Gyeonggi-do Installs Portable Toilets and Shower Facilities at Three Small Construction Sites

Gyeonggi-do Launches Restroom Environment Improvement Project for Construction Site Workers

Gyeonggi Province is promoting a project to improve the health environment of construction workers by installing flush toilets and shower rooms at three small-scale construction sites, including the Hwaseong Dongbu Fire Station construction site.

This project is the first case to be realized as an actual provincial policy among 20 excellent ideas selected at the ‘Gyeonggi TED (Try-Energy-Dream) Division Chief Workshop’ held last January, aimed at discovering citizen-centered policies through collective intelligence.

The smaller the construction site, the fewer the available construction budget and manpower, resulting in relatively poor health environments for workers.

In particular, toilets installed at small-scale construction sites are often traditional types without washbasin facilities. Traditional toilets are difficult to clean with water, making proper hygiene management challenging, causing visual discomfort and severe odors that threaten the health environment of construction workers. Most are installed as portable toilets, which become burdensome about one month after use begins.

This year, Gyeonggi Province will install temporary toilets and shower rooms at the construction sites of ▲ Uijeongbu Minrak 119 Safety Center (total floor area 936㎡, construction period September 2023 to September 2024) ▲ Ansan Suam 119 Safety Center (total floor area 990㎡, construction period March 2024 to April 2025) ▲ Hwaseong Dongbu Fire Station (total floor area 5,087㎡, construction period March 2024 to June 2026).

The toilets will be installed separately for men and women, with two Western-style toilets, one urinal, and at least two washbasins. The shower rooms will include changing rooms and shower booths. Considering the high water usage of shower rooms, sites located in urban areas with public sewage treatment facilities were selected. A budget of 46 million KRW will be invested to install temporary toilets and shower rooms at the three sites.

The temporary toilets with washbasin facilities will operate throughout the entire construction period, while the shower rooms are planned to operate from July to October during the hot summer months; however, the operation period may vary slightly depending on site conditions and toilet structure.

The Uijeongbu Minrak 119 Safety Center construction site, which began construction first on the 4th of last month, has an integrated temporary toilet and shower room. Once construction begins at the Ansan Suam 119 Safety Center and Hwaseong Dongbu Fire Station, flush toilets and other facilities will be installed immediately.

Gyeonggi Province plans to monitor the responses of construction workers using the facilities through the ‘Small-scale Construction Site Temporary Toilet Improvement and Shower Room Installation Project’ and analyze the required size of toilets according to site scale to expand the application to construction projects ordered by the province in the future.

Park Jaeyoung, head of the Gyeonggi Provincial Construction Headquarters, said, "Clean toilets at the workplace are a fundamental human rights issue," adding, "We will take the lead in the public sector to expand this initiative to overcome the negative perception of dirty construction sites and further prevent construction safety accidents."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.