Impact of Green Building Design and Construction on Worker Safety and Health

Sustainable, or “green,” rating systems, such as the United States Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), are leading to changes in the way owners, designers, and contractors approach the design, construction, and operation of buildings. The processes and features included in green design and construction may have positive and/or negative impacts on construction worker safety and health. This paper presents the findings of a research study of the impact of green building design and construction practices on construction worker safety and health. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recordable and lost time injury and illness data from green projects (as identified by LEED) and from nongreen projects was collected through a structured questionnaire survey. The data collected was analyzed to test for the presence of a difference in OSHA recordable incident rates (RIRs) and lost time case rates (LTCRs) between green and nongreen projects. It was found that there was suggestive, but inconclusive evidence of a statistically significant difference in the RIRs of the green and nongreen building projects included in the study. No statistically significant difference was found between the LTCRs for the green and nongreen projects included in the study. The study findings provide valuable information to the construction industry for the purposes of project safety planning and the assessment of safety and health on projects.     

Population and Initial Validation of a Formal Model for Construction Safety Risk Management

The transient, unique, and complex nature of construction projects makes safety management exceptionally difficult. Most construction safety efforts are applied in an informal fashion under the premise that simply allocating more resources to safety management will improve site safety. Currently, there is no mechanism by which construction-site safety professionals may formally evaluate safety risk and select safety program elements for implementation. This paper introduces and validates a risk-based safety and health analytical model that can be used to evaluate expected risk given specific worker activities, strategically select highly effective safety program elements for implementation when resources are limited, and quantify resulting risk once the identified safety elements have been implemented. Specifically, the paper has three primary objectives: (1) introduce a risk-based construction safety and health analytical model; (2) validate relevant data used to populate the model; and (3) illustrate the applications of the model in practice. The findings of this research indicate that the values used to populate the model are reliable and that the model has the potential to significantly improve construction safety management.     

Benchmarking Studies on Construction Safety Management in China

This paper presents information by which to measure safety management performance on construction sites. In China, the conventional construction safety benchmarking approach is to assess safety performance by evaluating the physical safety conditions on site as well as the accident records, while no attention has been paid to the management factors that influence site safety. This paper is to identify the key factors that influence safety management and to develop a method for measuring safety management performance on construction sites. Based on the survey and interview data collected on safety management factors in 82 construction projects in China, the safety management index as a means to evaluate real-time safety management performance by measuring key management factors was developed. The quantified factors were compared with the commonly accepted physical safety performance index, which was derived from inspection records of physical safety conditions, accident rates, and the satisfaction of the project management team. Multifactor linear regression was conducted and the result indicates that safety management performance on site is closely related to organizational factors, economic factors, and factors related to the relationship between management and labor on site. Based on this benchmarking study, a practical safety assessment method was developed and then implemented on six construction projects. The results show that this method can be an effective tool to evaluate safety management on construction projects.     

Can Labor Inputs be Measured and Controlled Automatically?

Real-time control of on-site construction is a growing field still in its infancy. Labor inputs is an important project performance indicator to be controlled because it is a leading input in construction projects. A model for automated control was developed and verified in the field, to demonstrate that labor inputs can be automatically measured and controlled. The concept behind this development is that indirect data—workers’ locations measured automatically at regular time intervals—can be collected automatically and converted into labor inputs using computerized algorithms. The model was implemented in a concept-proving prototype, which was applied in three construction projects to verify the concept and test the feasibility of developing a full-scale prototype. The encouraging results of the field experiments showed that it is possible to convert worker’s locations automatically measured at regular time intervals into labor inputs, and thus automatically control them. The expected accuracy of such a system is ±10–20%. Additional work is currently underway to develop a location measurement system and other components of the full-scale prototype.     

Safety Management in Construction: Best Practices in Hong Kong

Safety issues have gained vital importance throughout the construction industry. Many construction companies around the world are implementing safety, health, and environmental management systems to reduce injuries, eliminate illness, and to provide a safe work environment in their construction sites. This paper describes an exploratory study of site safety management in construction sites’ environments. It explains a successful, modern safety, health and environmental management system for a leading construction company based in Hong Kong. A typical site-specific safety plan was utilized to provide safety guidance throughout the construction project. A safety management survey was conducted to determine the status of safety in the construction sites. All employees of the company and its subcontractors participated in the survey from 20 construction projects. In total, 1,022 valid records were obtained from the construction sites. The analysis provided useful information on eight aspects of construction safety, including safety policy and standards, safety organization, safety training, inspecting hazardous conditions, personal protection program, plant and equipment, safety promotion, and management behavior. The findings of the survey provide practical knowledge to construction project managers and construction safety practitioners in order to make their sites safer. Insights and discussions are given in this paper.     

Design, Development, and Deployment of a Rapid Universal Safety and Health System for Construction

Rapid construction projects and processes will become increasingly important as customers demand better project management performance and globally, as countries plan for and respond to the aftermath of natural and/or unnatural disasters. For use in expedited projects (as well as traditional projects), a rapid universal safety and health system (RUSH) was designed, developed, deployed, and evaluated. For its inaugural application, the RUSH was applied to a 106-hour construction project. Results from an initial application included a safe build in approximately 5?days without recordable incidents. More importantly, lessons were learned by a multidisciplinary team of researchers who observed safety 24/5 for the life of the project. Lessons learned and recommendations for future research are provided as a result of this experience.     

Predicting Performance of Design-Build and Design-Bid-Build Projects

Design-build (DB) and design-bid-build (DBB) are two principal project delivery systems used in many countries. This paper reports on models constructed to predict performance of DB and DBB projects on 11 areas, using project-specific data collected from 87 building projects. The study included collecting, checking, and validating industry data, and the statistical development of multivariate linear regression models for predicting project performance. Robust models are developed to predict construction and delivery speeds of DB and DBB projects. Gross floor area of the project is the most significant factor affecting speed. Besides this, for DBB projects, contractors’ design ability, and adequacy of plant and equipment would ensure speedy completion of the projects. For DB projects, if the contract period is allowed to vary during tender evaluation, this would slow down the project. Robust models to predict turnover and system quality of DB projects are also constructed. A DB contractor’s track record is an important variable. They must have completed past projects to acceptable quality and have ability in financial, health and safety management.     

Measuring Safety Climate of a Construction Company

Safety climate can benefit contractors, specialty contractors, and owners of industries by providing them with the knowledge of attitudes and perceptions that can help to consistently achieve better safety performance. The objective of this research was to determine safety climate that would enhance safety culture and positively impact perceived safety performance on construction projects. A safety climate questionnaire survey was conducted on the construction sites of a leading construction company and its subcontractors in Hong Kong. Approximately, 1,500 hard copy questionnaires were distributed and the response rate was excellent, resulting in 1,120 valid questionnaires being collected from 22 construction projects. By means of factor analysis, two underlying safety climate factors were extracted, accounting for 43.9% of the total variance. Multiple regression analysis confirmed that these climate factors, “management commitment and employee involvement” and “inappropriate safety procedure and work practices” were significant predictors of workers’ perceptions of safety performance. The findings indicated that the relationship between perceived safety performance and “inappropriate safety procedure and work practices” was inversely correlated. The results suggest that safety climate can be used as an effective measure of assessing and improving site safety for projects under construction. The findings of this study and the methodology might be useful for research at other construction sites in other regions and countries. This work provides useful information for project managers and safety practitioners who desire to improve safety climate and safety performance on construction sites.     

Construction Safety Risk Mitigation

Construction safety and health management has improved significantly following the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970. In response to this legislation, contractors began implementing safety programs to reduce occupational safety and health hazards on construction sites. Researchers recently found that the current process of selecting specific elements for a safety program is informal. This paper describes the results of a recent study designed to determine the relative effectiveness of safety program elements by quantifying their individual ability to mitigate construction safety and health risks. In order to determine the effectiveness of individual safety program elements, the following research activities were performed: (1) an appropriate safety risk classification system was created using an aggregation of relevant literature; (2) highly effective safety program elements were identified in literature; and (3) the ability of each safety program element to mitigate a portion of each of the safety risk classes was quantified using the Delphi method. The results of the research indicate that the most effective safety program elements are upper management support and commitment and strategic subcontractor selection and management and the least effective elements are recordkeeping and accident analyses and emergency response planning. It is expected that the data presented in this paper can be used to strategically select elements for a safety program, target specific safety and health risks, and influence resource allocation when funds are limited.     

Integrated Decision Support for Roadway Safety Analysis

This paper presents an integrated decision-support framework that helps public agencies identify high-crash locations and develop cost-effective safety improvement projects. State-of-the-art safety concepts, such as safety performance functions, empirical Bayesian method, and potential for safety improvements, are incorporated to identify hazardous highway locations. Cost-effective safety projects are prioritized based on life-cycle safety benefit evaluation and optimal resource allocation models. An efficient solution algorithm to the optimization model is also proposed. The models are implemented in an internet-based, geographic information system (GIS) software tool that builds on state-of-the-art information technologies, graphical interfaces, and customized GIS algorithms such as spatial analysis with buffering operations.     

Viability of Designing for Construction Worker Safety

Designing for construction safety entails consideration of the safety of construction workers in the design of a project. Research studies have identified the design aspect of projects as being a significant contributing factor to construction site accidents. Designing to eliminate or avoid hazards prior to exposure on the jobsite is also listed as the top priority in the hierarchy of controls common to the safety and health professions. Widespread implementation of the concept in the United States by engineering and architecture firms, however, is lacking due to perceived industry and project barriers. Given its absence from standard design practice, a question arises as to the viability of designing for safety as an intervention in the construction industry. This paper presents a pilot study that was conducted to investigate the practice of addressing construction worker safety when designing a project and to determine the feasibility and practicality of such an intervention. Through interviews of architects and engineers, the study found that a large percentage of design professionals are interested and willing to implement the concept in practice. Among the perceived impacts of implementation, project cost and schedule were mentioned most often along with limitations being placed on design creativity. The results of the pilot study indicate that designing for safety is a viable intervention in construction. The factors that impact the consideration of safety in the design of a project do not entirely prohibit its implementation or make its implementation extremely impractical and therefore not feasible. Additionally, the outcomes of implementation provide sufficient motivation to implement the concept in practice. The paper describes the key changes needed for implementation of the concept in practice which include: a change in designer mindset toward safety; establishment of a motivational force to promote designing for safety; increase designer knowledge of the concept; incorporate construction safety knowledge in the design phase; utilize designers knowledgeable about design-for-safety modifications; make design for safety tools and guidelines available for use and reference; and mitigate designer liability exposure.     

Effect of Safety and Environmental Variables on Task Durations in Steel Erection

In spite of the efforts by government agencies, labor organizations, and researchers in the field of health and safety, injuries and fatalities continue to affect the construction industry. In 2002 the construction industry had the undesirable distinction of having two of the most dangerous occupations in the United States, with fatalities among structural steel workers at 58.2 per 100,000 workers (fourth highest rate) and among construction laborers at 27.7 per 100,000 workers (ninth highest rate). Costs associated with construction accidents, such as increased insurance premiums and medical expenses, and loss of productivity are also concerns in the industry. It has not been demonstrated how unsafe working conditions affect worker performance, and the impact of unsafe work practices on worker performance has not been quantified. This paper describes a methodology that included direct observation of steel erection activities and statistical analysis of task duration data. The data collected at steel erection sites included safety conditions such as the use of personal protective equipment (PPE), elevation of the work area, environmental conditions such as temperature and humidity, and worker performance in the form of task durations. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) analysis of 186 of steel erection task durations collected over a six-month period showed that the use of personal protective equipment (PPE), the time of day during which the operation was being performed, the elevation at which the work was being performed, and the presence of decking below the work area had statistically significant effects on the durations of steel erection tasks.     

Factors That Influence Safety Performance of Specialty Contractors

In the construction industry specialty contractors perform most of the construction work. Given their impact on the industry, the safety performance of specialty contractors should be of concern to the construction industry. This paper describes a study conducted to identify factors that significantly influence the safety performance of specialty contractors. The study was composed of separate surveys of three different specialty contractor populations—a variety of trade contractors located primarily in southern Nevada, roofing contractors in the state of Florida, and the regional offices of a large, nationwide mechanical contractor. While there appeared to be contradictions between the surveys in some areas, the study concluded that specialty contractor safety performance was consistently influenced, in part, by a number of factors. The factors shown to positively affect safety performance include minimizing worker turnover, implementing employee drug testing with various factors initiating the testing, and training with the assistance of contractor associations. Safety incentive programs were not necessarily associated with better safety performance. Growth in company size was found to be associated with improved safety performance as well.     

Risk-Based Safety Impact Assessment Methodology for Underground Construction Projects in Korea

Safety of construction projects may be affected by various factors such as types and scale of projects, construction methods, safety management procedure, climate, site conditions, etc. Among them is the quality of design in relation to safety. Presently, however, designers typically are not involved in construction safety. They are often uncertain of their responsibilities in relation to construction safety and fail to be responsible for avoiding or reducing safety-related risks. In this study, the concept of safety impact assessment to achieve “design-for-safety” in the design phase is introduced. For this purpose, a safety impact assessment model was devised, and a methodology using the risk-based safety impact assessment approach for open-cut type underground construction projects in Korea is suggested. The suggested methodology includes a safety information survey, classification of safety impact factors caused by design and construction, and quantitative estimation of magnitude and frequency of safety impact factors. A checklist which can be easily used for assessing the safety performance of design products is also proposed. A real-world case study on the safety impact assessment of a subway construction project in Korea is also provided in the paper.     

Concerns of the dry-cleaning industry: a qualitative investigation of labor and management

BACKGROUND: Occupational scientists agree there are hazards associated with dry-cleaning, but do dry-cleaning owners and workers concur? Knowledge of owners' and workers' perceptions can help guide intervention efforts to reduce worker exposure. To better understand these issues, a qualitative study was conducted using focus group methodology and constant comparative analysis. METHODS: Two owner and four worker focus groups were held. RESULTS: Findings suggest that overall, health and safety issues were not of great concern. Owners were primarily concerned with the economic impact of regulations. Workers did express some anxiety about solvent exposure and burns, but most felt that these hazards were "just part of the job." Also, other than the installation of air-conditioning in the shops and the provision of health benefits, workers could not think of ways health and safety on the job could be improved. CONCLUSIONS: These findings will be used to develop comprehensive safety and health interventions (e.g., engineering plus education and training) in dry-cleaning shops.     

Analysis of Construction Worker Fall Accidents

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) investigates most worker-related fatalities and many accidents involving serious injuries. A research study was conducted that focused on the data OSHA accumulated on construction worker accidents involving falls. In the construction industry, falls are the most frequently occurring types of accidents resulting in fatalities. The purpose of the study was to identify the root causes of fall accidents and to identify any additional information that might be helpful in reducing the incidence of construction worker falls in the future. While data from January 1990 through October 2001 were examined, particular emphasis was placed on fall accidents that occurred in the last 5 years of this time interval, a period when more data were accumulated and coded in the OSHA investigation reports. Results show that most fall accidents take place at elevations of less than 9.15 m (30 ft), occurring primarily on new construction projects of commercial buildings and residential projects of relatively low construction cost. Furthermore, experience does not seem to diminish accident occurrence; hazards are often misjudged by workers; and various other patterns can also be observed. Most alarming, the results show that fall accidents account for a growing proportion of the total number of construction worker fatalities.     

Rating and Reliability of Existing Bridges in a Network

Currently, the load rating is the method used by State DOTs for evaluating the safety and serviceability of existing bridges in the United States. In general, load rating of a bridge is evaluated when a maintenance, improvement work, change in strength of members, or addition of dead load alters the condition or capacity of the structure. The AASHTO LRFD specifications provide code provisions for prescribing an acceptable and uniform safety level for the design of bridge components. Once a bridge is designed and placed in service, the AASHTO Manual for Condition Evaluation of Bridges provides provisions for determination of the safety and serviceability of existing bridge components. Rating for the bridge system is taken as the minimum of the component ratings. If viewed from a broad perspective, methods used in the state-of-the-practice condition evaluation of bridges at discrete time intervals and in the state-of-the-art probability-based life prediction share common goals and principles. This paper briefly describes a study conducted on the rating and system reliability-based lifetime evaluation of a number of existing bridges within a bridge network, including prestressed concrete, reinforced concrete, steel rolled beam, and steel plate girder bridges. The approach is explained using a representative prestressed concrete girder bridge. Emphasis is placed on the interaction between rating and reliability results in order to relate the developed approach to current practice in bridge rating and evaluation. The results presented provide a sound basis for further improvement of bridge management systems based on system performance requirements.     

Factors which support effective worker participation in health and safety: a survey of New Jersey industrial hygienists and safety engineers

Strategies for increasing worker involvement in health and safety are widespread and have received emphasis in various OSHA reform proposals; however, much remains unknown about the effectiveness of these strategies. This paper draws on a survey of more than 400 New Jersey members of the American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA) and the American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) which addressed a broad range of issues relating to health and safety conditions and practices, including the use of worker or labor/management health and safety committees (HSCs) and worker health and safety representatives. Stepwise discriminant analysis was used to explore the relationships between effective participation and variables which describe worksites and potential health and safety resources and barriers. Effective strategies for involving workers appear to be conditional on a number of variables, most importantly on worker activism and the effective use of formal union negotiations. Findings are consistent with studies from both the U.S. and abroad which emphasize the role of unions in shaping opportunities for effective worker participation.     

Safety Hazard Identification on Construction Projects

Hazard identification is fundamental to construction safety management; unidentified hazards present the most unmanageable risks. This paper presents an investigation indicating the current levels of hazard identification on three U.K. construction projects. A maximum of only 6.7% of the method statements analyzed on these projects managed to identify all of the hazards that should have been identified, based upon current knowledge. Maximum hazard identification levels were found to be 0.899 (89.9%) for a construction project within the nuclear industry, 0.728 (72.8%) for a project within the railway industry, and 0.665 (66.5%) for a project within both the railway and general construction industry sector. The results indicate that hazard identification levels are far from ideal. A discussion on the reasons for low hazard identification levels indicates key barriers. This leads to the presentation of an Information Technology (IT) tool for construction project safety management (Total-Safety) and, in particular, a module within Total-Safety designed to help construction personnel develop method statements with improved levels of hazard identification.     

Contractor’s Opportunistic Bidding Behavior and Equilibrium Price Level in the Construction Market

The competitive bidding system has been to blame for abnormally low bids, which are considered as one of the main causes of poor project quality. Previous studies have regarded the pricing of bidders as an optimum decision based on contractor’s cost and market competition level. However, the sell to produce characteristic of construction projects may induce contractors to offer a low bid and then make up the amount initially sacrificed from beyond-contractual reward (BCR) gained through cutting corners and claims. System dynamics was adopted in this study to develop a contractor’s pricing model with consideration of the dimensions of cost, market competition, and BCR. The model was then examined by statistical analysis of data collected from 44 highway projects in Taiwan. It was found that the equilibrium market price is significantly associated with BCR, which is assumed to be determined by the strictness of the owner’s construction management, including both soundness of contract and tightness in construction supervision. Research results suggest that contractors divide the market into different segments according to the owner’s strictness of construction management and the equilibrium price level of each market segment varies. The price level for projects with a strict owner is remarkably higher than for those with relatively less strict owners. Improvement in the construction management system of projects is crucial to lower the possibility that contractors gain BCR and do opportunistic bidding, and to further enhance project quality.