Reimagining Access Control for Construction Sites

An Access Control System is a software-based platform designed to manage and control the movement of people by location. Typically, access is controlled through a physical barrier such as turnstiles or gates at an entrance point or within a building (securely locked doors, overhead doors, etc.)

The traditional Access Control Systems used to operate turnstiles and secure doors are not typically designed for operating construction projects – they are designed to secure active buildings and/or facilities. Therefore, General Contractors securing construction sites are often working with Access Control Systems that don’t meet the dynamic needs of the project and the operational team.

Let’s take a look at the limitations of the traditional Access Control System and the benefits of the Eyrus Construction Site Access Control Solution.

“For each day of delay in the construction of our site, the owner loses $1Million in revenue. We will register 3000 workers over the course of the project. One can immediately see the ROI of every minute that is gained in registering and reporting on this large team of people efficiently. Eyrus’ platform moves data in a way which I have not seen before: From controlling access to the site, managing zones and distributing the right data to each team member, the efficiency is priceless.”

– Director on $1B confidential project

Traditional Access Control

Traditional access control is not designed for the dynamic nature of construction sites.  This creates functional and efficiency issues for onsite operations.

RIGID DESIGN

Traditional Access Control Systems do not have the built-in flexibility required for the dynamic nature of changing construction environments and are designed to depend on a rigid structure to ensure maximum security.  For this reason, access control is typically limited to perimeter control and does not allow for location access management within a construction site where perimeter control is very porous (vehicle gates, delivery gates and emergency exit points are often left open) .  To effectively manage construction site access, the system needs to be designed to manage location access in areas with AND without physical barriers.

INEFFICIENT DATA

The interface for most Access Control Systems was designed only for security reasons. These systems are not designed to collect, store or display workforce data in ways that are useful to a construction project beyond perimeter control. Traditional access control is designed to provide data only when the data is required to check a person’s historical activity at secure points.

The inherent limitations in available data from most Access Control Systems often requires proactive Project Managers to register workers in two or more data systems.  One for access control and at least one more to provide workforce visibility information as it relates to the construction project’s schedule, compliance, daily reports, and, OCSIP/CSIP reports. Furthermore, Access Control Systems are not designed to integrate with construction management software like Procore, Autodesk 360 or CMIC.

LOCALLY MANAGED DEPENDENT SYSTEM

Traditional Access Control Systems are managed locally and are completely interdependent for security reasons. For an existing building this may make sense – but, for construction projects this creates many operational issues.  This traditional system design dictates that when there is an issue with one access point, the entire system needs to be rebooted and each reboot can take hours.  During this time the entire Access Control System site is disabled and in order to enforce an uninterrupted security perimeter – guards are then required to manually check each person in and out of the site.  This creates a costly bottleneck in the flow of workers and a loss of workforce data during the reboot delay.

Locally managed Access Control Systems require uninterrupted WIFI, or steady CAT5 connection, which is a constant issue on construction sites. When the internet connection is disrupted, the entire Access Control System is again disabled and must be rebooted, re-tested and calibrated.  Another potential issue with locally managed systems is that any software updates and bug fixes require the entire system to be disabled and then rebooted. This is a lot of extra worry and work to place on a project manager overseeing a construction project.

Eyrus Access Control

Eyrus’ sole focus is on the needs of the construction environment. The Eyrus Workforce Visibility Platform is specifically designed for construction projects and encompasses all of the data, reporting, tracking and access control needs in order to seamlessly incorporate mission critical information into the oversight of a dynamic construction site. The Eyrus Access Control Platform allows the construction operations team to monitor activity across the entire project in real-time and as required.  Data is managed across the platform to give the right data to the right person at all times:

• Flexible zoning, layered security and Eyrus visibility app
• Eyrus system will never have complete downtime
• Centralized Workforce Database with Streamlined Registration, badging process, access control and Data collection all-in-one.
• Overall system management is controlled via Apex: including turnstile and secure zone access as well as site zone management and reporting.
• Apex holds the entire workforce database while enabling individual profile management and access control.
• Attendance data by project, zone or specific secured rooms on site is sent directly to each respective subcontractor in real time.
• Axon attendance data is populated in real time to enable subs to complete their daily logs and submit to the GC in real time.