construction safety in design process

7/30/2019 Construction Safety in Design Process

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Construction Safety in Design Process

Roozbeh Ghaderi , Mohammad Kasirossafar

Member ASCE, Department of Civil and Enviromental Engineering, AmirkabirUniversity (Tehran Polytechnic).Postal code 71436-84548, # 10.1, Sarv alley, 3rd st, Eram st, Shiraz, Iran; PH (+98) 917-712-4569; FAX (+98) 711 225-1440;

email:[email protected]

Department of Civil and Enviromental Engineering, Amirkabir University (Tehran

Polytechnic). P.O. Box 91865-588, Mashhad, Iran; PH (+98) 915-110-9887; FAX

(+98) 511 765-6622; email: [email protected]

1- ABSTRACT

Concerning the risk and incidents happening unexpectedly at working sites all

around the world, construction industry has one of the first ranks between others

according to relevant international and official statistics and formal evidences.

Considering loss of life and property which such an incident can impose to the

human being and society, it is obviously concluded that preventing from such

accidents will preserve parts of human and financial sources which are both

economic production factors. When it comes to construction, the main factor ofaccidents happening may briefly be entitled to the shortage of safety and security.

This article is structured to believe that the main concept of safety is related to

the quality of design rather than construction process and is trying to prove the fact

that designers are the most capable to decrease the incidence rate of accidents.Some

research results are included in this article to support of above mentioned issue and it

is Indicated that 33% of incidents are linked to design process in Iran.

Therefore undeniable role of designers and consultants is consequently

highlighted enough due to access to the safe construction. In other words, the more

applying the safety in architecture and structure design can lead us to the fewer

incidents while construction and operation process.

Keywords: Design for safety; Construction hazards; Architecture and Structure

Design; Safety in Construction Contracts

2- INTRODUCTION

In the past, safety programs were usually based on reform after incident

which dealt with incidents examination and control. With this meaning, that safetyengineering come into action after occurring an event and it was attempted to

identify the causes of event by doing the required investigations, and was utilized

the results as a base for restraining of similar incidents occurring. Safety activities

of this kind have two major deficiencies. First, it must occurs an event then safety

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engineering would do an action which leads to imposing high expenses and its

other deficit was disability in complete recognition of preventable happenings.

With evolution and development of restraining systems, this idea emerged thatfor the safety of systems refinement it should not be let the incidents occur

anymore. So it was made an effort to develop methods for analyzing the events in

order to determine happening of the potential of such risk before system operation.

Nowadays, the results of these efforts have been caused that safety is based on the

well-designed, organized program and as a pre-occurrence approach which is

posed on the basis of analysis-control method. At the present time it is believed

that in new safety systems, emphasis should be on acceptable level of safety in

design phase and before production or operation and evaluation of system risks

before imposing loss.

According to statistics, which is presented by labor administration of differentcountries, and international organizations every year, most occurrence of

occupational risks and workplace incidents are happening in construction industry.

Also construction incidents are leading to delay in the process of project progress,

increase in expenses and incurring a loss to contactors reputation and reliability

(Wang et al, 2006).In spite of public believes, which say most of incidents are happening due to

workers carelessness, it is more possible that decisions of high rank authorities can

play an important role in occurring of incidents in constructing industry.

Todays advancements in identification of hazards and evaluation of risks inconstruction projects are not only far way from ideal, but also safety management

system are still challenging with informational hindrances (not registering and

sharing the incidents report and lack of informational sources in smaller projects for

risk analysis). Preventing of identifiable risks occurrence and removing them is

always more secure and more economical than finding a cure after incident

occurrence.

If we find the roots of construction incidents, we find not only contractors but

also designers (architects and structural engineers) would affect the health and

safety of construction workers (Gambatese and Hinze, 1999; Behm, 2005; Frijters

and Swuste, 2008; Gambatese, Behm and Rajendran, 2008; Toole and Gambatese,2008).

Perhaps in the past no one was thought of designers role as an effective factor

in projects safety. Unfortunately designers are not aware of their impact on

construction safety but they do not have the required knowledge and experience for

playing an effective role in the safety.

3- RESEARCH LITERATURE

3-1- Safe Design Concept

In 1985, international labor organization obliged the designers to consider the

identification of safety condition. Investigation about relationship between design

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and safety of construction in England proved that there is a close relationship

between design and idea of safe construction ( Jeffrey and Douglas, 1994).

Szymbereski (1997) declared the major priority for implementing of safeconstruction is considering the safety in design phase.

There are a lot of obstacles in the performance of safety design idea, here we

mention two cases of them.

3-1-1- Legal Issues and Concerns of Responsibility

In several studies, designers solicitudes have been examined in regard to legal

prosecution and extension of their responsibilities for incidents. Due to legal

complications, many designers avoid too much focusing on safety issue (Hinze &

Wiegand, 1992). According to Coble study (1997) regulations are just making asmall portion of designers to interfere in the idea of safe design.

A clear development in England has resulted in ratification of body of laws

CDM Construction (Design and Management) Regulations. This regulation was

applied in 1995 which force designers to consider safety in course of design in

order to be assured that there are some preventing ways of potential risks in project

construction phase. The aim of CDM regulations is providing a revolution in

construction culture with use of all potentials and progress in consideration and

solving workplaces safety and health matters (Owain Jones, Tony Baxendale,

1999).In 2002, France and some European courtiers also ratified a set of instructions

(Gibb, 2004). These regulations make the designers responsible to workers for

providing safety and health (Behm, 2005).

3-1-2- Construction Contracts

One of the implementation obstacles of safe design idea is the nature and form

of construction projects. Discontinuity of design and construction phase is one of

the main issues in realization of safe design idea. The language and type of contract

between employer and designer on the one hand and between employer andcontractor on the other hand, put safety of workplace, equipment, methods,

techniques, structure and operation on the contractor responsibility (Hinze, 2001).

3-2- Construction Hazards Prevention Through Design (CHPtD)

Haslam research (2003) on the 100 construction incidents in England indicated

architecture designers and structural engineers cause the reduction of risk in more

than half of incidents (Behm, 2005). Behm in his study in 2005 has dealt with this

subject that designing to what extent and intensity is related to accidents in

construct. 230 cases of reported ones in NIOSH (the National Institute for

Occupational Safety ad Health) and FACE (Fatality Assessment Control and

Evaluation) organization were selected randomly to examine the relationship of this

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incidents with design which were evaluated accurately by using the expended

model of Gambatese. It determined 42% of losses are related to designing.

One of the other studies has already been done in this case by GRIC (2010)(Group of Construction Research and Innovation) in Technical University of

Catalonia, Department of Construction Engineering, Spain, suggests a quantitative

methodology that helps designers by evaluating the related performance of safety in

design of residential constructions through the utilization of risk analysis-based

approach.

This methodology is comparing the safety risk degree in various construction

designs and classifying each of them corresponding to safety risks importance. In

this process, 90 considerable risks of safety are classified in 22 different groups of

constructing activities, which led to defining 45 performance indicators. This

methodology for inexperienced designers has induced ease in correct choicesamong different designing options. The promising point of this methodology is that

designers would be able to compare construction techniques and systems in design

phase and determine its corresponding level of safety risk without any restraint in

designers aptitude and innovation (Marta Gangolells, Miquel Casals, Nuria

Forcada, Xavier Roca, Alba Fuerres, 2010).

3-3- Design Suggestions

In Spanish group research, which is mentioned above, risk analysis was

provided for different designing choices, materials variation, and implementation

techniques ( For instance; choosing type of structure from the viewpoint of being

concrete, the ways of its performance like in-site concrete or use of prefabricate

elements and also sort of materials and the way of performing construction front).

Finally ranking each of them in regards to risk degree would result in some design

suggestions that considerably reduce the total design risk.

In the other investigation done by Gambatese and Hinze (1998) through directand phone call interview with whom involved in construction and making use of

their knowledge and experience and also by investigating workers safety guides,check lists and safe design guides were led to collect of several design suggestions

in order to combine them with design tools.

The design for construction safety toolbox is a source, which is available for

designer to consider and perform standards like CDM (Gambatese and Hinze,

1998).

4- RESULTS FROM THE RESEARCH

The aim of this research is to imply the issue that in regard to workplacecondition in Iran, design to what extent and intensity is related to incidents and

losses of construction works. For perceiving of relationship between design and

construction risks, a conventional statistical society of happened incidents and their

happening reasons are required.

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For realizing this point, some of the happened incidents reports in construction

workplaces were examined. These reports are supplied by Iran social security

organization. 681 cases have been registered by this organization as of March 2005until March 2006.

In this study, 100 incidents of these collections in accordance to Irans

construction incidents distribution and happened incidents percentage randomly

selected corresponding to the sort of incident in Iran. Incidents evaluating expert

team which are including a representative from a consultant and design company

with 22 years of background, a representative from a contractor company with 18

years background and a safety specialist of a insurance firm evaluated accidents.

For this purpose, any incident was investigated in case of incident features (the

effective element on incident), absence or presence of documented design

suggestions, which could decrease the risk exposure and determine new designsuggestions that would lower the accident exposure.

For answering to the matters that whether the incidents are related to design, 3

questions that each has Yes/No response are provided for each party to reply.

Question 1- Dose the incident cause damage to structure and dose this damagerelated to design?

Question 2- In case of execution whether the existing design suggestion in design

phase could decrease risk exposure?

Question 3- Is it possible to establish new design suggestion for minimizing riskexposure?

If at least one answer is "Yes", the incident will be related to design and if all of

them are No, the incident will not be related to design. This model was extended by

Gambatese. Behm studies (2005) also used this same model.

The potential human error would be negligible, since those who reply are consist of

3 different groups including designers who may intend to ignore the relationship

between design and accident, contractors that due to separation of construction

phase from design, may wish to relate accident occurrence to design and safety

specialist who treat incident as an unpleasant and expected event. After incidentsevaluation and examination of presented answers for each incident, it is indicated

33 cases are linked to design.

With regards to the corresponding of examined statistical society with features

of happened incidents and incidents distribution of construction industry in Iran, it

can be concluded that with expansion of the design for construction safety concept,

33% of incidents are preventable.

5- CONCLUSIONS

Construction industry incidents sometimes cause despite and lead to legal

complain, but usually the group which deals with this matter less, are designer. For

various reasons they do not consider themselves in charge of providing and

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preserving safety. Maybe the construction culture, lack of safe design training

system and acquiring needed skill have resulted in suspicion that just contractors

are responsible for preserving workplaces safety. Since last 3 decades after provingthat decision-making in project primary phases could affect safety, the design for

construction safety concept has been improved.

Accomplished studies are indicating the key role of designers in construction

safety which is variable, depending on workplace conditions and safety

considerations during performance. According to accomplished studies by authors,

in Iran 33% of construction accidents are related to design.

As the most common contracting system in Iran is Design Bid Build (DBB), There

has been a gap between design and safety consideration. It is clear that most of the

benefit from safe design is given to contractors, but applying safety in designers

view is not the contractors ability owing to the separation of design andconstruction phase. Due to joint association of designers and constructors in Design

and Build (DB) contracts, constructors experience and concerns and their

connection with design are comprehensible for designers. Moreover, owing to their

mutual benefit in such contracts, designers safety responsibility has increased and

consequently we would see safer designs.A way of designers training for realizing safe design idea is information

expansion and transferring experiences between designers and constructors,

providing new design suggestion and combing with design tools. After finding out

the reason and condition of incident occurrence and informing about risks,designers can control and reduce the risks by preventing accident reasons.

6- RECOMMENDATIONS

According to established results, safe design idea is faced a lot of obstacles and

problems. After verification, the authors of this article suggest several solutions for

these obstacles, which probably would provide subjects for future research.

1- For realization of the design for construction safety idea, it is required somesort of cultural affairs among designers. Unfortunately most designers do not get

involved themselves in safety and in their viewpoint safety and design are

considered as two distinguish matters. The suggestion that we offer for present

condition, is training of safety to Design engineers. However, we know that it is

difficult and time-consuming to impose the safety belief to those Design engineers

who have just got used to an old style and method of design. For improving this

situation in future, adding some new units in university courses in order toprogress impression from safety is necessary.

2- One way of safety condition improvement is increasing the individualsresponsibility in safety. Today contractors major concern is safety, since according

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to current regulations they are more responsible than others. Providing standards

and regulation like CDM, which necessitate the designers to identify risks and

utilize new ways of construction in order to reduce e risks, can gradually involvedesigners in the safety. However separation of design from construction process has

caused deficiency in designers safety skill in recognition of details and

identification of critical points linked to designing in workplace operation.

Contracts such as design build not only can eliminate these weaknesses but also

helps to record and documentation design necessities for workers safety. It can help

to improve the conditions by change in contractual and organizational structure of

projects with authority confirmation of employer to construction management for

selecting of designers with better safety background and controlling of design

process by safety experts of construction management team and also monitoring

hazardous actions of contractor by this team. Legal obligations can be consideredsafety experts of construction management team as responsible for providing and

controlling safety beside designers.

3- Following above mentioned safety regulations, it is delightful to mentionthat law can be used to stop unsafe construction, in design phase, through formationof a commission in organization of issuing construction license with the aim of

investigating each design from safety consideration aspects in addition to technical

consideration.

So if the mentioned design got a minimum score of a safe design, it would be

approved otherwise it would be referred back to designers for reformation and

applying safety consideration.

4- One of the obstacles for investigation about safe design is the lack ofdocumented and reliable sources about related incidents statistics and reports

related to designers. As the last suggestion, we emphasize on necessity of

establishment of an organization for collecting, registering and analyzing exist

design suggestions linked to safety and exchanging of information among

researchers and providing an independent source for classifying and publishing

information in order to provide a set of new design suggestions related to the safety.7- REFERENCES

Baxendale, T., and Jones, O. (2000). "Construction design and management safety

regulations in Practice - progress on implementation." International Journal of

Project Management 18, 33- 40.

Behm, M. (2005). "Linking construction fatalities to the design for construction

safety concept." Safety Science 43, 589611.

Gambatese, J., and Hinze, J. (1999). "Addressing construction worker safety in the

design phase Designing for construction worker safety." Automation in

Construction 8, 643649.

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Gambatese , J. A., and Behm, M., and Rajendran, R . (2008). "Designs role in

construction accident causality and prevention : Perspectives from an expert

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