Safety Of Construction Workers Research Articles

Visibility-related fatalities related to construction equipment

The construction industry annually experiences one of the highest fatality rates among the industrial sectors in the United States. The factors that contribute to this reputation include the nature of the work, human behavior, the tools and equipment involved, and also the compact work zones. Industrial fatalities are investigated by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). While OSHA groups the causes of fatalities into a few general categories, too little information is gleaned to effectively target specific problem areas. To improve safety performance in the construction industry, it is necessary to understand the underlying causes of accidents. With targeted analysis, patterns emerge and causal factors can be identified. These findings may then be used to form the basis for recommendations that will help to improve construction worker safety. Little research has been conducted in this area. Research was conducted that isolated fatalities in which vision or lack of good visibility was the principle factor or contributing cause. The objective of examining the details surrounding these fatalities was to uncover the contributing factors and to identify the agents that compromised visibility. The study identified 659 fatality accidents from a data pool of 13511 OSHA-investigated cases. It was discovered that blind spots, obstructions and lighting conditions were the most common factors contributing to vision-related fatalities. This research also analyzed the specific conditions associated with particular pieces of construction equipment.

The Role and Function of Mandor in Construction Project Organization in Indonesia

In a typical construction project organization in Indonesian, mandors are positioned as personnel responsible for leading a group of workers in the construction industry, who are also often regarded as the most important agent in the construction operation. Having the status of being the key linkage between the management and the construction workforce, mandors are expected to play important role in influencing workers’ performance and productivity, as well as the safety and quality of construction works. Traditionally, mandors functioned as the supplier of workers to the construction project. Mandors, many of whom are also relatives or having closed tie to workers, are responsible to bring the workers from the village to the construction sites in the cities. As informal leaders with strong social and emotional binding with their fellow workers, mandors played important role in reshaping workers attitude toward work.In recent years the role and function of mandors have shifted from traditional supplier of workers to become foremen who lead group of workers that do not necessarily possess the traditional closed bonding with them. With the shifting from traditional to a more modern construction method and technology, many believed that the industry can make use mandors’ key role for the improvement of the construction industry in Indonesia. This paper discusses result of research involving survey to both the management and construction workers that seeks to determine the shifting role and function of mandors in construction project organization, as well as finding ways for improvement that are more appropriate to the new setting of the construction industry.

Contextual Information and Covariance Descriptors for People Surveillance: An Application for Safety of Construction Workers

In computer science, contextual information can be used both to reduce computations and to increase accuracy. This paper discusses how it can be exploited for people surveillance in very cluttered environments in terms of perspective (i.e., weak scene calibration) and appearance of the objects of interest (i.e., relevance feedback on the training of a classifier). These techniques are applied to a pedestrian detector that uses a LogitBoost classifier, appropriately modified to work with covariance descriptors which lie on Riemannian manifolds. On each detected pedestrian, a similar classifier is employed to obtain a precise localization of the head. Two novelties on the algorithms are proposed in this case: polar image transformations to better exploit the circular feature of the head appearance and multispectral image derivatives that catch not only luminance but also chrominance variations. The complete approach has been tested on the surveillance of a construction site to detect workers that do not wear the hard hat: in such scenarios, the complexity and dynamics are very high, making pedestrian detection a real challenge.

Physical ergonomic hazards in highway tunnel construction: Overview from the Construction Occupational Health Program

This report provides an overview of physical ergonomic exposures in highway construction work across trades and major operations. For each operation, the observational method “PATH” (Posture, Activity, Tools and Handling) was used to estimate the percentage of time that workers spent in specific tasks and with exposure to awkward postures and load handling. The observations were carried out on 73 different days, typically for about 4 h per day, covering 120 construction workers in 5 different trades: laborers, carpenters, ironworkers, plasterers, and tilers. Non-neutral trunk postures (forward or sideways flexion or twisting) were frequently observed, representing over 40% of observations for all trades except laborers (28%). Kneeling and squatting were common in all operations, especially tiling and underground utility relocation work. Handling loads was frequent, especially for plasterers and tilers, with a range of load weights but most often under 15 pounds. The results of this study provide quantitative evidence that workers in highway tunnel construction operations are exposed to ergonomic factors known to present significant health hazards. Numerous opportunities exist for the development and implementation of ergonomic interventions to protect the health and safety of construction workers.

Exploring social contexts at work and how they affect the safety of young construction workers

BackgroundThe role of the social context is becoming more widely examined in workplace safety studies. We explored two aspects of the social environment of teens employed in construction. The presence...

Mitigating construction safety risks using prevention through design

Introduction Research and practice have demonstrated that decisions made prior to work at construction sites can influence construction worker safety. However, it has also been argued that most architects and design engineers possess neither the knowledge of construction safety nor the knowledge of construction processes necessary to effectively perform Construction Hazards Prevention through Design (CHPtD). Method This paper introduces a quantitative methodology that supports designers by providing a way to evaluate the safety-related performance of residential construction designs using a risk analysis–based approach. The methodology compares the overall safety risk level of various construction designs and ranks the significance of the various safety risks of each of these designs. The methodology also compares the absolute importance of a particular safety risk in various construction designs. Results Because the methodology identifies the relevance of each safety risk at a particular site prior to the construction stage, significant risks are highlighted in advance. Thus, a range of measures for mitigating safety risks can then be implemented during on-site construction. Impact on industry The methodology is specially worthwhile for designers, who can compare construction techniques and systems during the design phase and determine the corresponding level of safety risk without their creative talents being restricted. By using this methodology, construction companies can improve their on-site safety performance.

Autonomous pro-active real-time construction worker and equipment operator proximity safety alert system

Over six hundred construction worker deaths occurred in the United States during the inclusive years of 2004 to 2006 that were related to construction equipment and contact collisions. This paper presents findings about emerging radio frequency (RF) remote sensing and actuating technology that can improve construction safety by warning or alerting workers-on-foot and equipment operators in a pro-active real-time mode once equipment gets too close in proximity to unknown or other equipment. A review is provided on the background and importance of safety related to various pieces of construction equipment. Pro-active real-time proximity and alert technology for daily construction operations is introduced to solve this problem. Results of various field experiments that tested the proximity and alert technology are presented. A discussion follows on how such technology can improve objective construction site safety data collection and lead to more effective construction workforce safety training and education.

Casing Pipe Damage Detection with Optical Fiber Sensors: A Case Study in Oil Well Constructions

Casing pipes in oil well constructions may suddenly buckle inward as their inside and outside hydrostatic pressure difference increases. For the safety of construction workers and the steady development of oil industries, it is critically important to measure the stress state of a casing pipe. This study develops a rugged, real-time monitoring, and warning system that combines the distributed Brillouin Scattering Time Domain Reflectometry (BOTDR) and the discrete fiber Bragg grating (FBG) measurement. The BOTDR optical fiber sensors were embedded with no optical fiber splice joints in a fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) rebar and the FBG sensors were wrapped in epoxy resins and glass clothes, both installed during the segmental construction of casing pipes. In situ tests indicate that the proposed sensing system and installation technique can survive the downhole driving process of casing pipes, withstand a harsh service environment, and remain intact with the casing pipes for compatible strain measurements. The relative error of the measured strains between the distributed and discrete sensors is less than 12%. The FBG sensors successfully measured the maximum horizontal principal stress with a relative error of 6.7% in comparison with a cross multipole array acoustic instrument.

Collective individualism: the informal and emergent dynamics of practising safety in a high‐risk work environment

Safety knowledge appears to be ‘a doing’. In construction work safety is practised in the complex interrelationship between the individual, pair and gang. Thus the aim is to explore the nature and scope of individualist and collectivist preferences pertaining to the practice of safety at a construction site. An ethnographic fieldwork, in which the researcher worked as an apprentice, will provide detailed and experience‐near insights into the complexity of these processes. Findings show that individualist and collectivist preferences influence the amount of risk the individual worker will assume and expose workmates to. Aspects such as self‐regulation, self‐confidence and independence are acceptable values only to the extent that they do not pose a threat to the solidarity of the community or safety of other workers. The informal practice of safety is a tight‐rope act that involves balancing the form and scope of these preferences.

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.

Development and Initial Validation of Sustainable Construction Safety and Health Rating System

This paper presents a study to develop and validate a sustainable construction safety and health (SCSH) rating system. The rating system provides an opportunity to rate projects based on the importance given to construction worker safety and health and the degree of implementation of safety and health elements. A Delphi survey using an expert panel of 12 experienced safety and health professionals representing different sectors of the construction industry was employed to develop the SCSH rating system. The study resulted in a rating system consisting of a total of 50 safety and health elements organized into 13 categories. Each category contains safety and health elements which carry credits based on their effectiveness in preventing construction worker injuries and illnesses. The rating system was initially validated based on data from 25 construction projects and found to accurately represent the safety performance of large projects. The SCSH rating system can be used as an effective tool to develop and plan construction safety and health programs and evaluate the potential safety performance of construction projects.

Psychosocial Factors and Musculoskeletal Disorders in the Construction Industry

Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) constitute more than half of the total injuries and illnesses within the construction industry. The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of MSD among construction workers and identify the psychosocial and physical risk factors associated with their occurrence using an on-site survey instrument. One hundred forty seven construction workers (representing three trades) participated in the study. The 1-year prevalence of MSD was high with 61.2% reporting severe symptoms and 39.7% having some functional impairment due to MSD. Physical task requirement was the most important factor associated with MSD reflecting the physical nature of construction work. Economic and performance factors were the most stressful psychosocial factors reported and significantly increased the risk of reporting MSD. The findings of this research underscore the independent role that psychosocial factors play in the health and safety of construction workers. Understanding this role is imperative for practitioners and academics alike in the quest to make construction a safer work environment for all workers.

The Trajectories of Prevention through Design in Construction

Introduction Construction Hazards Prevention through Design (CHPtD) is a process in which engineers and architects explicitly consider the safety of construction workers during the design process. Although articles on CHPtD have appeared in top construction journals, the literature has not addressed technical principles underlying CHPtD to help designers better perform CHPtD, to facilitate the development of additional CHPtD tools, and to predict the future path of CHPtD. Method This theoretical paper uses the existing literature on CHPtD and current action research associated with several CHPtD workgroups to analyze how CHPtD will likely evolve over the coming decades. Results There are four trajectories along which CHPtD will progress. (a) Designs will increasingly facilitate prefabricated construction; (b) designers will increasingly choose materials and systems that are inherently safer than alternatives; (c) designers will increasingly perform construction engineering; and (d) designers will increasingly apply spatial considerations to reduce worker hazards. Impact on Industry By understanding how CHPtD may be manifested in the engineering-procurement-construction (EPC) industry, practitioners can better prepare for adopting CHPtD within their organizations and construction and engineering educators can better prepare their graduates to perform CHPtD.

Performance Evaluation of Semipermanent High-Mast Lighting for Highway Construction Projects

In 2005, the New York State Department of Transportation authorized the first-time use of semipermanent, high-mast, pole-mounted luminaires to illuminate nighttime road work construction and maintenance. This approach was used along a 3-mi stretch of Interstate 90 in Albany, New York, as an alternative to portable light towers. The performance of the high-mast lighting system is assessed according to the criteria of construction work quality and safety and visibility for workers and drivers. The high-mast lighting system was found to have met lighting performance specifications. Field measurements and an analytical comparison of the high-mast lighting with the portable light towers suggested that the high-mast lighting system provided sufficient illumination for performing maintenance and construction activities at the site, with few shadows and relatively low glare, thereby increasing visibility of hazards and improving performance of visual tasks for both workers and motorists. On the basis of these analyses, the high-mast lighting system should provide a higher level of safety than the portable light towers for the construction workers and for the drivers traveling through the construction zone for this project. The high-mast lighting system should also reduce the risk of injury to construction workers during high-exposure times when they would be setting up and removing portable lighting equipment. Other considerations, such as the implications for conditions of wet pavement and mesopic vision, are explored.

Design’s role in construction accident causality and prevention: Perspectives from an expert panel

Improving the safety and health of construction workers through design practices upstream of the construction phase is the objective of the design for construction safety concept. Ease of implementation and effectiveness of this intervention in practice are dependent on there being a link between the design and safety hazards. This paper presents research conducted to confirm the findings of a previous study, which revealed a link between construction site fatalities and the design for construction safety concept. Previous research demonstrated that in 42% of 224 fatality cases reviewed, the incidents could be linked to the design for safety concept. To validate the model previously utilized, an expert panel was established to review a sample of the 224 fatality cases and judge whether the design was a factor in the incident. The previous research results and expert panel responses were in agreement for 71% of the cases reviewed. The present research results provide further evidence of design’s influence on construction site safety. If safety performance in the construction industry is to improve, design professionals need to play a role in addressing safety in their designs.

Fatal accidents in nighttime vs. daytime highway construction work zones

Introduction Awareness about worker safety in nighttime construction has been a major concern because it is believed that nighttime construction creates hazardous work conditions. However, only a few studies provide valuable comparative information about accident characteristics of nighttime and daytime highway construction activities. Method This study investigates fatal accidents that occurred in Illinois highway work zones in the period 1996–2001 in order to determine the safety differences between nighttime and daytime highway construction. The lighting and weather conditions were included into the study as control parameters to see their effects on the frequency of fatal accidents occurring in work zones. Results According to this study, there is evidence that nighttime construction is more hazardous than daytime construction. The inclusion of a weather parameter into the analysis has limited effect on this finding. Impact on Industry The study justifies establishing an efficient work zone accident reporting system and taking all necessary measures to enhance safety in nighttime work zones.

Residential Wall Panel Designers' Knowledge and Attitudes toward Ergonomics

There is increasing use of panelized (prefabricated) wall systems in residential construction, requiring construction workers to handle larger and heavier components. Panel designers can make a substantial impact on ergonomic exposures of on site workers if ergonomics is considered in the design phase. A survey and a semi-structured interview were conducted to assess current knowledge and opinions of ergonomics among panel designers. Twelve panel designers from 11 different panel companies participated in the study. Results of the survey and the interview suggested that panel designers are rather resistant to the inclusion of ergonomics in their design, and they generally lack training in ergonomics. Designers considered themselves least responsible for construction worker safety and health, likely because they are disconnected from on site workers. Thus, it is essential that panel designers are supported with ergonomic assessment tools that can evaluate ergonomic exposures and provide alternative (improved) designs.

Linking construction fatalities to the design for construction safety concept

Research and practice have demonstrated that decisions made upstream from the construction site can influence construction worker safety. The design for construction safety concept is defined as the consideration of construction site safety in the design of a project. Globally, the concept has gained momentum as an intervention to improve worker safety. However, in the US construction industry, numerous barriers exist that preclude this concept from becoming a standard practice. This research established a clear link between construction fatalities and the design for construction safety concept. Two-hundred and twenty-four fatality investigation reports were reviewed and a link to the design for construction safety concept was determined. The results show that 42% of fatalities reviewed were linked to the concept; the associated risk that contributed to the incident would have been reduced or eliminated had the design for construction safety concept been utilized. The specific characteristics of construction projects were evaluated and those which lend themselves to the greatest risk reduction within the scope of the concept were identified. The US construction industry should implement the concept of designing for construction safety as a standard practice to reduce overall project risks.

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.

Differences in Occupational Injuries, Illnesses, and Fatalities among Hispanic and Non-Hispanic Construction Workers

The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that one in four persons in the United States will be of Hispanic origin by 2050, up from one in eight in 2002. Driven by immigration, this dramatic growth in the Hispanic population will present unique challenges in the workplace. In construction, the increase in the Hispanic population has enabled the industry to meet its workforce demands. Unfortunately, this has occurred with costs in the health and safety of Hispanic construction workers. Using data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' current population survey, current employment survey, survey of occupational injuries and illnesses, and census of fatal occupational injuries, this study examines relative differences in injuries, illnesses, and fatalities between Hispanic and non-Hispanic construction workers by occupation. The findings show that differences in injuries, illnesses, and fatalities exist between Hispanic and non-Hispanic construction workers, although not always unfavorably toward Hispanics, and the difference does vary by occupation. The implication of the increasing size of the Hispanic construction workforce with respect to construction safety and health training needs is discussed.