New Method for Measuring the Safety Risk of Construction Activities: Task Demand Assessment
Publication: Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 137, Issue 1
Abstract
The task demand assessment (TDA) is a new technique for measuring the safety risk of construction activities and analyzing how changes in operation parameters can affect the potential for accidents. TDA is similar to observational ergonomic methods—it does not produce estimates of probabilities of incidents, but it quantifies the “task demand” of actual operations based on characteristics of the activity and independent of the workers’ capabilities. The task demand reflects the difficulty to perform the activity safely. It is based on (1) the exposure to a hazard and (2) the presence and level of observable task demand factors—that is, risk factors that can increase the potential for an accident. The paper presents the findings from the initial implementation of TDA and demonstrates its feasibility and applicability on two different operations: a roofing activity and a concrete paving operation. Furthermore, the paving case illustrates how the TDA method can compare different production scenarios and measure the effect of production variables on the accident potential. The findings indicate that the method can be applied on activities of varying complexity and can account for several risks and task demand factors as required by the user. The selection of task demand factors is a key issue for the validity of the method and requires input from the crew and safety management. The limitations of the methodology and the need for further research are discussed. Overall, TDA provides a tool that can assist researchers and practitioners in the analysis and design of construction operations.
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Acknowledgments
The writers would like to thank the management and field personnel of the participating crews for taking the time to explain their work. The research described in this paper is conducted with the support of NSF and the CAREER Award, Grant No. UNSPECIFIED0645139.NSF
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 137 • Issue 1 • January 2011
Pages: 30 - 38
Copyright
© 2011 ASCE.
History
Received: Jun 5, 2009
Accepted: Jun 15, 2010
Published online: Jun 16, 2010
Published in print: Jan 2011
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