Addressing construction worker safety in the design phase: Designing for construction worker safety
Introduction
In the past decade, construction worker safety has become a major concern of the United States construction industry. This is due in part to the high costs associated with construction worker injuries, including the costs of workers' compensation insurance, the indirect costs of injuries, the increased chance of liability suits, and also the rise in criminal prosecutions of employers who allow work in unsafe conditions. While many construction parties might ultimately bear a portion of these costs, the responsibility has primarily been placed on the employer, typically the general contractor.
Through the highly litigious nature of the U.S. construction industry, many parties have been brought into litigation regarding worker injuries. This is especially true of owners, a party to the construction project which is often viewed as possessing the most resources. As a result, many owners have become more concerned about safety performance on their projects. Increased concern is evident in contract language which has tended to become more proactive on safety. It is also evidenced through the increased role that owners now play in monitoring project safety during construction. In addition, owners commonly award contracts to firms who have demonstrated the ability to deliver projects safely.
Despite the changes that have taken place in past years, there remains one party that has not been involved in safety. This party is the designer. Safety has been a topic which, all too often, is overlooked until the start of the construction phase. This practice ignores the effect that designers have on construction safety. Perhaps no one has previously considered the role that designers play in influencing construction safety.
Designers play a very real role in influencing construction worker safety. It is the design that dictates how a project will appear and how a particular project or its components will be assembled. The methods of assembly are often not recognized as being dictated by the designers. In reality, designers influence many decisions about how construction tasks are undertaken. Unfortunately, designers have not been cognizant of their influence and, as a profession, they have not acknowledged the importance or relevance of their role in safety. Some designers have stated that, in order to minimize their liability exposure, they deliberately avoid addressing construction safety.
In the United States, designers are being encouraged by some owners to specifically address construction worker safety in their designs. Designer involvement in the U.S. has largely been a voluntary effort. A clear shift from this is occurring in Great Britain where recently enacted legislation, titled Construction (Design and Management) Regulations [1], has imposed an obligation on designers to address safety during the construction phase.
A common problem designers mention when their influence on safety is intimated is that they lack the skills and training to address construction worker safety. While they might admit that their designs impact safety performance, they contend that they do not know how to change their designs to improve or ensure safety. This brings up the need for a central body of knowledge available for designers to address safety in their designs.
Some designers, especially those in design–build firms, already address construction worker safety in their designs. These designers, of course, work with their fellow colleagues who are responsible for construction of the project. By working together in the same firm, they begin to appreciate each other's concerns. For example, the construction personnel might alert the designer of how a particular connection could hinder worker safety. Good ideas will be remembered and used on subsequent projects. It is unfortunate that this design knowledge is not accumulated and stored in a central location for all designers to access. The development of a central body of knowledge is an important first step in improving the way that safety is addressed by designers. This body of knowledge must then be shared by some means with the design community.
Section snippets
Literature search
Ideas on how to design for construction worker safety have not been well-publicized in the past. Literature discussing the subject is sparse. Research and publications on construction worker safety has mainly focused on the constructor's role because Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) places the responsibility for safety on the employer's shoulders. The importance of the designer's role in safety has only been briefly mentioned. There is evidence of a need to educate and
Research methodology
The main objective of this research was to search for and develop design suggestions or `best practices' which could be implemented in the design phase in order to improve safety during construction. The accumulated design suggestions would form the database of knowledge for a design tool to facilitate their implementation.
To fulfill the objective of compiling design suggestions, the research effort focused on the construction community itself. The goal of this effort was to compile as many
Research results
To date, the research effort to collect design suggestions has been very successful. Since the start of the research in early 1994, over 400 design suggestions have been accumulated. All of the design suggestions are included in the final working version of the design tool.
All of the targeted resources proved to be valuable sources of design suggestions. Table 1 reveals that the majority of suggestions came from safety design manuals and checklists. A good proportion also came directly from the
Conclusions
Although interest in construction worker safety in the United States has expanded to owners of construction projects, this interest has not spread throughout the design community. Except for those employed in design–build firms, designers are typically not involved in the safety watch. Designers typically distance themselves from the responsibility for construction worker safety mainly because of their lack of knowledge of safe designs and the possibility of increasing their liability exposure.
Recommendations
Consideration of construction worker safety by designers can eliminate common safety hazards and reduce worker injuries. These benefits lead to a reduction in project costs and liability potential. Although these points are widely understood and accepted, a gap exists between constructors and designers in their knowledge of and commitment to jobsite safety. As a result, information on designing for construction site safety must ultimately be drawn from the construction personnel and transferred
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Present address: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Nevada, 4505 Maryland Pkwy, Las Vegas, NV, USA.