficient quantity of heatstroke prevention medicines, including Huoxiang Zhengqi water and Banlangen granules.

I learned that the Xiangjiadang Management Committee will soon issue a notice on 'Doing a Good Job in Safety Production at Construction Sites During the Summer High-Temperature Season' to protect the personal safety and health of frontline workers and prevent construction safety accidents caused by high temperatures. 'The notice requires that, during the high-temperature season, construction units reasonably arrange work and rest times, try to avoid working during high-temperature periods, prevent safety accidents caused by fatigue and overwork, and increase the distribution of heatstroke prevention and cooling supplies.'

A person in charge of the Xiangjiadang Management Committee told me that construction units should consistently do a good job in sanitation and epidemic prevention at construction sites, strengthen hygiene management of drinking water and food safety, strictly implement food hygiene systems, and avoid poisoning incidents caused by spoiled food.

Construction Sites in Songjiang District, Shanghai, Stagger High Temperatures to Prevent Heatstroke

Consecutive hot days in Shanghai have greatly affected outdoor workers. At some key project construction sites in Songjiang District, the construction party prepared early and promptly provided various heatstroke prevention and cooling measures for on-site workers.

I learned from the Second Project Management Department of Shanghai Urban Construction Municipal that the underground parking garage project of the Sports Center, undertaken by the department, completed the structural topping-out of Zone I before the arrival of high temperatures, creating a cooler construction environment for secondary structural construction. Every day before workers start, on-site managers check their physical condition to prevent heatstroke. Meanwhile, on-site working hours have been changed to 'work at both ends, rest in the middle,' i.e., no work from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Food safety issues are prone in summer; canteen staff have strengthened quality control of food procurement and separate raw and cooked food during processing to prevent food poisoning.

At the construction site of the Sijing South Expansion Large Residential Community Project in Songjiang, four drinking water supply points are scattered on site, each with two large buckets of cool boiled water. Additionally, to control dust and cool the site, workers sprinkle water every two hours. The Sijing Affordable Housing Project is currently constructing the 18th floor structural topping-out; concrete pouring on the roof requires continuous work. To prevent heatstroke during operations, the project department has distributed labor protection supplies such as Rendan and cooling oil to each worker. The project manager requires workers to carry labor protection supplies at all times; if they feel unwell, they should immediately rest in a shaded area and notify on-site managers, and seek medical treatment if necessary.

High-Temperature Construction Training at Construction Sites in Shehong County, Suining City, Sichuan Province

On June 29, Jinjia Town, Shehong County, Suining City, Sichuan Province, organized relevant functional departments to conduct a special inspection of 8 construction sites in the jurisdiction.

During the inspection, comprehensive hidden danger investigations were carried out based on the characteristics of summer construction and inspection priorities, and targeted preventive measures were taken for potential problems. All sites are required to further improve the safety production responsibility system. Full-time safety officers and management personnel should be appointed as required; an emergency rescue plan system should be established to respond to and handle problems promptly; a safety production training and education system should be established, actively carrying out entry education, pre-shift talks, safety technical disclosures, and other educational activities; a high-temperature season construction plan should be formulated to avoid high temperatures, and work should be stopped promptly when temperatures are too high; inspections of tower crane foundations, screws, wire ropes, and other mechanical parts, as well as scaffolding,扫地杆 (sweeping poles), and diagonal bracing foundation connection points, should be intensified; electricity use should be strictly checked according to the three-phase five-wire system; and a system for special operation personnel to work with certificates should be established and improved, with project managers, safety officers, and special operation personnel all working with certificates.