• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Jobsite

  • Business
  • Real Estate
  • Safety
  • Technology
  • World
    • Australia
    • Canada
    • United States
  • More
    • Cover Stories
    • Slideshows
    • Weekly Grind

Smart Sensors Can Detect Hazards You Can’t

August 8, 2017 by Lauren Contreras

The scorching heat was unusual for the month of June. Near triple-digit temperatures enveloped the town of Chesterfield, Missouri for several weeks. Iron worker Thomas “Tommy” Barnes, Jr., 55, was doing some work inside a lift and was headed down to go outside for some fresh air when he collapsed. Unfortunately, he passed a short time after. The next day, at nearby St. Louis, the heat was also blamed for taking the life of sheet metal worker, Dale Heitman, Jr., 49.

“With these new buildings, once they close them in, with the guys working in there, it’s like working in a big oven,” David Zimmerman, president and business manager of Sheet Metal Workers Local 36, told the St. Louis-Southern Illinois Labor Tribune.

Unfortunately, workers dying due to extreme heat conditions is not uncommon. According to OSHA, in 2014, heat-related illnesses sickened more than 2,600 workers and excessive temperatures were the cause of death for 18 workers that year. OSHA reports that since 2003, heat has killed an average of more than 30 workers each year.

What You Can’t See Can Still Hurt You

But excessive heat is not the only unforeseen hazard threatening the health and safety of workers. There are other potential dangers that if not caught in time or managed adequately, can pose a safety threat.

Safety personnel and superintendents are welcoming technology in efforts to keep their teams safe.

Exposure to noisy jack hammers, silica dust, and hazardous fumes can also cause serious injuries and illnesses, like permanent hearing loss, incurable respiratory diseases, and cancer. Among the biggest challenges facing safety personnel and superintendents today, is monitoring hazardous environmental conditions across an expansive jobsite, which, as you know, can often be a fast-paced and chaotic scene.

Smart Sensors = Safer Jobsites

Aiming to take the guesswork out of potentially dangerous jobsite conditions, the newest safety technology––onsite sensors––are serving as an extra set of eyes and ears on the jobsite. These smart sensors can monitor heat, noise levels, dust, and hazardous fumes and send real time alerts to safety managers, superintendents, and workers so they can head-off any accidents before they happen. The sensors can also collect and leverage valuable data that tells them what areas on the jobsite are showing a spike in the exposure levels and the peak times for those conditions.

Pillar Technologies sensors are the size of a shoebox and can be placed  anywhere in a construction site. If for example, a high-temperature area is getting dangerously hot, a real time alert will be sent to the safety manager and superintendent, notifying them of the condition.

“In the summer for example, when you have a crew working, you can see when the temperature reaches a certain threshold and for how long,” explains Alex Schwarzkopf, a Pillar co-founder. “We can send push notifications and give them a little piece of information that is actionable and that matters.”

Creating New Value with Data

Pillar sensors collect and gather data from dozens of sensors across the jobsite. By bringing together all these data points, the company can then get valuable insight about the project’s ever-changing environmental conditions. These analytics are then provided to owners and general contractors through a monthly subscription service.

During one recent pilot phase for a Boston construction project, Pillar’s data revealed that heaters left running overnight were reaching excessively high temperatures that came very close to bursting the sprinkler heads.

“They had no idea” says Schwarzkopf.

This valuable data allowed the contractor to correct the issue and steer clear of what could have been a very costly water damage disaster.

Having rich safety data allows contractors to be proactive, rather than reactive, about worker safety. For example, a general contractor can see if there were certain days that exposed workers to a high level of dust and what they need to do to protect their workers and prevent this from happening in the future.

“What’s interesting about this data set is that we can actually use it to power third-party applications,” explains Schwarzkopf. For example, if you wanted to leverage your construction software to notify contractors of safety hazards, Pillar could push that data to the software.

Although, still in the testing phase, the onsite sensors are expected to be released this fall. People are taking notice of this technology’s enormous potential. This year, Pillar won the Global Change the World For Profit competition at the Forbes Under 30 Summit.

High-Tech Made Simple

Equipped with a microphone, laser particle counter, and a UV sensor, the SmartSite System sensor, monitors noise levels, dust, and UV rays and notifies construction teams when they are at risk for injury or harmful exposure.

SmartSite, which is still in the beta phase, has set out to monitor construction sites in a manner that doesn’t get in the way of workers. The sensor requires no training and only needs to be switched on; it does the rest of the work for you.

SmartSite sensors can also be installed across the entire jobsite. But unlike Pillar’s onsite sensor, which can send real time alerts to your smart devices, SmartSite’s sensor will sound an alarm and warning lights alerting workers in the immediate area if any condition has exceeded safe working levels.

All data collected by the SmartSite sensor is logged in the cloud. These sensors monitor various hazards through a single consolidated dashboard, allowing potential issues to be found and fixed ahead of time. For example, safety managers can learn in advance which workers will exceed safe noise levels during the next shift and then take measures to protect them.

Safety Driving New Technology

Technology is certainly changing the way we live and work. Safety personnel and superintendents are welcoming technology in efforts to keep their teams safe. What’s better than help, is the proactive approach that the data collected from this technology provides and does for this industry.

If you liked this article, here are some others you might enjoy…

Smart Glasses vs Skilled Labor Shortage

Categories: Business Tags: Data

Lauren Contreras

Since 2012, Lauren Contreras has worked side-by-side with industry professionals to help build out, enhance and put to practice best in class safety programs. Contreras founded the Procore Safety Qualified Program and is currently seated as Procore's Senior Product Marketing Manager, Specialty Contractors.

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Featured

How Utility and Transmission Companies Successfully Tackle Building Challenges with Tech

Eight Infrastructure Projects Built With Procore

Dormant to Dominant: Evolving Role of Data on Civil and Infrastructure Projects

Value of Connected Project Data on Civil and Infrastructure Projects

Build Better Bridges by Creating a Culture of Innovation and Harnessing AI

Subscribe to Jobsite

Footer

Jobsite Favicon

Jobsite News

  • Business
  • Real Estate
  • Safety
  • Technology

World

  • Australia
  • Canada
  • United States

Resources

  • eBooks
  • Partners
  • Webinars

Education

  • Building Inclusion
  • Certification
  • Continuing Education
  • Safety Qualified

Procore

  • Procore Platform
  • Groundbreak
  • Procore Blog
  • Procore.org

© 2025 Procore Technologies, Inc. Privacy Notice Terms of Service