With the glorious weather gracing Richmond and the rest of the Lower Mainland recently, you have to admit that at some time you've thought about how wonderful it would be to work outdoors during the lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer.
Soak up some rays. Get a tan. Feel revitalized. While it does have its pluses, if your year-round office is the great outdoors, during the summer months you have to be prepared to be sure the heat doesn't beat you.
For City of Richmond workers like Simon Barwin, who has been part of a road paving crew for five years, dealing with the heat means being ready to meet the challenge when the mercury rises.
"Proper hydration and eating well, bringing the right type of clothing," he said are key. "You know you're up against things the next day, so there are no surprises."
Making Barwin's - and his fellow paving crew members' - job extra taxing in the heat is working with scalding asphalt which comes off the dumper truck at around 180 degrees Fahrenheit. "You've got that radiating off the ground and heat up above you, so it can get pretty hot, especially in the dead of summer," he said.
To make sure outdoor city workers are able to withstand their job site conditions, they are given instruction on proper hydration.
"Safety is priority one for us, trying to mitigate heat exhaustion," said Ben Dias, the city's manager of roads and construction. "We provide education on how to identify when somebody maybe showing symptoms of dehydration or heat exhaustion. And it's expected that our staff will adjust their breaks when working in really hot conditions by increasing their frequency or duration."
To assist the workers, the city provides hats with wide brims that offer some shade. In addition, sunscreen, water filing stations, and a supply of water bottles in the works yard are also available, so crews can head out to the work site wellstocked with fluids and protection from the sun. "We also do regular safety talks, and this would be one of them, along with other workplace hazards," Dias said.
Endurance test
For a pair of road flaggers marshalling the traffic flow in one area of the City Centre, they prepare for the rigours of their steamy work environment like athletes getting ready for an endurance event. Tiffany Goguen and Emily Pernu, who work along the bustling Minoru Blvd. corridor outside the Kiwanis Seniors Centre rising across from Richmond Centre, said they try and concentrate on carb-loading and rehydrating the night before their next shift.
And considering they can work, with limited breaks, between nine and 14 hours, five to six days a week, that's essential to battling the conditions.
"You have to drink a lot of fluids the day before work. It can take a lot of time to get that water adequately into your body," said Goguen who has been in the flagging business for the past two years and knows the toll it can take.
"Every day, we are absolutely physically drained working those long days in the heat," Goguen said. "We've been wetting cold compresses and keeping our bodies cool that way," added Pernu.
"Those are crucial," Goguen said. "Plus, you have to keep yourself as much in shade as possible. But it's hard when the buildings around you don't block the sun and have others that radiate the heat. So, when you're standing on the asphalt, you can be in very hot territory."
"It's more difficult when you are on the open road for hours on end, then it's not so much the temperature, but the amount of time you are exposed to the sun," Pernu said.
In addition to a ready supply of water on site, the two make sure to pack foods chock full of water which includes watermelon and celery.
But with that kind of diet, long shifts with few breaks, and extended exposure to the sun, the result can have a dramatic effect when you step on the scales.
"When you have worked a 12-hour day in the heat, constantly sweating, when you get home you don't want to eat," said Pernu, who claimed she's dropped 40 pounds just in the last month as the summer heat wave rolled in. "You just want to drink a lot of water and go to bed. It's pretty unhealthy. But we're out here in the sun, always moving, not eating much."
"The exposure to the sun, it makes your appetite dwindle," Goguen added.
But it's not just the temperature on the thermometer the flaggers have to endure during the summer. They also have to handle the road rage from drivers - some of it accentuated by the frustration of driving through constructioncongested city streets in the heat.
"We try to accommodate everybody and make sure people are safe and sound," Goguen said. "We understand everyone's frustrations. They have appointments they want to get to, or screaming kids in the backseat because they're feeling the heat. We understand that and try to use our best discretion to please all the cyclists, motorists and pedestrians as well."
