Winter Parking Lot Safety Tips

Winter season brings the holiday cheer as well as poor weather, which makes parking lots more dangerous than any other time of the year. The poor weather increases the number of accidents happening in parking lots. Failure to undertake proper preventive maintenance can make your parking lot turn into a crisis for your business during the season. Therefore, you have the responsibility of enhancing parking lot safety within your premises.

Here are three parking lot safety tips for implementing this winter and protecting your employees and visitors from parking lot slip and fall hazards.

1. Clear Your Parking Lot and Sidewalks

Keeping your parking lot and sidewalks free of all forms of obstacles is crucial in ensuring parking lot safety. During autumn and winter months, the ground is covered with various obstructions including:

• Wet leaves
• Fallen twigs and branches
• An excessive amount of rainwater

Having someone in charge of clearing the parking lot and sidewalks minimizes the instances of injuries, hence eliminating the risk of facing personal injury lawsuits. When clearing, the person responsible should check to see if your asphalt paving is too smooth and have texture added with sand or grit to eliminate the slipperiness. A rough parking lot and traffic route within your premises provide good grip hence minimal accidents. Your parking lot should also be free of grease, oil, rubbish, and any other debris.

2. Performing an Annual Risk Assessment

As part of your annual pavement repair in Tampa, you need to consider the safety of your parking lot and especially during the winter months. Take account of any additional risks posed to the safety of your parking lot during the adverse months and act accordingly to minimize them. During the risk assessment procedure, make sure you perform the following practices on your asphalt paving to enhance parking lot safety:

• Checking cracks, uneven surfaces, and potholes on your parking lot and repairing them to minimize trip and fall hazards.
• Ensuring you perform parking lot striping to ensure that parking spaces and direction signs are apparent even in harsh weather conditions. The stripping should be highly visible and slip-resistant to identify parking slots, handicapped spaces, pedestrian crosswalks, and emergency vehicle lanes.
• Providing adequate lighting and visibility by performing light bulb inspection and replacing faulty ones can help enhance parking lot safety during winter. Focus more on lighting systems behind buildings and near the entrances. Recycling receptacles and dumpsters should be well lit and as close to the building as possible.

3. Damage Inspection and Repair

Just before the cold season sets in, perform a thorough damage inspection on your parking lot to determine that it’s in good condition. During the exercise, you should confirm that:

• The parking lot entrance signage is well lit and visible to entering cars
• Entry is free of debris and obstruction
• Gates are operating smoothly when approached for entry
• Parking lot markings are clearly visible to both pedestrians and vehicular users
• There’re no cracks or potholes on your parking lot

If any of the above features are not up to par, call a Tampa parking lot maintenance team to do the necessary repairs. Depending on the nature of your parking lot, the maintenance team may decide to do:

• Crack filling- repairing cracks prevents water from sipping through and damaging the foundation of your asphalt paving. If ignored, small cracks enlarge and become parking lot potholes which are more expensive and complicated to repair.
• Sealcoating- this is a preventive maintenance plan which involves applying a thin coat of asphalt cement to protect your parking lot from extreme weather conditions, salt, water, and oils.
• Parking lot stripping- this involves putting traffic markings to ensure smooth traffic flow in your parking lot.

Enhance Your Parking Lot Safety by Working with Professional Contractors

At ACPLM, we take parking lot safety and pavement repair in Tampa very seriously. Feel free to contact us if you’re looking for asphalt repair, sealcoating, ADA ramp installation in Tampa, or Tampa parking lot maintenance services.