Liability in Designing for Construction Worker Safety
Publication: Journal of Architectural Engineering
Volume 4, Issue 3
Abstract
The construction industry has evolved from a master builder system into, predominantly, the two separate fields of design and construction. Industry organizations and state legislation have established a boundary between design and construction by defining expected scopes of work and standards of practice. Though the boundary may sometimes appear immovable, repositioning of this boundary has occurred following the development of new knowledge, technologies, and practices. One new area of knowledge that currently challenges the boundary involves construction worker safety. Specifically, new safety knowledge exposes the design professional's significant influence on worker safety. Through this knowledge and a new design tool, designers can now participate in mitigating construction safety hazards. Addressing worker safety can affect one's liability exposure to injured workers. Based on past legal cases and the concepts of practice standards and professional duty, failure to employ the new safety knowledge may lead to increased liability exposure for design professionals within the design-bid-build system of project delivery. As a result, the design community should consider incorporating an effort to design for construction worker safety into its scope of work. Implementation of the new safety knowledge will lead to fewer worker injuries and fatalities, and ultimately a safer construction workplace.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Architectural Engineering
Volume 4 • Issue 3 • September 1998
Pages: 107 - 112
Copyright
Copyright © 1998 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Published online: Sep 1, 1998
Published in print: Sep 1998
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