Reducing Lost-Time Incidents on Live Utility Sites
Lost-time incidents on utility sites cluster around the same root causes: tired operatives, weak supervision, normalised deviation from RAMS, and excavation work that drifts from the dig permit. None of these are mysterious. All of them are fixable.
Written for SHEQ leads, site managers and operations directors who carry the LTI number into their board pack.
Supervision ratio is the single biggest lever
An NCO Supervisor running six crews across three towns is not supervising, they are firefighting. The contractors with the lowest LTI rates carry higher supervision ratios than the industry average. It costs more per shift. It costs less per year.
Fatigue management is not a poster on the welfare cabin
Excessive consecutive shifts, long commutes and back-to-back call-outs predict LTIs better than almost any other variable. Rota for recovery, not just for coverage.
Behavioural safety with teeth
Behavioural safety programmes work when they are owned by operatives, not imposed on them. Stop-work authority, no-blame near-miss reporting and visible leadership response to issues are the three things that turn a programme from a poster campaign into a culture.
Dig permits and CAT scanning, every time
Cable strikes and gas hits cluster in the moments where the team 'just nicked the corner' without re-CATing. The fix is procedural discipline reinforced by supervision, not a new piece of kit. On programmes where overhead and buried utilities sit close to the works, contractors also deploy physical pole and asset protection systems as a second line of defence behind procedure.
Supervision ratio benchmarked and reported monthly
Rota rules cap consecutive shifts and long commutes
Stop-work authority understood and exercised without penalty
Near-miss reporting rate trending up, not down
CAT scanning logged for every excavation, every time
JJU Construction, UK utilities and construction contractor. Call +44 7711 916470 or email joe.lynch@jjuconstruction.co.uk.