Safety Management at Construction Sites

Safety Management at Construction Sites

Overview

1. Accident‐ Effects & Causes
2. Responsibilities & Organizations for safety
3. Planning for safety
4. Safety management system
5. Benefits / Barriers in construction safety

Accident – Effects & Causes

Accident

“Any unplanned, uncontrolled, unwanted or uor undesirable event, or sudden mishap which interrupts an activity or function”

Effects of accidents

• Injury (disability, pain, suffering)
• Damage (equipment, building)
• Loss (life, earning, output, image, time)
• Emotion (following injury, pain, death)

Causes of accidents

“Accidents don’t just happen, they are caused”

• Plant & Equipment (faulty staircase, electrical hazards, defective/incorrect equipment)
• Environment (high noise, insufficient light)
• People (careless, untrained, overstressed)
• System of work (poor design/site procedures)
• Natural Hazards (EQ, Typhoons, Landslides, etc.)

 Responsibilities and Organization for Safety

• There are humanitarian, legal, and economic grounds for providing a safe
  place and system of work.
• Clear allocation of responsibilities within the management structure,
  especially at senior executive level and safety advisers.

The Role of Safety Adviser

• Establishment and review of safety regulations to meet organization’s requirements.
• Relevant legislative requirements.
• Safety content necessary in all trainings.
• Regular inspection of safety standards in all work areas.

Planning for Safety

Main points in safety planning

• Plant & Equipment (design, layout, inspection)
• Workplace (maintenance of clean & orderly places with clearly defined access ways and fire exits)
• Facilities (adequate first‐aid and medical facilities and hygienic wash and eating areas)
• Procedures (prevention and practice of major emergency and first‐aid procedures in the event of serious hazard situation)
• Training (provision of effective training for fire fighting, rescue and first‐aid crew)

Safety Management System

“Accident prevention is the process of removing or controlling accident causes”

Three major elements for accident prevention process;
1. Workplace inspection.
2. Accident investigation and follow‐up.
3. Safety training.

1. Workplace inspection (audit and review, safety survey/inspection/sampling, hazard potential assessment)
2. Accident investigation (data collection, checking evidences, selecting main evidence, analyzing the evidence) and follow‐up (decide, notify and record the most likely cause (s) of accident).
3. Safety training (part of safety policy, allocate responsibilities, define objectives, implement and monitor, review the over all effectiveness)

Benefits of Construction Safety

• Reduced site hazards
• fewer injuries and fatalities
• Reduced workers compensation premiums
• Increased productivity
• Fewer delays due to accidents during construction allow continued focus on quality
• Encourages client‐designer‐constructor collaboration

Barriers/Limitations

• Like many good ideas, construction safety faces a number of
  barriers that slow down its adoption.
• Potential solutions to these barriers involve long‐term education and
  institutional changes.

Barrier‐1: Fear of Liability

• Barrier: Fear of undeserved liability for worker safety.
• Potential solutions:
  • Develop revised model contract language.
  • Propose legislation to facilitate construction safety without inappropriately shifting liability onto client/designers/contractors.

Barrier‐2: Increased Construction Costs

• Barrier: Implementation of construction safety rules will increase both direct and overhead costs for designers.
• Potential solution:Educate owners that total project costs and total
  project life cycle costs will decrease.

Barrier‐3: Lack of Safety Expertise

• Barrier: Few engineering firms possess
  sufficient expertise in construction safety.
•  Potential solutions:
  • Add safety to design professional’s curricula.
  • Develop and promote safety courses for professionals.

CONCLUSION

Three Steps towards Safety
1. Establish an adoptable culture
2. Establish adoptable / enabling processes
3. Secure clients who value life cycle safety

ASCE’s Code of Ethics

Engineers shall recognize that the lives, safety, health and welfare of all the people are dependent upon engineering decisions ….