Measures of Mental Alertness of Construction Workers to Enhance Job Site Safety

The construction industry is among the most dangerous industries, as one in five worker deaths is related to construction job sites. Construction projects are unique in nature with different rationales and requirements. There are safety issues within each step of the construction phase at each project. This study aims to include factors of uncertainty such as performance of construction workers and their state of alertness in their work conditions in response to external stimuli. To address the relationship between human factors and safety concerns at job sites, an exploratory study was conducted to evaluate which factors impact a worker’s perception of the jobsite and how these factors can be used to predict and decrease jobsite accidents. This study is a multidisciplinary project and combines three different domains including construction management, construction safety, and cognitive psychology, to evaluate workers’ perceptions of safety hazards based on their mental alertness. This study is proposed as a pilot study and will pave the way for the further implementation of mental alertness measures at construction projects.