Population and Initial Validation of a Formal Model for Construction Safety Risk Management
Publication: Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 136, Issue 9
Abstract
The transient, unique, and complex nature of construction projects makes safety management exceptionally difficult. Most construction safety efforts are applied in an informal fashion under the premise that simply allocating more resources to safety management will improve site safety. Currently, there is no mechanism by which construction-site safety professionals may formally evaluate safety risk and select safety program elements for implementation. This paper introduces and validates a risk-based safety and health analytical model that can be used to evaluate expected risk given specific worker activities, strategically select highly effective safety program elements for implementation when resources are limited, and quantify resulting risk once the identified safety elements have been implemented. Specifically, the paper has three primary objectives: (1) introduce a risk-based construction safety and health analytical model; (2) validate relevant data used to populate the model; and (3) illustrate the applications of the model in practice. The findings of this research indicate that the values used to populate the model are reliable and that the model has the potential to significantly improve construction safety management.
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© 2010 ASCE.
History
Received: Sep 7, 2008
Accepted: Feb 5, 2010
Published online: Feb 11, 2010
Published in print: Sep 2010
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