Improve Construction Site Safety Research Articles

Investigation of Unsafe Construction Site Conditions Using Deep Learning Algorithms Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles.

The rapid adoption of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in the construction industry has revolutionized safety, surveying, quality monitoring, and maintenance assessment. UAVs are increasingly used to prevent accidents caused by falls from heights or being struck by falling objects by ensuring workers comply with safety protocols. This study focuses on leveraging UAV technology to enhance labor safety by monitoring the use of personal protective equipment, particularly helmets, among construction workers. The developed UAV system utilizes the tensorflow technique and an alert system to detect and identify workers not wearing helmets. Employing the high-precision, high-speed, and widely applicable Faster R-CNN method, the UAV can accurately detect construction workers with and without helmets in real-time across various site conditions. This proactive approach ensures immediate feedback and intervention, significantly reducing the risk of injuries and fatalities. Additionally, the implementation of UAVs minimizes the workload of site supervisors by automating safety inspections and monitoring, allowing for more efficient and continuous oversight. The experimental results indicate that the UAV system's high precision, recall, and processing capabilities make it a reliable and cost-effective solution for improving construction site safety. The precision, mAP, and FPS of the developed system with the R-CNN are 93.1%, 58.45%, and 27 FPS. This study demonstrates the potential of UAV technology to enhance safety compliance, protect workers, and improve the overall quality of safety management in the construction industry.

Implementing Improved YOLOv5s for Immediate Identification of Helmetless Forklift Drivers

Implementing Improved YOLOv5s for Immediate Identification of Helmetless Forklift Drivers

Analysis of Building Construction Jobsite Accident Scenarios Based on Big Data Association Analysis

Analysis of Building Construction Jobsite Accident Scenarios Based on Big Data Association Analysis

Construction site safety and quality analysis utilizing KHNN Model

Improving construction site safety through effective hazard identification and mitigation is critical. This study aims to predict rework, defects, and associated costs using artificial neural networks and optimization algorithms. Traditional safety planning approaches lack pre-construction hazard analysis. To examine deficiencies, various metrics were analyzed, including rework costs per $1M scope and injury rates. Ineffective safety practices like inadequate training and protection have led to accidents. This work identifies approaches to enhance worker safety performance through hazard identification. Inputs to a neural network model predict rework workers, defects, and costs. Safety execution aims to systematically identify hazards before construction. Model performance using actual data was evaluated. Two soft computing methods - artificial neural network and optimization algorithms - were implemented in MATLAB. Krill herd and grey wolf optimization techniques optimized hidden neuron weights in the neural network structure. Predictions from these algorithms outperformed other existing methods like particle swarm and genetic algorithms. This study provides a framework to quantitatively forecast rework, defects, and associated costs through systematic pre-construction hazard analysis and modeling. The proposed optimizationenhanced neural network models can help construction managers implement targeted safety improvements.

Construction Site Hazards Identification Using Deep Learning and Computer Vision

Workers on construction sites face numerous health and safety risks. Authorities have made numerous attempts to enhance safety management; yet incidents continue to occur, impacting both worker health and the project’s forward momentum. To that end, developing strategies to improve construction site safety management is crucial. The goal of this project is to employ computer vision and deep learning methods to create a model that can recognize construction workers, their PPE and the surrounding heavy equipment from CCTV footage. Then, the hazards can be discovered and identified based on an analysis of the imagery data and other criteria including weather conditions, and the on-site safety officer can be contacted. Our own dataset was used to train the You Only Look Once model, version 5 (YOLO-v5), which was put to use as an object detection model. The detection model’s performance in tests showed promise for fast and accurate object recognition in the field.

Significant Factors Contributing to Accidents Occurrence on Construction Site

This paper aims to determine the significant factors contributing to construction site accidents in the Malaysian construction industry. As the party who carry out the construction work on site, the perception of Grade G7 contractors on the factors was gathered using questionnaire surveys. The 155 responses were obtained and analysed using descriptive analysis. The result reveals that there were nine (9) significant factors causing the construction site accidents namely lack of training, lack of safety culture, lack of regular inspection for material and machinery, lack of measurement of site condition, lack of safety meeting or toolbox meeting, lack of personal protective equipment (PPE), lack of supervision by the supervisor in charge, lack of communication between manager and workers and attitudes of the workers. The findings of this study are crucial and must be put more concerned to reduce the occurrence of accidents and improve construction site safety performance in Malaysia. Adequate planning of activities, investment in safety and safety consciousness should be the major concern by the contractor and needed to be done constantly till zero-accident is realised on every site.

Ambient Intelligence to Improve Construction Site Safety: Case of High-Rise Building in Thailand.

The relatively high rate of injuries in construction is not surprising, as site work by its very nature ranks highly on fundamental risk factors. Working at heights often magnifies these risk factors. The literature reveals that falls from heights accounts for a large percentage of injuries in construction worldwide. Thailand is no exception, where fall accidents constitute the majority of high-rise construction accidents despite preventive measures being implemented. This paper examines how the use of a simple Ambient Intelligence (AmI) system—a device comprising a microcontroller, microwave sensors, Light Emitting Diode (LED) and audio alarm—could help to affect safety behavioural change of on-site construction workers in order to decrease the potential for fall accidents. An experiment was conducted at a high-rise building construction site in Bangkok, Thailand to examine the effectiveness of the AmI in helping workers mitigate the risk of falling from heights. The analysis of the data collected over two work weeks from the pre- and post-AmI application using X-bar charts and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed a significant reduction of about 78% in the number of workers passing through the fall hazard zones. The finding established the potential of a simple AmI for reducing the risk of fall accidents.

Extraction and analysis of construction safety hazard factors from open data

Construction is one of the most injury prone industries worldwide. Concerns of health and safety of the employees in construction sites have been a vastly discussed topic for decades. In many countries, companies are required to report safety incidents by using catastrophe investigating report in their workplaces to relevant authorities whereby such data is made publicly available under the open data policy. These open datasets may be well structured or may require further preparation in order to be usable. Some datasets are in the form of reports, which require qualitative, textual analysis to extract insightful information. The purpose of this study is to extract safety hazard factors from an open dataset obtained from the US Occupational Health and Safety Administration, and to further analyse such factors using statistical analysis techniques. For each reported case, text analysis was carried out with the narrative data field describing the circumstances leading to safety incidents to extract safety hazard factors. These hazard factors were categorized into human factors, technical factors, external environmental factors, organizational factors and other factors. The results showed that hazards related to human factors are most common. Descriptive statistics also showed that the most frequent nature of accident was fractures and most frequently occurring accident event was falls to the lower levels. Such information can help to provide insights into the accidents occurred and how relevant authorities may devise strategies to improve construction site safety.

Best practices to improve construction site safety, in the specific conditions of processing plant building

Construction and installation work at large industrial sites are a major challenge both in terms of meeting deadlines and ensuring healthy and safe working conditions. Force majeure circumstances that require rapid and adequate response often occur at complex sites. Construction site safety is one of the most important things during a construction project. The main reason is the accidents that occur. Presented paper’s target is to shed more light on some good practices, which can lead to improved occupational health and safety. Author experienced such practices in specific conditions during processing plant construction. Such facilities are characterized by installation of special large-scale mineral processing equipment, including work in explosive atmosphere. Moreover, outdoor work in severe weather conditions is performed very often. Another very important, and at the same time difficult task, is coordinating many people, working for contractors and subcontractors. Some of the most important factors in such practice, which have a key role in the successful realization of that type of project will be discussed.

Image-based construction hazard avoidance system using augmented reality in wearable device

Abstract Construction sites are inherently dynamic due to continuous resource changes. As construction projects become bigger and more complex, this dynamism can lead to more frequent incidents on jobsites. Safety training, personal protective equipment, and regulations have been applied to improve the safety of construction sites. However, because of the dynamic and congested nature of construction sites, these practices still cannot guarantee safety. This paper proposes a vision-based hazard avoidance system that proactively informs workers of potentially dangerous situations. The system enables workers to recognize and consequently avoid dangers before accidents occur by displaying augmented hazard information on a wearable device. The system comprises of three modules; a vision-based site monitoring module that utilizes image capture device and wearable devices to identify site hazards, a safety assessment module that uses captured image data and fuzzy-based reasoning to evaluate the safety level of each object, and a visualization module that provides actionable information such as hazard orientation, distance, and safety level. The safety information provided by the proposed system can mitigate hazards and improve construction site safety.

LEED-Certified Projects: Green or Sustainable?

Sustainability is one of the hottest topics these days. Its usage has been increasingly expanding over the last 20 years. In construction, the number of sustainable designs and green buildings has been growing since the 1990s. Nowadays, at least 70% of construction businesses use some green technologies or practices (CPWR 2013). Sustainability represents a comprehensive mission that incorporates the achievement of environmental stewardship, economic prosperity, and social responsibility. A project should not be called sustainable unless these three elements are incorporated into its practices and processes (Gambatese et al. 2007; Rajendran and Gambatese 2009). Sustainability is a moral and ethical obligation (Hinze et al. 2013), and therefore project teams are morally and ethically responsible for addressing not only environmental issues but also life-cycle safety challenges. Life-cycle safety is a holistic approach considered during the early stages of the design process of a facility to ensure that the safety, health, and well-being of all people (construction workers, building users, and maintenance personnel) are addressed throughout a project’s lifetime. ASCE Policy Statement 350–Construction Site Safety emphasizes that “Improving construction site safety [within a project] requires attention and commitment from all parties involved” (emphasis added) (ASCE 2012). The aim of this article is to discuss whether a truly holistic perspective of sustainability that encompasses all necessary ingredients (ecological factors, economic benefits, and social considerations, including life-cycle safety) exists in today’s industry. Sustainability in construction is often measured by the level of Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification issued by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). Therefore, the goal of this article is to theoretically examine the completeness and effectiveness of the USGBC’s LEED rating system from a holistic view of sustainability.

Health hazards, risk and safety practices in construction sites – a review study

This review attempts to identify the health hazards, risks and causes of poor safety practices in construction sites. In addition, the differences in safety practices in both developed and developing countries and methods to improve construction site safety are discussed. Effects of some health hazards are chronic while some are acute. Mostly reported acute health hazards are “workers fall from height” and “electric shocks”, while mostly reported chronic health hazard is “exposure to hazardous substances”. Lack of awareness about site safety and dislike to wear Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) were identified as main causes of poor safety practices in construction sites. One of the major needs with regard to the construction industry is to enhance professionals’ interests in active safety management and implementation of awareness programs, which must be developed and implemented among construction workers. Awareness on possible risk factors and knowledge on how to reduce these risk factors among workers and contractors will enhance site safety. ENGINEER, Vol. 48, No.03, pp. 35-44 2015

Design and implementation of an identification system in construction site safety for proactive accident prevention

Identifying accident precursors using real-time identity information has great potential to improve safety performance in construction industry, which is still suffering from day to day records of accident fatality and injury. Based on the requirements analysis for identifying precursor and the discussion of enabling technology solutions for acquiring and sharing real-time automatic identification information on construction site, this paper proposes an identification system design for proactive accident prevention to improve construction site safety. Firstly, a case study is conducted to analyze the automatic identification requirements for identifying accident precursors in construction site. Results show that it mainly consists of three aspects, namely access control, training and inspection information and operation authority. The system is then designed to fulfill these requirements based on ZigBee enabled wireless sensor network (WSN), radio frequency identification (RFID) technology and an integrated ZigBee RFID sensor network structure. At the same time, an information database is also designed and implemented, which includes 15 tables, 54 queries and several reports and forms. In the end, a demonstration system based on the proposed system design is developed as a proof of concept prototype. The contributions of this study include the requirement analysis and technical design of a real-time identity information tracking solution for proactive accident prevention on construction sites. The technical solution proposed in this paper has a significant importance in improving safety performance on construction sites. Moreover, this study can serve as a reference design for future system integrations where more functions, such as environment monitoring and location tracking, can be added.

RFID-Based Real-Time Locating System for Construction Safety Management

AbstractThis paper presents the development of a radiofrequency identification (RFID)–based real-time locating system (RTLS) for safety management. The particular focus of this paper is the creation of the RTLS, which provides accurate and robust localization performance in construction sites where it is otherwise very difficult to maintain signal availability because of many (moving) obstacles. Adopted were the Time of arrival method as a localization method, the Chirp spread spectrum as a wireless networking technology, and the Assistant Tag as a way to maintain enough signal availability for effective communication. In addition, the developed RTLS uses RFID to retain the latter’s benefits (e.g., data storage, transfer capability, relatively inexpensive installation cost). To demonstrate the RTLS’s localization performance, two case studies have been conducted; the results show great potential for use in improving construction site safety management.

Improving construction site safety through leader-based verbal safety communication

Background The construction industry is one of the most injury-prone industries, in which production is usually prioritized over safety in daily on-site communication. Workers have an informal and oral culture of risk, in which safety is rarely openly expressed. This paper tests the effect of increasing leader-based on-site verbal safety communication on the level of safety and safety climate at construction sites. Method: A pre-post intervention-control design with five construction work gangs is carried out. Foremen in two intervention groups are coached and given bi-weekly feedback about their daily verbal safety communications with their workers. Foremen-worker verbal safety exchanges (experience sampling method, n = 1,693 interviews), construction site safety level (correct vs. incorrect, n = 22,077 single observations), and safety climate (seven dimensions, n = 105 questionnaires) are measured over a period of up to 42 weeks. Results: Baseline measurements in the two intervention and three control groups reveal that foremen speak with their workers several times a day. Workers perceive safety as part of their verbal communication with their foremen in only 6-16% of exchanges, and the levels of safety at the sites range from 70-87% (correct observations). Measurements from baseline to follow-up in the two intervention groups reveal that safety communication between foremen and workers increases significantly in one of the groups (factor 7.1 increase), and a significant yet smaller increase is found when the two intervention groups are combined (factor 4.6). Significant increases in the level of safety are seen in both intervention groups (7% and 12% increases, respectively), particularly in regards to 'access ways' and 'railings and coverings' (39% and 84% increases, respectively). Increases in safety climate are seen in only one of the intervention groups with respect to their 'attention to safety.' No significant trend changes are seen in the three control groups on any of the three measures. Conclusions: Coaching construction site foremen to include safety in their daily verbal exchanges with workers has a significantly positive and lasting effect on the level of safety, which is a proximal estimate for work-related accidents. It is recommended that future studies include coaching and feedback at all organizational levels and for all involved parties in the construction process. Building client regulations could assign the task of coaching to the client appointed safety coordinators or a manager/supervisor, and studies should measure longitudinal effects of coaching by following foremen and their work gangs from site to site.

Virtual Environments for Improving Construction Site Safety

This paper aims to present a visual simulation technique for improving construction site safety based on virtual construction environments (VCE). Additionally, the paper presents a framework to conduct true ‘what-if’ analysis related to the safety of the construction site, and a case study for validating the presented methodology. This research will add a new dimension to be further investigated, through collaborative research efforts, with respect to the nD project initiated at the University of Salford in the UK.

Importance of safety considerations in site layout and organization

Site layout and organization are important management functions which influence all aspects of work on a construction site-from construction methods and sequence to health, safety, and productivity. The design of site layouts is often arbitrarily carried out without a full evaluation of all the relevant factors. The organizational framework within which many projects are carried out also leaves much to be desired with lack of adequate structures and facilities for managing safety. In many cases, site and project managers tend to focus on considerations such as optimizing productivity without adequately taking into account the health and safety implications. This is despite the fact that there is major scope for preventing, or minimizing, the effects of many construction site accidents through appropriate site layout design and organization. This article examines the need for safety to be integrated into site layout and organization at the earliest possible stages of a project. It reviews previous studies and explores the legal framework within which many contractors in the United Kingdom operate. Guidelines for the integration of safety considerations into site layout design and organization are also presented. The benefits of improving construction site safety through better site layout and organization are highlighted.(A)

Improving safety behaviour using goal setting and feedback

Describes the development and effects of behaviourally‐based management techniques in improving construction site safety. In phase one, goal‐setting and feedback methods were developed and tested on six sites in the North West of England. A 40‐week longitudinal research design was adopted in which measures of safety performance were taken before, during and after the application of these methods. The measures included four categories of measurement: access to heights; site housekeeping (site tidiness); scaffolding; and use of personal protective equipment (PPE) – with PPE used as a control. The results showed that: safety behaviour can be objectively and reliably measured; goal setting and feedback can produce large improvements in safety performance; the commitment of site management appears to enhance their effectiveness. Eleven major contractors have provided us with 22 sites which are participating, or have participated, in a larger follow‐up study that aims to assess whether contractors are able to implement these techniques themselves. Early results are highly encouraging, though analysis indicates that the mechanism by which the intervention influences behaviour is less direct than classical goal‐setting theory would suggest.