Construction Research Congress 2020: Safety, Workforce, and Education

Once the construction phase for buildings comes to a close, facility owners become responsible for day-to-day operations, maintenance, and renovation (OM&R) needs. These needs can vary depending on the type of facility and can include maintenance and monitoring of electrical, mechanical, and plumbing systems; repair/renovation of cladding and curtain wall systems; and minor modifications of internal walls and layouts; among others. Workers performing these OM&R activities are typically facility management (FM) personnel and technicians, but they may also be hired contractors. Minimal information has been available regarding occupational, safety, and health (OSH) concerns, especially as it pertains to the FM industry, since most available information only reports on construction or a “repair” category. As a result, accurate estimates for incidents for maintenance operations, and modifications to existing facilities after occupancy are lacking. To date, there have been no attempts to review specific FM duties categorically with respect to safety, or to identify the extend of modifications needed to address OSH requirements after occupancy. Current work to identify FM safety needs identified by surveying facility owners in 25 countries is ongoing and aims to develop categories and a foundational review of categorical solutions. Specifically, this paper presents information on types of OSH incidents that occur in various facilities and the facility features that require modifications after occupancy to address the owner’s OSH needs.

Construction companies often track the number of injuries and fatalities, and sometimes near-misses, to quantify and assess project safety performance. The majority of current research studies and new construction projects place an emphasis on onsite safety controls (e.g., hazard prediction and incident prevention). Meanwhile, the long-term health impacts due to construction workers’ unsafe behaviors and the surrounding working environments are rarely mentioned. Many construction workers suffer from physical pains and other types of illnesses after retirement due to thoughtless and careless behaviors while working. In this paper, the authors aim to analyze the factors that impact construction workers’ long-term health based on a systematic review of published research in the areas of both construction and medical science. A list of unsafe construction risk factors that influence workers’ long-term health is identified. The authors also analyzed data from publicly-accessible databases to identify the predominant construction trades that are commonly exposed to the risk factors of long-term diseases. Findings from the study provide solid evidence of the causes and results of construction workers’ long term health, and highlight recommendations for the workers to behave safely while working.

Due to the innate characteristics of the construction industry, including the dynamic and cyclical nature of construction operations, employee turnover rates in construction remain high. The high employee turnover rates present substantial challenges to industry stakeholders. In addition, the construction industry faces a significant shortage of skilled laborers across different work classifications. These persistent challenges make it paramount to initiate a systematic process, based on research and feedback from industry experts, to attract and develop a skilled workforce in the construction industry, and then implement strategies to maintain and retain the developed workforce. A systematic process increases workforce sustainability, a measure of the extent to which a workforce is sustainable. The objectives of the present study were to investigate the foundational attributes contributing to workforce sustainability in construction and potential strategies to address each attribute. A review of literature was initially carried out to identify relevant studies on the topic. After identifying relevant studies, qualitative methods involving content and thematic analyses were employed to identify attributes of construction workforce sustainability. Findings from the analysis indicate that there are eight foundational attributes contributing to construction workforce sustainability, namely: nurturing, diversity, equity, health and well-being, connectivity, value, community, and maturity. In response to the recognized list of attributes, the study identified multiple strategies to assess and enhance each of the workforce sustainability attributes. Construction companies can adopt these strategies to develop and sustain a skilled, motivated, and productive workforce.

Safety behavior among construction workers is essential to construction project safety. There is an urgent need for a deeper understanding of how it occurs, thus providing a theoretical basis for its management. This study devotes to clarifying how safety behavior among construction workers is predicted by safety leadership. A mediator model was established and data was collected from 189 construction workers in China. Results show a positive relationship between safety leadership and safety behavior among construction workers. This relationship is mediated by risk perception of each construction worker. This study contributes to the knowledge of safety behavior by explaining its occurrence through safety leadership, sheds light on the theory of leadership by capturing the role of safety leadership in construction project safety management, and offers construction managers guidelines about how to improve safety behavior among construction workers.

The construction industry is an important pillar of the national economy in many countries, but it is also regarded as one of the most dangerous industries. To lower the rate of construction accidents and facilitate national economic growth, safety control is always the most frequently discussed topic in recent years. In China, government supervision plays an important role in this part by taking regularly inspections on construction sites to ensure control of construction safety. For safety risks such as improper operations or unsafe facilities, the government will take an on-site record and then send formal rectification notices to the contractor to improve the safety condition in time. Based on the methods of text mining and machine learning, this paper analyzes these formal notices issued by the Shanghai Municipal Construction Engineering Safety Quality Supervision Center during 2017–2018. Through text mining, 4,801 rectification notices are first processed by word segmentation, followed with word frequency statistics to obtain safety hazard events with high frequency. Then a library for support vector machines (LIBSVM), integrated software for support vector classification, is used to further classify these potential risks. The result has proved the possibility of the LIBSVM-based construction safety factors classification model for both construction contractors and supervision authorities to better control the overall construction safety situation. The study also reveals that facilities like scaffolds, tower crane, and foundation pit may easily turn into potential hazard sources if they cannot meet corresponding regulations. The findings contribute to a deepened understanding of indicators and facilities affecting construction safety which presents a high frequency of occurrence in construction processes.

In a labor-intensive industry, labor productivity is a critical driver of project performance (cost, schedule, quality, and safety). Unfortunately, the construction industry across all major sectors is experiencing a major shortage in the availability of craft labor which is causing serious productivity concerns. As the shortage invariably causes the existing workforce to experience schedule pressures, it remains unclear how the perceived productivity pressures would influence their safety performance. To holistically understand the antecedents of risk perception, there is a need to examine to what extent, if at all, does the perception of productivity pressure impact the perceptions of risk among construction workers. This paper empirically examines this relationship by using data from a survey administered with 141 workers on a project in Saudi Arabia. Linear regression analysis failed to reveal a statistically significant relationship suggesting that the productivity pressure perceptions do not influence risk perceptions among workers. For construction companies seeking to curtail risk-taking behaviors, this finding establishes the need to further understand and utilize personal and cultural factors alongside work-related factors to achieve desired safety performance results. Future research should seek to control for organizational safety practices, relevant human factors, and personal and task-specific characteristics to gauge the validity of the results noted in this study.

Much research has been performed on construction workers’ hazard recognition skills, which has dramatically increased our understanding of how workers identify and process danger on job sites. Presently, research is fragmented and dispersed across various fields such as psychology, management, and technology. This review summarizes key themes in research that allow us to answer questions: how skilled are craft workers at identifying hazards, what hazards are most commonly identified and missed, what is happening in the brain as different types of hazards are recognized, and what types of techniques have been demonstrated to improve hazard recognition. The primary objectives of this paper are to answer these questions by codifying literature, identify inconsistencies in literature, and to highlight the knowledge gaps that still exist. The review focuses on reporting findings derived from reliable empirical data sources. This paper can serve as a resource for practitioners who cannot review the large and dispersed body of literature and for academics who wish to be informed about the state of the science in hazard recognition.

As a proactive means of preventing struck-by accidents in construction, many studies have presented proximity monitoring applications using wireless sensors (e.g., RFID, UWB, and GPS) or computer vision methods. Most prior research has emphasized proximity detection rather than prediction. However, prediction can be more effective and important for contact-driven accident prevention, particularly given that the sooner workers (e.g., equipment operators and workers on foot) are informed of their proximity to each other, the more likely they are to avoid the impending collision. In earlier studies, the authors presented a trajectory prediction method leveraging a deep neural network to examine the feasibility of proximity prediction in real-world applications. In this study, we enhance the existing trajectory prediction accuracy. Specifically, we improve the trajectory prediction model by tuning its pre-trained weight parameters with construction data. Moreover, inherent movement-driven post-processing algorithm is developed to refine the trajectory prediction of a target in accordance with its inherent movement patterns such as the final position, predominant direction, and average velocity. In a test on real-site operations data, the proposed approach demonstrates the improvement in accuracy: for 5.28 seconds’ prediction, it achieves 0.39 meter average displacement error, improved by 51.43% as compared with the previous one (0.84 meters). The improved trajectory prediction method can support to predict potential contact-driven hazards in advance, which can allow for prompt feedback (e.g., visible, acoustic, and vibration alarms) to equipment operators and workers on foot. The proactive intervention can lead the workers to take prompt evasive action, thereby reducing the chance of an impending collision.

Workers in off-site construction suffer frequent exposure to ergonomic risks that lead to work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs). It is therefore essential to perform ergonomic risk assessments to identify awkward postures and accordingly adjust workplace arrangements to ensure a safe work environment. Numerous studies have been conducted to assess risks. However, trial and error method are typically used to suggest modified settings without adequately investigating dynamic interactions between worker postures and design parameters. This paper presents a framework for a worker-friendly workplace design in off-site construction facilities that achieves lowest posture risk along with optimal workplace configurations to consequently enhance productivity. The proposed approach combines interactive worker-workplace simulation with definitive screening design method (DSD) as a new powerful tool of Six Sigma (SS) to examine correlations between design variables and postures to reach an optimal design. 3D modelling that imitates actual worker motions is developed, and inverse kinematics are then applied to predict how worker’s body reacts to workplace changes for each DSD run. As a case study, the suggested method is implemented to propose an ergonomically friendly workplace for the drywall marking task in an off-site construction plant. The results indicate that the proposed framework enables to identify effective design factors and optimal workplace settings, which yield a risk score for the upper body 0.5187 less than the initially proposed solution according to rapid upper limb assessment (RULA).

Fatigue on construction projects impairs worker efficiency, jeopardizes job site safety, and reduces productivity. This paper presents an innovative fatigue estimation approach that is based on the monitoring of worker heart rate and sleep quality time on construction sites using wearable sensors. An experimental test was developed to simulate a true construction activity. A Borg’s scale of 1 to 10 was used to estimate the fatigue levels of the participants in the experimental test. An experimental pilot study was conducted to monitor the heart rate and sleep quality for three participants using a fitness tracker. Classifiers, such as decision tree, support vector machine (SVM), were then trained using the fitness tracker extracted data. The results obtained showed that the polynomial SVM outperformed all other tested algorithms and was selected for further physical fatigue analysis. The accuracy of the fatigue prediction model was, respectively, 69.23% and 76.92% depending on using heart rate or both heart rate and sleep quality results.

Hand carts are used in nearly every construction trade for material handling. Nonetheless, the use of carts can be strenuous and lead to musculoskeletal injuries. This is particularly the case when carts are used in hazardous working conditions, such as physical obstacles and ramps. Unfortunately, little is known so far about the effects of these physical environmental hazards on cart operations. This study aims at understanding the operating forces required to overcome physical obstacles with a type of four-wheel carts commonly used in the commercial roofing trade. We varied obstacle heights, load weights, space constraints, and tire types in the laboratory experiment to reveal how hazardous an obstacle will be under different working circumstances commonly seen on construction sites. The space constraint is identified to be the most significant factor that determines the operating forces required to surmount an obstacle. This finding suggests the necessity of optimizing workplace layout to refrain workers from overcoming obstacles in a constrained space where the travel distance from cart to obstacle is less than 61 cm. An obstacle begins to yield noticeable impeding effect when it is higher than 3.8 cm, and any obstacle less than this threshold is not very hazardous especially when no space constraint is present. In addition, we found that pneumatic (air-filled rubber) tires are more favorable over solid (polyurethane foam-filled rubber) tires in overcoming obstacles and thus can be a convenient solution if it is infeasible to eliminate obstacles. The research findings can be used as reference information to develop numerical standards for manual cart handling, such as safe load restrictions and operating techniques, to increase ergonomics awareness and prevent musculoskeletal injuries in construction.

Vehicular traffic in construction work zones presents multiple threats to worker safety on roadway projects. One method to ensure workers are seen by passing vehicles is for workers to don high-visibility apparel. Although research suggests that safety vests may increase the conspicuity of construction workers, no research specifically examines the effects of the presence of safety vests on driver’s visual attention in construction work zones. To test this, 16 participants were fitted with wearable eye tracking glasses and were asked to navigate a series of simulated construction work zones on an interactive driving simulator. Each participant was randomly assigned to two simulated environments, one in which workers were wearing safety vests and one in which workers were not. A paired-sample t test was used to test for a significant difference between groups in the mean number of construction workers gazed upon by the participants. The results suggest that workers who don safety apparel in construction work zones are more frequently observed by drivers in simulated environments. This research adds to the body of knowledge by empirically validating the use of high visibility apparel and builds a framework for employing eye tracking technology in both simulated and real world environments.

Pre-service fatigue due to insufficient rest and alcohol intake post high safety risks on construction workers during task execution. Conventional on-site pre-service screening mainly relies on the project manager’s experience and workers’ appearance, due to the lack of a reliable and objective assessment tool. Thus, to fill the gap, this study proposes to design mentally-intensive simulative tasks to assess the fatigue level of construction workers. A hybrid kinematic-electroencephalograph (EEG) signal processing system was developed to quantitatively assess the workers’ mental status so that unqualified workers can be identified before tasks. Protections and training then can be provided accordingly to mitigate the potential risks associated with pre-service fatigue.

As far as construction safety is concerned, the identification and rapid communication of potential hazards before they lead to an accident are crucial. Well-informed workers can promptly take preventive actions and ensure their own safety. Hence, researchers have developed various approaches to detect potential onsite hazards. However, relatively insufficient attention has been given to communicating the detected hazards to workers at risk. Therefore, this research aims to establish a tactile-based communication protocol, which can be used in noisy environments in order to overcome the present difficulty of workers in perceiving hazards. To do this, the study uses a wearable, tactile-sensing system as a means of communication. The developed wearable system is composed of vibration motors, which are wirelessly controlled using Wi-Fi enabled Arduino boards. In this experimental study, the system was tested to determine its reliability in communicating information related to potential collision accidents on construction sites, to enable quick reactions from workers. The field experiment tested various tactile signals containing information about the relative location of the approaching vehicle, type of vehicle, and intensity of hazard. The test results show that the system is reliable in communicating hazard information to workers and allowing hazard perception to be robust, without being limited by adverse construction environments (i.e., limited hearing and vision). The implementation of such a hazard communication system, together with a hazard detection system, would significantly reduce the number of fatalities and injuries related to collisions on construction sites, and thus, ensure safer work zones for workers.

Awkward and extreme kneeling postures required during shingle installation on sloped rooftops generates large muscular tension on lower extremities of residential roofers. This study assessed the effects of kneeling posture and roof slope on the peak activations of knee flexor (biceps femoris and semitendinosus) and extensor (rectus femoris, vastus lateralis, and vastus medialis) muscles that are potential risk indicators of knee musculoskeletal disorders (MSD) in shingle installation. Using surface electromyography (EMG), the authors collected maximum normalized EMG signals from the above-mentioned muscles of seven subjects who mimicked a shingle installation task with kneeling on a slope-configurable wooden platform. The results suggested a significant association of the roof slope, kneeling posture, and their interaction with the peak muscle activation. Except for the vastus medialis muscle of the right knee, significant increase in the peak normalized EMG was observed for all flexor and extensor muscles during shingle installation on the sloped roof surface. Significant interaction between the slope and posture was observed for the flexor muscles of the right knee and vastus medialis muscle of the left knee. Therefore, the large muscle activations during kneeling in shingle installation on high-pitched rooftops should be given particular attention as it might lead to development of the knee MSD among residential roofers.

The construction industry is among the most stressful of occupations. Traditional techniques to evaluate worker stress (e.g., self-assessment and observational checklists) may not be effective in the field because of their potential to interrupt workers’ ongoing tasks. Additionally, these methods are subject to biases. Research in neuroscience confirms that the human brain responds to various stressors, so studying patterns of brainwave activity can lead to strong assessments of subjects’ stress. The authors’ earlier research has monitored worker stress using a wearable electroencephalography (EEG) headset by applying supervised learning algorithms in a binary stress level (i.e., low and high). Despite the success of earlier work identifying excessive stress, there is a gap in knowledge in assessing medium-level stresses. It has been proven that intermittent exposure to medium-level stress decreases not only performance but also concentration and focus. This research attempts to identify multiple levels of worker stress using signals recorded from a wearable EEG headset by applying two supervised learning algorithms, multi-class support vector machines (SVM) and fully connected neural network (FCNN). A stress-related hormone, cortisol, was used as a baseline to label subjects’ stress levels. In classifying three levels of stress, the FCNN yielded a prediction accuracy of 79.26%, which is competitive with previous EEG-based stress recognition methods in a binary setting. This research should help in identifying multiple levels of stress at construction sites and aid early detection and mitigation of high stress in the field.

While females comprise over half of the U.S. population at 50.8% and 21.5% of civil engineering degrees conferred over the past 24 years, composition of executive suite positions in engineering and construction skews decidedly towards males. This current state of practice review collects data on top Engineering News Review (ENR) companies and assesses gender representation in engineering and non-engineering c-suite roles. While overall female engineering leadership percentages are low at 3.9%, select industry segments, highlighted by green engineering and public commitment to diversity, show promise. With a looming workforce turnover and continued globalization, industry will benefit from the introduction of fresh ideas and perspectives, brought by integration in the executive suite.

There is a dearth of research on information needs in construction, though they are the basis for developing information systems. This study aims to develop a methodology for analyzing information needs in construction. The proposed methodology consists of three steps: 1) firstly, activity theory is employed to help define the context in which information needs arise; 2) secondly, interview is employed to identify information needs in each activity; and 3) finally, the identified information needs are analyzed and structured. A case study was conducted to illustrate the application of this methodology. The proposed methodology provides a practical approach for information system developers to identify and analyze information needs in construction.

Safety is paramount to the success of any construction company. Strides have been made to improve safety performance throughout the industry. However, smaller residential construction firms still have a higher accident and injury rate than other sectors of the industry. This research is looking at the development of best practices for smaller firms working mainly in the residential construction industry. A comparative analysis of safety cultures between top performing firms and those with a poorer safety performance is conducted. The findings highlight the key drivers of safety programs for high performing firms that are not implemented in those with poorer safety performance. The research methodology included an initial screening survey with follow up interviews to drill down on key performance indicators. The results are presented in the development of best practices that smaller firms can implement. This paper discusses the methodology used to collect the data and the key performance indicators that were identified as a result of the first phase of the study.

Research about diversity in construction and civil engineering (CCE) has been conducted from both the academic and industrial points of view. Researchers have suggested several strategies to further attract women and ethnic minorities (WEMs) to CCE at both academic and industry levels, mainly due to the skilled labor shortage, as well as to preserve the future success of the U.S. economy. Accordingly, this literature review aims to present the current levels of diversity and inclusion of minorities in CCE at academic and industry levels, while it identifies effective strategies for increasing diversity, recognizes knowledge gaps, and suggests recommendations for future research. The review is conducted by searching relevant papers from leading construction management and engineering education peer-reviewed publications. The findings indicate that although the low participation of minorities in CCE industries and education has been studied a few times from a gender point of view, it has not received adequate attention from the ethnicity perspective, especially at the academic level. This paper contributes to the body of knowledge by bringing together information related to the underrepresentation of WEMs in CCE academia and workforce environments and identifying the potential reasons for this low participation.

Identifying hazards on construction worksites is a critical component in safety management. Traditional practice relies on the experience and knowledge of safety managers to identify jobsite hazards, which is subjective and leaves many hazards unidentified. A promising alternative is to use wearable biosensors, which can detect physiological responses such as electroencephalogram (EEG), heart rate (HR), and electrodermal activity (EDA) to identify hazards in real time. Since physiological signals from human body show abnormal patterns when a person encounters/perceives a hazard, understanding such patterns may lead to improved detection of jobsite hazards. In this context, this paper examines whether and how the analysis of workers’ emotional responses allows the identification of a safety hazard. The proposed method involves three steps: collecting and preprocessing EEG raw data, measuring workers’ emotional states using a bipolar dimensional emotion model, and establishing the relationship between the workers’ emotional states (e.g., fear, nervous, and displeasure) and the existence of safety hazards. Laboratory experiments are performed to simulate hazards on the jobsite. The results demonstrate the feasibility of utilizing workers’ collective EEG data to identify safety hazards in construction environments, particularly in the context of valence levels.

Finding the characteristics of construction accidents will be beneficial to make appropriate safety strategies and policies. However, due to the socioeconomic backgrounds, the characteristics of construction accidents vary from different countries or districts. The purpose of this study is to identify the spatiotemporal characteristics of fatal construction accidents in China and to explore the causes related with behavioral factors. With the data of 4,061 fatal construction accidents in China, the spatial and temporal features were examined. The behavioral factors were also analyzed applying the technique of human factor analysis and classification system (HFACS). The results show that the numbers of accidents and fatalities differ greatly by months, weeks, hours, provinces, and regions. These differences may be affected by various organizational, managerial, and individual factors. Behavioral factors are critical for 4 main types of accidents: fall, object striking, collapse, and hoisting injury. 23 common unsafe behaviors such as failure to detect warning signs of accidents in time are explored related with these accidents. The results indicate that safety practitioners should pay attention to the spatiotemporal variances of construction accidents and focus on the behavioral factors. The flexible safety plans involving more human factors may be necessary in order to reduce construction accidents and to keep the sites safer.

Employees’ engagement in safety is commonly identified as an important contributor to workplace safety within construction industry. Research has supported the effect of work stress on safety performance, while there is a lack of focus on the influence of safety stressors on safety citizenship behaviors (SCBs). The current study investigated the effects of the three components of safety stressors (safety role ambiguity, safety role conflict, and interpersonal safety conflict) on predicting two SCBs: proactive and prosocial safety behaviors. By collecting the data from 280 workers located in Chinese construction sites, the partial least squares (PLS) analysis result reveals that safety stressors have different effects on proactive and prosocial safety behaviors. The results show that safety role ambiguity and safety role conflict are more effective on hindering proactive safety behavior, while interpersonal safety conflict is more effective on hindering prosocial safety behavior. The findings emphasize the effects of different roles of safety stressors on SCBs and give managers a more detailed understanding of which practices devote to improving workplace safety.

Highway maintenance crews conduct various work operations, such as roadway repairs, bridges maintenance, landscaping, snow removal, etc. The proximity to speeding traffic, the extreme work environment, and the movement of large equipment and materials expose highway maintenance workers to various types of hazards and risks. Yet, the safety of highway maintenance crews received minimal attention in the literature. In response, a safety toolbox was designed previously to help highway maintenance supervisors to prepare for pre-task safety talks tailored to specific highway maintenance operations. Although the toolbox intervention is a common practice in the construction industry, the designed toolbox was the first try of such intervention in the highway maintenance sector. This paper presents a summative evaluation conducted to assess the effectiveness of safety toolbox talks on safety awareness among highway maintenance crews. The evaluation was performed by conducting baseline and post-use safety knowledge assessments to evaluate participants’ knowledge gain, and reaction assessment to evaluate participants reaction and attitude towards the intervention. The results showed that presenting relevant customized safety knowledge in the form of pre-task safety talks significantly improved safety awareness among highway maintenance crews. The study suggests that toolbox interventions can be effectively utilized to improve safety awareness among highway maintenance workers.

Women are under-represented in the construction industry and comprise only 9.9% of the total workforce. Further, prior research on women in construction is limited and heavily focused on recruitment and retention in academia. Therefore, research in workplace dynamics is needed to identify and address workforce recruitment and retention issues. Building from prior research conducted in engineering, this study aimed to identify personal and organizational factors associated with persistence within the field of construction. Persistence and personal factors were measured through the administration of a survey covering several areas: self-efficacy and outcome expectation, organizational support for work-life balance and training development, occupational commitment and satisfaction, and turnover intentions. Results suggest that women that persist in the field of construction do differ from non-persisters in their level of occupational commitment and perceived ability to navigate within their organization’s culture (organizational self-efficacy). Organizational self-efficacy and career resilience (occupational commitment) were shown to be significant predictors of persistence within the construction industry explaining 71.8% of the variance. These research findings will raise awareness and opportunities for companies to address recruitment and retention of women within the field of construction.

Psychosocial safety climate (PSC), an important measure of the psychological safety of employees and organizational health, has become a significant factor affecting psychological capital and thus affecting the outcome of engineering projects. This study aims to analyze the mental health and safety of construction workers in different situations. Based on 124 valid questionnaires collected from participants in Qianhai, Shenzhen, and 502 valid questionnaires from Guangzhou, this paper analyzes the PSC of engineering construction projects using the four-factor scale (PSC-12) from four dimensions of management support and commitment, management priority, organizational communication, and participation. It is found that, compared with ordinary engineering construction projects, there are higher PSC levels in megaprojects: the individual level of subjective initiative, the pursuit of self-worth, organizational level of funding, and political orientation can also effectively improve the PSC level. These research results can deepen the understanding of the PSC of engineering construction projects, and provide a practical reference for its improvement.

This paper seeks to identify the impact that commute patterns pose on construction labour productivity. There is limited research focused on the impact of workforce transportation on productivity, even fewer in a construction environment. In particular, this study seeks to fill a gap in the understanding of how commute patterns may influence construction labour productivity. Key factors reported affecting construction labour productivity were identified through a comprehensive literature review. Data were collected from 27 interviews as well as observational evidence at construction sites on Auckland CBD. Shortage of skills, communication among workers, shirking behaviour, absenteeism, and tardiness were perceived as the most critical labour productivity factors in the surveyed construction sites that are influenced by commute patterns. It is considered that stressful commutes may lead to shirking behaviours (absenteeism, calling sick), meanwhile, ridesharing may encourage communication among workers. The research outcomes can be used as guidelines for companies considering travel plans for their employees, in order to minimise the negative impact commuting can have on workers, especially in industries with low productivity. The study was carried out in an urban context, focusing on a geographic area with its particular characteristics, with a small number of interview participants. The results thus, may not be generalised in rural settings.

The prefrontal cortex is considered to play an important role in the safety inspection. Little, yet, is known about individuals’ brain activity and its related factors during the hazard search process. This research aims to explore the influence of related variables on the prefrontal cortex activity. Forty-seven participants performed the hazard search task in a civil engineering laboratory presenting the common construction safety hazards, including fall, strike-by, fire protection, and poor housekeeping. A wearable near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) system was used to measure their hemodynamic responses in the prefrontal cortex. Site familiarity, safety knowledge, and risk tolerance were investigated as predictors of the oxygenated hemoglobin responses in the prefrontal cortex through hierarchical regression modeling. We found that the explanatory variables distinguished significantly (p<0.05) the concentration changes of oxygenated hemoglobin (ΔO₂Hb) in the medial prefrontal cortex during hazard search. Site familiarity accounted for 16.6% of the variance of ΔO₂Hb in the medial prefrontal cortex and made the largest contribution to it. The findings lay a foundation for further exploring individuals’ brain activity during hazard recognition and finding out the associate influence variables. That will serve safety managers’ purpose of figuring out effective measures for improving the employees’ safety inspection performance.

Owners’ safety management behaviors in the construction industry are attracting increasing attention. However, previous research mostly focused on specific safety management practices on construction sites but ignored the influence of safety leadership and safety culture on owners’ safety management behaviors. To fill this gap, this study aimed to develop an influencing mechanism involving owners’ safety leadership, safety culture, and safety management behaviors. First, a series of interviews and archives studies were conducted in two large real estate developers in China to identify safety management dimensions that can significantly impact construction safety practice. Then, a questionnaire related to owners’ safety management behaviors was developed, and the influencing mechanism was empirically tested. The results show that owners’ safety leadership and safety culture could directly and positively impact owners’ safety management behaviors in the construction industry, and that owners’ safety culture could act as a significant mediator in the relationship between safety leadership and safety behavior. These findings can help the academia to advance the understanding of safety management behaviors, and enable the industry to further improve the safety performance of the construction safety.

Literature on construction safety have reported the importance of hazard recognition to any safety management initiative. The persistence of poor safety records of the construction industry has been linked to the inability of workers to recognise and manage work hazards. This is certainly among the major reasons for the growing research interests on the improvement of hazard recognition performance of construction workers. To avert the negative consequences of poor hazard recognition of construction workers, it is important to understand the factors that influence their hazard recognition capabilities. This will enable the development of appropriate strategies to improve the level of hazards recognized and managed by the workers, thereby achieving the desired improvement on the general safety performance of the construction industry. This paper reports on efforts to provide empirical evidences of factors influencing hazard recognition capability of construction workers. A total of 53 factors were identified from literature and validated with 14 construction experts. The factors were grouped as personal, organisational, social, and project factors. The paper is the first step in a larger study aimed at developing a model for evaluating hazard recognition capability of construction workers.

Identification of hazards is the first step in accidents prevention. As hazards can be caused by different energy sources, the awareness of all the energy sources is key to identifying potential hazards and creating a safe environment. Accidents result from the interaction of energy, equipment, or materials, and one or more people, and the potential hazards associated with such interaction can be identified based on the energy sources recognition. A lack of understanding of the presence and magnitude of an energy source often results in an accident. As a result, it is important to identify highly innovative and effective hazard recognition strategies such as implementing techniques to avoid future accidents. This study analyzes fatalities and catastrophes data inspected by federal or state OSHA in the past 5 years. Modern machine learning techniques are deployed to power this study: 1) text mining for hazard report extraction and 2) multidimensional visualization for geospatial analysis. The outcome can assist personnel involved in high-risk activities to identify and control the potential hazards unique to each activity and job. As a result, energy sources posing dangers would be effectively managed and eliminated.

Independently, work preferences have been studied for many years across a variety of disciplines and industries. However, the correlation among these attributes in the construction industry has not been examined. These relationships would help to understand if dimensions of human factors like emotions, fatigue, safety, cognitive demand, job satisfaction, and motivation act independently and discretely, or systematically to improve performance. This paper introduces the concept of human factors (HF) climate for the first time and explores the theoretical relationships among potential dimensions. The HF climate can be defined as the holistic method for studying the perceived psychological, physiological, and emotional impacts of work on human resources. Literature has revealed that most studies examine individual human factors independently and only a few pairwise relationships have been explored. To date, there is no study to examine human factors as a system or climate, although most studies use perception-based surveys and acknowledge that different aspects of human factors do not act in isolation. The goal of the HF climate is to replace the study of one or two dimensions (e.g., safety) at a time and allow us to consider the interrelationships among multiple dimensions simultaneously.

A safe, efficient, and effective transportation system is essential for the growth and stability of the nation’s economy and the lifestyle of its inhabitants. The effectiveness of the transportation infrastructure and service industry depends heavily on the ability to recruit and retain a highly skilled and qualified workforce. Public transportation agencies are currently facing unprecedented challenges in preserving the workforce necessary to function effectively and will need robust strategies to maintain workforce resiliency by recruiting, promoting, and retaining quality staff needed to construct and maintain public transportation infrastructure now and into the future. As industries across the United States experience a shortage of skilled talent, the potential impact to the rural workforce, which could severely impair the operation of rural infrastructure systems, has not been independently analyzed. This study investigates the challenges leading to potential workforce issues within state departments of transportation (DOTs) located within United States Department of Transportation Region 6 States (Louisiana, New Mexico, and Texas). The primary emphasis of this study is to access the current outlook of the urban DOT employee regarding rural regions of their DOT and how this compares to the outlook of a rural DOT employee. The findings show that DOTs have a more difficult time recruiting and retaining employees in their rural regions, morale is lower for DOT employees that work in rural areas, and rural DOT employees feel that DOTs are not addressing their needs. These results will help bring light to a growing concern about DOT employment in rural areas. Future research will then look at the differences between the rural and urban DOT workforce to help DOTs strategize their hiring and retention practices.

Hazard recognition is a fundamental skill required for nearly all construction injury prevention activities. Unfortunately, researchers have consistently found that work crews identify and discuss less than half of the hazards that they face in a typical work period. Fatigue has shown to compromise workers attention and reaction capabilities. However, the effect of fatigue on hazard recognition (HR) performance has not been previously studied. This paper studies this relationship by leveraging empirical data collected from 155 electrical power transmission and distribution line (TD) workers in the U.S. The level of fatigue of TD workers was assessed using the psychomotor vigilance test (PVT) and their ability to identify hazards was documented by the visual inspection of three different construction scenarios. Spearman correlation statistical analyses were performed, and the results indicate a negative correlation between fatigue and HR ability (r = - 0.21, p=0.015). These results emphasize the importance of improving fatigue management in construction to improve awareness and prevent injuries. Additionally, collecting data in the field enhanced the ecological validity of this work, complementing laboratory studies, and providing confidence that the relationship is pervasive in the field.

Construction is one of the riskiest industries in the United States, as well as the rest of the world, with one of the highest fatality and injury rates. While workers accept the fact that their job presents a higher chance of getting injured or being involved in a fatal accident than jobs in some other industries, that acceptance does not necessarily mean that workers in construction are unconcerned risk takers. To understand risk-taking, and what factors into it, a better understanding of workers’ willingness to take risk is needed. This study examines workers’ willingness to take safety risk and their perception of reward, and the implications of the risk-reward balance on risk-taking. The study is based on qualitative analysis methods. By examining answers by 37 construction workers to interview questions, the study results present five different themes under which construction workers view risk-taking. The identified themes are: (1) safety is prioritized over reward; (2) high risk for high reward; (3) working for less compensation for better safety conditions is unacceptable; (4) safety is preferred, but more risk is also acceptable; and (5) willingness to work in any job as long as there is pay. Cutting corners to get the job done was the most frequently cited reason for taking a risk. The findings of this study contribute greatly to the construction safety field and, specifically, the understanding of risk-taking in construction. The outcomes of this study are expected to be of importance to both field safety managers in the way they address workers’ risk-taking, and to academics in addressing potential impacts and other knowledge gaps associated with risk-taking in construction.

Diversity and inclusion have profound impacts on business performance and economic prosperity in the United States of America. Many government agencies and professional organizations have programs such as small, disadvantaged, women, minority, veteran-owned, or service-disabled veteran-owned business enterprises. Different programs provide different, sometimes overlapping means and methods to promote diversity and inclusion, ensure nondiscrimination, and offer supportive services to these businesses. This paper presents a comparative analysis of programs used by contractors and consultants and highlights unique differences in objectives, qualifications, regulations, and limitations. The analyzed programs include but are not limited to small, disadvantaged, minority, and women business enterprises. The comparative analysis informs contractors and consultants to use programs in emerging continuums of business development and promote diversity and inclusion of business enterprises in construction.

Increase in chronic diseases amongst the U.S. workforce results in reduced productivity and increased medical care costs. The shortage of manpower against the growing demand has also forced many workers to work overtime multiple days a week. It is therefore important to study and understand a worker’s health holistically, considering not only physical health but also mental health, work-life balance, stress, and safety. Total worker health takes factors relating to geography, industry, workload, family, travel time, etc. into consideration and thus, is a comprehensive approach to interpret worker health and well-being. This paper aims to study the total worker health of the people employed in the construction industry. An anonymous survey was conducted with worker participants from various construction trades in Seattle, the crane capital of America in 2018. Analysis of the survey results highlighted aspects that could impact total worker health in construction. One of our findings indicated that workers who put in the most physical effort had trouble sleeping at night. The physical demand and pace of work also seemed to be the contributing factors to troubled sleep. Age of the workers was found to play an important role in the commuting patterns and one’s ability to maintain a work-life balance. We consider this preliminary understanding of the important aspects key to designing sensible measurements (e.g., well-being index) as well as strategic interventions to promote the well-being of construction workers and facilitate a positive work environment for the industry.

The increasing globalization of the construction industry has produced new challenges on safety since more construction supervisors and workers will transit to different regions or countries for work. It is important to ensure they understand the local work culture and regulations to avoid safety accidents. Considering this, investigating safety culture and performance in different locales can facilitate understanding across jurisdictions. In this paper, data were collected in the province of Ontario in Canada and the state of Texas in the USA to compare several dimensions of safety culture and performance and to uncover their shared and distinct characteristics. Four safety culture factors were found to be significantly different. For safety performance, differences were observed in the number of reported physical injuries and unsafe events while psychological stress symptoms were similar in both regions. It is also found that safety culture factors may influence safety performance differently between the regions. The findings of this paper provide insight into safety cultures in Ontario and Texas, and valuable guidance to global construction companies for designing safety training programs aimed at international workers. This study facilitates future research on global safety benchmarking and learning with sound evidence.

Construction project managers (CPMs) experience a great deal of stress and encounter the problem of job burnout. Job burnout of CPMs has been proved to cause health problems, turnover intention, and low job performance. Previous studies have focused on the relationship between task stressors and job burnout of CPMs. While the interpersonal stress also influences the job burnout. CPMs need to conduct emotional labor (surface acting) when have interpersonal interaction with stakeholders and team members. The emotional labor may influence the work-to-family conflict of CPMs and lead to job burnout. Therefore, this study aims to explore how surface acting and work-to-family conflict influence job burnout of CPMs. Data collected from 163 CPMs in China were analyzed by partial-least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to verify the theoretical hypotheses. The results suggest that both surface acting and work-to-family conflict have positive effects on job burnout. Besides, the work-to-family conflict mediates the relationship between surface acting and job burnout. This study extends emotional labor in the project context and explores the mediating effect of work-to-family conflict between emotional labor and job burnout of CPMs. This study also provides some practice suggestions on decreasing job burnout of CPMs.

The construction industry has long been a major contributor to worldwide occupational injuries and fatalities. The construction industry in Lebanon, a developing country, is no exception in contributing thousands of occupational injuries annually. Previous studies concluded that most Lebanese contractors do neither adopt proper safety practices nor properly implement safety manuals, especially with the absence of governmental enforcement and safety control. Moreover, insurance companies aggravate the existing problem through adopting shaky methods of evaluating premiums, which solely considers the contractor’s unreliable history of accidents. As such, a contractor safety index is proposed, which aims to assess a contractor’s safety status by evaluating the safety practices that the contractor implements. This index can be used by insurance companies when evaluating premiums can motivate contractors to enhance their safety practices in order to achieve a lower premium rate. The current paper presents and analyzes the results of a survey conducted with contractors and insurance companies to evaluate common construction safety practices that will be adopted within the proposed index. Results can help identify which practices would be more impactful on work progress and insurance premiums according to the perspectives of contractors and insurance companies respectively. Findings of the paper aim to improve the existing safety standards and promote a safety culture in the construction industry in Lebanon and other developing countries.

The development of both a good safety climate and a strong learning climate have been espoused as desirable for construction organizations. However, while safety climate research in construction has seen much attention in recent years, learning climates have been examined mostly in a wider context and relatively rarely within construction. As learning organization initiatives are implemented in construction, it is important to understand how the dimensions of learning organization climate may synergize with dimensions of safety climate. The aim of this study is to explore whether these dimensions are complementary or discordant in a construction context. Using a thematic comparison method, climate dimensions identified in previous literature are compared with themes taken from survey questions used to measure both safety and learning organization climate. The outcomes provide insights gained from the theoretical linkages between the dimensions. These findings can be used both to enable industry to better develop formal processes for organizational learning from safety events and implement general learning organization initiatives into the industry without compromising safety.

In a densely populated city like New York City (NYC), more than 14 thousand buildings are mandated for the façade safety inspection program to ensure public safety. Current inspection process relies on visual inspection by certified inspectors. Photos and sketches are adopted to document the findings during each inspection. Existing construction code from city departments provides the general information of a façade safety program, while a generic checklist that an inspector can follow for each exterior enclosure type is missing. The existing way of capturing building data and defects are ineffective for understanding and not sufficient to provide a holistic view of the façade condition for the review process. This paper provides details and results of three shadowing works conducted with façade inspectors to capture the workflow that façade inspectors follow on different exterior enclosure types. The shadowing results were analyzed to examine the information inspectors collect during the inspection for each component and defect type. Initial findings, presented in this paper, provide evidence for the need for streamlining the existing façade inspection process with an approach that could guide the data collection and decision-making and enable the collection and identification of such information completely and accurately.

Globally, construction is among the most dangerous industries. Among others, research has demonstrated that construction workers and professionals fail to recognize and manage an unacceptable number of safety hazards. To address this, past research has focused on examining several factors including training, education, and management support that may indirectly influence hazard identification and management performance. However, proximal factors associated with poor hazard identification and management at the work interface has received very little attention. This paper summarizes our research aimed at (1) understanding why workers fail to identify and manage safety hazards as they participate in hazard recognition and management efforts and; (2) developing evidence-based interventions to counter poor hazard identification and management performance in the construction industry. This includes examining hazard recognition as a visual search task and understanding how search pattern (i.e., how workers examine the work environment) affects hazard recognition performance. More specifically, the research used eye-tracking technology to examine the relationship between how workers examine the workplace and the resulting hazard identification performance. Based on this new knowledge generated, new interventions were developed to improve hazard recognition and management performance. These include two interventions. First, an immersive hyper-realistic mixed reality training environment that was developed using stereoscopic visual data captured from real construction workplaces. The testing of the intervention with 56 participants suggested that the intervention can significantly improve hazard identification and management performance. Second, an AI-based system that detects hazardous conditions and objects in real-time to assist workers and managers. The system uses the live video captured by a wearable camera to localize the workers on a pre-built global map, detect any hazard present around the worker, and warns them in real-time. The system is tested in indoor and outdoor construction environments, which indicate 93% accuracy in detecting workers’ proximity to hazards.

Workers in the construction manufacturing industry are often exposed to the three primary causes of work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs): awkward body posture, forceful exertion, and repetitive motion. The investigation of the physical demands of body movement is thus needed during the design of machines and workstations to minimize WMSDs. In the context of the construction industry, this paper proposes the implementation of immersive virtual reality to ergonomically test the design of new workstations/machines with a particular focus on the assessment of human body posture. The application of VR techniques allows the testing of workstations and machines in a virtual environment that imitates their real operational settings while significantly reducing costs and implementation time. To demonstrate the applicability of VR to perform ergonomic risk assessment, a VR experiment is developed, and a pilot test is conducted. Information on body motion is collected and assessed using an existing risk assessment tool, rapid upper limb assessment; as a result, tasks with high ergonomic risks, in terms of awkward body posture, are identified. The obtained body motion data can be also used by engineers, industrial designers, and managers, to support decision making and thus results in improved machinery and workstation design.

Demolition is a dangerous and complex activity which requires sound knowledge. Demolition works involve highly hazardous activities which lead to high risk for workers and surroundings. Moreover, in order to implement of redevelopment policy, many old structures will be demolished in near future in India. Therefore, current demolition practices need more focus on site planning which involves assessing the potential health hazards of workers involved in demolition of structures. This study aims to investigate the hazards and its severity on workers’ health during the execution of demolition works. Knowledge acquisition approach has been used to capture the demolition profession through an extensive analysis of the data gathered by visiting sites and questionnaire survey. Fifty questionnaires were collected from different ongoing demolition sites. Analysis of structured questionnaires and observations reveal that the workers are mostly exposed to excessive noise, dust, or flying particles, and most of operators are often not provided with safety accessories on sites. This study identifies negative impacts of major hazards such as noise, vibration, and dust emission with their level of influence on workers’ health during demolition process. Outcomes of this study will expose the kind of risks prevailing at demolition sites to draw the attention of practitioners to take remedial measures accordingly.

Despite widespread acclaims for their potential to curb the number of injuries occurring in the construction industry, safety interventions and technological advances appear to have failed to fully achieve their safety objectives, perhaps due to risk-compensation effects, i.e., the possibility that workers protected by these interventions will increase their risk-taking because of an increased sense of security. While previous literature showed that an individual with a higher tolerance for risk is more likely to engage in risk-taking behavior, no studies have empirically examined the relationship between risk tolerance and risk-compensatory behavior within the construction-safety setting. This study aimed to examine whether the effect of providing safety interventions on risk-taking behavior depends, to some degree, on the workers’ outcome expectations and risk tolerance. To do so, immersive multi-sensor mixed-reality with passive haptics was used to capture the naturalistic risk-taking behavior of roofers. Participants were asked to complete a roofing activity under three experimental conditions, i.e., various levels of safety interventions. Real-time location tracking sensors, physiological sensor, the cognitive appraisal of risky events survey (baseline), and semi-structured interviews were used to study workers’ risk-taking behavior in each experimental condition. The results showed that roofers with a higher level of risk tolerance are more likely to be involved in riskier activities or take more risks even when they provided with all required safety interventions. This study raises the need to communicate to workers and safety managers that safety interventions only moderate injury risk but does not necessarily guarantee the complete prevention of injury, particularly if the worker has a high-risk tolerance (i.e., at-risk workers). The results of this study can empower safety managers to identify—with a certain degree of accuracy—which workers are more likely to be involved in risk-compensatory behaviors.

The earthquake on April 25, 2015, in Nepal damaged thousands of houses; thereby leaving millions of people homeless. Most of the damaged buildings were mud and brick or stone bonded load-bearing structure. After the earthquake, there has been a lot of building reconstruction and renovation works going on in Nepal. During this phase, homeowners have faced many challenges such as inaccessibility to the construction site, scarcity of materials and equipment, and workforce shortage. Although few studies have explored the challenges during reconstruction in general, a thorough understanding of factors contributing to the obstacles is lacking. The objective of this paper is to present a detailed analysis of the factors contributing to building reconstruction and renovation challenges. A thorough literature review and interviews were conducted which helped to identify critical factors contributing to building reconstruction and renovation challenges. This study identified the top significant factors among reconstruction challenges in Nepal after the Gorkha earthquake. The top five significant factors are: a) dispute among family members on property, b) vested interest and corruption, c) lack of skilled laborer, d) lack of adopting and updating building codes, and e) lack of proper training on how to use new tools and techniques. The study also ranked the building materials and typology that suffered most damage during the Gorkha earthquake. Unreinforced mud or adobe building, unreinforced brick masonry building with mud mortar and timber floor, and stone masonry building with mud mortar were critical in each case. The findings can be used by construction professionals to improve their management strategies during pre-construction and be aware of top contributing factors during reconstruction and renovation process. The results will also help project managers, field engineers, and contractors in the understanding of building materials and typology that are vulnerable to earthquake.

Despite decades of research focusing on reducing workplace injury rates, construction workplaces continue to report an unacceptable number of fatal and non-fatal injuries. While a number of efforts have focused on identifying best practices to improve construction safety performance, little research has focused on holistically understanding weaknesses in implementing these best practices. Such knowledge can provide strategic directions to the industry on better tackling the safety challenges experienced in the industry. Towards advancing knowledge in this area, the current research focused on gathering data from 57 construction workplaces regarding the level with which universally accepted safety management best practices have been implemented. More specifically, the study examined the role played by the management, the supervisor, and the workers in cultivating a workplace that promotes workplace safety climate and safety performance. The study identified common problem areas experienced across the participating workplaces. For example, some of the most significant problem areas included (1) workplaces where workers frequently ignored safety rules and policies to meet schedule objectives, (2) workplaces where workers fail to report hazards and stop work when appropriate due to deadlines, and (3) workplaces where the management did not immediately follow up and fix safety issues. The findings of the study can be used by industry practitioners to improve workplace safety management practices.

The construction industry is among the most hazardous industries in the United States, associated with a high number of accidents. Workers’ fatigue has been recognized as one of the four major causes of fatal incidents in this industry. Therefore, early identification of workers’ fatigue in a project could support accident prevention. To this end, the objective of the present study is to develop a framework to detect workers’ fatigue by examining their gait patterns measured by a three-axis accelerometer embedded in a smartphone. The application of accelerometer sensors in a smartphone is useful because it can record gait-pattern data at the construction site (not just limited just to a controlled environment). To achieve this objective, five construction workers were asked to participate in this study by recording their gait patterns before and after a fatigue-inducing exercise. Related time features were extracted and selected to train the classifier. Finally, supervised-learning algorithms [e.g., linear and nonlinear support vector machines (SVM)] were adopted to detect workers’ fatigue in different working conditions. The study results indicate that workers’ fatigue was detected at an accuracy of 87.93% and 82.75% using the linear and nonlinear SVMs, respectively. It is expected that these findings will provide useful guidelines for early prediction of physical fatigue and therefore enable project managers to make informed decisions in improving worker safety.

Many accidents happen every year in the construction field. Accidents increase costs and construction time. Accordingly, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration has relevant safety regulations for the construction industry. Integration of construction safety strategies into the design phase can prevent potential safety hazards. Most accidents occurring in this field are falling from the roof. Therefore, this paper has narrowed the scope of this study to falls from the roof and has developed the knowledge modeling based on the safety rules provided by OSHA. To apply safety rules at the design stage automatically, safety knowledge or information must first be understandable by the computers. In this study, the knowledge system was developed through ontology modeling using the ontology editing program Protégé. The developed ontology model has two superclasses. These include information on building components based on the most widely used building information modeling program, and knowledge about roof-related safety rules provided by OSHA. The safety plan must include safety accidents and rules as well as their countermeasures associated with the components at the design stage. This paper is the first step to safety management at the design stage, which is the development of ontology modeling so that software can recognize and understand the construction safety knowledge and information. Beginning with this modeling, if there is a potential risk of violating rules related to construction safety requirements, all relevant safety controls are carried out at the design stage. In other words, the design will be completed, and the safety management plan will be finished before construction starts so that the accidents will be prevented during construction.

The construction industry still leads the world as one of the sectors with the most work-related injuries and worker fatalities. Recent studies show that both a state of mindfulness and various personality traits contribute to individuals’ safety and work performance. This study examines the relationship between mindfulness and personality by measuring the mindfulness state of individuals against their personality traits. To achieve this objective, data were collected from a sample of 55 undergraduate students at George Mason University. Scores from the Big Five Inventory were ranked by each trait’s score (independent variable) and split into three groups: high, moderate, and low scores. The corresponding mindfulness scores (dependent variable) were analyzed to determine the relationship between high/low personality traits and mindfulness. Comparing the high/low groups using statistical analyses showed that three of the five personality traits—conscientiousness, agreeableness, and neuroticism—significantly correlate with individuals’ higher mindfulness scores. As mindfulness has been shown to increase individual safety and work performance and to reduce stress, the results of this study help inform future work into translating personality and mindfulness characteristics into factors that predict specific elements of unsafe human behaviors.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how construction workers rely on each other on-site in terms of safety. The paper outlines how safety-oriented social networks of construction workers can be modeled to better understand the safety communication practices on site. Then, the paper presents how workers’ social networks affect their safety habits, confidence, risk perception, and overall perspective towards safety. In this regard, a social network survey is conducted, and the respondents’ social network data are collected using a personal network research design (PNRD) approach (also known as ego-centric networks) to study the connection between the individuals (ego) and their close contacts (alter). The gathered network data were used to establish their peer-to-peer relationships and quantify the influence of social network characteristics and communication patterns on their safety perspective. This social network analysis incorporated various socio-demographic factors (like experience, gender, race, degree of closeness, and network density) and the consequence of those variables on workers’ attitude towards construction safety. The findings from this study provide insights on the significance of different social dimensions and their impact on construction safety culture and performance. The results show how individual safety behavior and perception defer based on their social ties and interactions. The findings will also guide safety managers and decision-makers to improve safety culture on construction sites by offering a more holistic approach to safety management.

Despite containing a wealth of information pertaining to construction accidents, accident investigation reports have traditionally been used to understand the immediate cause of accidents and keep statistical records. Such analyses only provide insight into what has happened on-site and are classified as lagging indicators of safety. This study intends to explore the potential of using accident investigation reports as a predecessor to reveal latent factors that can potentially lead to an accident. In this regard, accident investigation reports were manually annotated to tag the type of injury precursor, energy source, accident type, and injury severity. By studying a large volume of accident reports, a more comprehensive knowledge of which conditions and factors have resulted in which type and severity of accidents were generated. This paper also presents a framework to automate such an analysis process by proposing an automated natural language processing-based method to distill crucial information from a tremendous amount of readily available accident reports. This study will help industry practitioners to discover hidden factors causing accidents and provide guidance to avoid accidents on site. This study will also assist safety managers to prioritize operations based on potential hazards and pay more attention to activities that seem harmless but have led to a significant loss in the past.

Cognitive processes have been found to contribute substantially to the human errors that lead to construction accidents. Working memory is a cognitive system with a limited capacity that deals with storage and active processing and is critical to a number of different processes. As a departure in construction industry research, this study correlates attentional allocation (measured via eye tracking) with working memory to assess workers’ situation awareness under different scenarios that expose workers to various hazards. To achieve this goal, this study merges research linking eye movements and workers’ attention with research focused on working-memory load and decision making to evaluate what, how, and where a worker distributes his/her attention while performing a task under different working-memory loads. Path analysis models then examined the direct and indirect effect of different working-memory loads on hazard identification performance. The independent variable (working-memory load) is linked to the dependent variable (hazard identification) through a set of mediators (attention metrics). The results showed that the high-memory load condition delayed workers’ hazard identification. The findings of this study emphasize the important role working memory plays in determining how and why workers in dynamic work environments fail to detect, comprehend, and/or respond to physical risks.

One of the main contributors to the human errors that lead to catastrophic injuries in the construction workplace is the failure to identify hazards as a result of poor attention or cognitive lapses. To address this safety concern, the present study used eye-tracking technology to assess how the association between work experience and hazard identification may be mediated due to inattention. A mediation analysis was conducted and tested using a bias-corrected bootstrapping technique with 5,000 resamples. The results estimate the direct and indirect effects of work experience on the hazard identification skills of construction workers observing varying hazardous conditions. The results of the mediation analysis confirm that inattention—demonstrated via inattentiveness toward hazards—mediates the relationship between work experience and hazard identification. Specifically, though work experience and dwell time positively correlate with hazard identification, the direct effect of work experience on hazard identification is attenuated with the inclusion of the mediator variables in the model, thus suggesting attentional impairment offsets the benefits of work experience. The outcomes of this study will enable researchers and safety practitioners to harness real-time eye-movement patterns to identify the precursors of cognitive failure, deficient attentional allocation, and poor visual search strategies, all of which may put workers at risk on construction sites. The results also facilitate the design of training interventions that will address unique performance deficiencies in workers to prevent the human errors that cause injuries in dynamic environments.

Natural disasters frequently occur, endangering those not adequately prepared, and impacting the health and safety of those involved in the recovery process. While studies have been conducted regarding health and safety protocols post-disasters, these rarely portray the critical conditions in developing countries. Such studies identified multiple types of hazardous waste that are generated post-disasters; however, safe and sustainable waste management is still a significant challenge, especially in developing countries. Additionally, health and safety trainings are rarely given priority during disaster waste management (DWM), resulting in severe consequences. The exposure to hazardous waste causes life-threatening health issues (i.e., cancer, and dermatitis). This study identifies major health and safety issues in current DWM practices by utilizing the case study of Nepal’s 2015 earthquake especially as it is still undergoing its recovery process. Since a major earthquake and several aftershocks damaged multiple districts in Nepal, large amounts of hazardous waste (i.e., lead, mercury) generated had the potential to harm human health significantly depending upon the duration of exposure. These mismanagement actions pertaining to disaster waste demonstrate the high potential to impact human health and safety adversely. Unfortunately, in developing countries many local volunteers, without prior training to handling hazardous waste and proper knowledge of personal protective equipment (PPE), were involved in DWM. This paper contributes to the literature of health and safety issues during DWM in developing countries by (1) conducting more than a hundred semi-structured interviews with people involved in post-DWM to recognize means of managing disasters; and (2) determining barriers and catalysts of implementing safety protocols, to identify key health and safety threats. The results of the study can be utilized to promote safer hazardous waste management post-disasters.

Construction workforce shortage is a well-documented issue facing the built environment. Rapid rise in the number of projects, and the shortage of skilled workers are primary drivers of construction workforce shortages. Despite being less documented, the roofing industry has not been immune these challenges. In this study, current workforce challenges in the roofing industry were examined. This entailed: quantifying skilled and unskilled labor shortages, examining impacts at national and regional scales, as well as identifying potential solutions. A survey methodology was adopted to collect data from roofing contractors across the United States (n=405). Groups for regional analyses were defined based on the four census region used by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. This study suggested that labor shortages in the roofing industry are more severe than previously established. Across the United States, 90% of roofing contractors had faced labor shortages over the past year, with the West being the most severely affected. There is a shortage of both skilled and unskilled workers, and the former was more significant across all regions. Among the impacts of labor shortages, increased cost was the most dominant at both national and regional scales. The South had the highest level of subcontracting out work, and the West the lowest. Other dominant impacts included: project overruns, reduced quality of work, increased employee turnover, slowdown in business growth, etc. Attempted solutions were: wage adjustments, enhanced benefits, policy reforms, training, etc. These results merit detailed industry specific workforce studies to explore relationships with demographic and market variables. Our findings suggest that workforce challenges require strategic organizational adaption tailored to regional roofing markets.

The use of drugs and other intoxicating substances has always been a widespread issue in the construction industry leading to the loss in productivity, cost over-runs, legal issues, and absenteeism, in addition to fatal accidents and deaths. In particular, laborers working under the influence of intoxicating substances are also harmful to the construction business in terms of possible economic losses caused by an accident. The current systems of mitigation like written policies, awareness programs, and drug testing prevalent in the industry may curb the problem to a certain extent but they too have their limitations and drawbacks. This study conducted a survey of industry experts (academicians closely associated with the industry) and professionals to examine: 1) the major impacts of substance abuse in the construction industry, 2) the awareness of industry professionals regarding the issue, and 3) the feasibility and efficiency of the current practices in its mitigation. The objective of the study was to explore the three above mentioned areas through the survey, and to verify whether the findings are in support of the facts obtained from the literature study of previous research in this area. It was concluded in this study that there is a considerable gap in the level of awareness regarding drug risk among construction professionals working at various positions. In addition, the present systems adopted by the industry, as mentioned above, to put a check on substance abuse are not adequate and a more versatile method is required.

Much of the construction safety research has focused on designing, developing, and delivering training interventions. However, desirable levels of safety performance have not been achieved; and poor safety performance continues to be a global issue in the construction industry. In fact, evidence suggests that the bulk of training investments do not yield desirable levels of returns or benefits. This is partly because training practices adopted in the industry rarely leverage the best practices for training—that have been identified in the broader research literature. This article presents an overview of the large body of research by summarizing: (1) barriers to effective safety training as experienced in the construction industry, (2) limitations, shortcomings, or weaknesses of widely adopted traditional training programs, and (3) emerging and non-traditional training methods that seek to address current challenges. The research objectives were accomplished by conducting a comprehensive review of the literature across fields, including educational psychology, adult learning, occupational safety, and construction engineering and management. Apart from setting an agenda for future safety training research, it is expected that this review article will serve as a resource for both industry practitioners and the research community that seek to tackle the safety issues experienced in the construction industry.

Visual field observations are critical in construction project management. Cost reduction and increases in data usability have made RGB cameras more prevalent on construction sites, expanding capabilities of the modern construction manager. The eyes of a construction manager are irreplaceable tools which monitor and subjectively evaluate construction activities. The variety of “right” and “wrong” ways to complete a construction task make the automation of visual field operations a difficult task. Existing vision-based methods are limited to RGB-depth cameras which are rarely used on construction sites. This paper presents a method for using deep learning techniques to aid the automatic recognition of construction worker activities from RGB camera footage and to what extent can computer vision accurately detect construction worker activity. OpenPose human estimation algorithm was used to create 2D human pose samples of construction activities using RGB cameras. The samples are used to train and test a time distributed feed forward neural network with LSTM Keras model classifier. The results of this work in progress set the stage for improving the usefulness of visual data for project management in a variety of construction scenarios and other labor-intensive sectors. Monitoring the safety and productivity of construction workers will become more efficient allowing much-needed increases in our capacity to develop and maintain infrastructure.

Currently, the U.S. construction workforce is aging faster than the next generation is being trained. While an insufficient workforce will cause major issues with the advancement of infrastructure, it also causes less discussed worker health safety hazards. Traditional experiential learning is a major limitation of the construction industry’s growth rate due to the non-availability of real environments, time, and training supervisors. Virtual reality (VR) allows for a virtual environment to efficiently mimic dangerous, expensive, and difficult to set up training scenarios. This paper presents an exploration of a virtual approach to training future construction workers. VR environments and a RGB camera based pose estimation pedagogical tool are evaluated for their ability to improve the training process of future construction workers. Study participants will be assessed on their ability to learn, identify, and assess health safety risks, specifically proper lifting and postural techniques associated with construction tasks. Findings of this work in progress will provide quantified learning gains by measuring training time, changes in behavior, and risk assessment ability; and a qualitative understanding of the experience in the virtual environment through participant interviews. Findings from this study transfer to a much-needed digitization of pedagogical approaches for blue collar industries.

With the increased adoption of energy storage and microgrid (ESAM) systems around the world, there is a need to develop comprehensive training programs to ensure the safety of electrical workers who work on these systems. Virtual reality (VR) has been applied to education in many fields and proven to be valuable in improving learning. However, systematic research evaluating the pedagogical value of VR training for electrical workers in dangerous environments is minimal. This research focused on the development of two VR training scenario including walkthrough and situational assessment. Researchers evaluated training with participants using both an immersive model in a head-mounted VR display and a presentation with videos taken from VR model navigation. A focus group meeting was conducted along with surveys to collect information regarding the value, feature needs, perception of learning, and future uses of VR for the training of electrical workers. The results show that immersive VR training is more valuable than video-based training in supporting knowledge understanding, engaging participants, and increasing skills to perform tasks. The focus group discussion demonstrated that features like immersion, ease of control, and constant navigation were important in immersive VR training. Participants also suggested developing additional hazard management scenarios and considering the use of augmented reality (AR) for future training.

Construction is one of the most hazardous industries. Construction workers fail to identify a large proportion of hazards in their workplaces and underestimate the associated safety risk of hazards that they identified. Past research has shown that the safety attitude of construction workers plays a key role in their safety performance. However, the impact of safety attitude of workers on their hazard recognition and safety risk perception has yet to be empirically tested. To bridge the gap in knowledge, the current study aimed to quantify the impact of workers’ safety attitude on two key indicators of their safety performance: hazard recognition and safety risk perception. One-hundred and thirty-five construction workers from several active construction projects located in the Middle East region participated in the study. The safety attitude of workers was measured using a verified instrument. Then, a set of pre-evaluated construction case images were presented to the workers to quantity their hazard recognition and safety risk perception. Statistical analysis of the data revealed that construction workers who had a positive safety attitude (a standardized safety attitude above the average) identified a higher percentage of hazards and perceived a higher level of safety risk compared to the workers with a negative safety attitude (a standardized safety attitude below the average). The results of this empirical attempt are aligned with past research emphasizing the role of safety attitude in the safety performance of construction workers. The findings can help professionals and practitioners to implement safety practices that foster safety attitude of construction workers.

The construction industry has a high rate of fatal and non-fatal occupational accidents. Every year, over 60,000 construction workers lose their lives due to accidents in the workplace. Construction workers often face safety and health risks performing construction activities in hazardous environments. In addition, construction activities are demanding which in turn can lead to fatigue. In fact, fatigue is one of the leading causes of construction accidents. To prevent accidents, workers must be able to recognize hazards in their workplaces and perceive associated safety risk. This study aimed to empirically investigate the impact of fatigue on construction workers’ hazard recognition and safety risk perception. To achieve the research goals, 135 construction workers were recruited. First, the workers’ level of fatigue was measured using OFER scale. Then, their hazard recognition and safety risk perception were evaluated using pre-evaluated case images all captured from real construction projects. The results of the study revealed (1) a correlation between fatigue and hazard recognition and (2) a significant correlation between fatigue and safety risk perception. This research is the first endeavor to empirically study the impact of fatigue on safety performance (i.e., hazard recognition and safety risk perception) of construction workers. The findings of this article will be beneficial for professionals and practitioners who are seeking effective measures to improve the safety performance of workers in construction.

Safety inspection on construction sites is critical for safety management, and understanding the hazard recognition strategies caters for inspection training and construction safety management. Scanpaths generated from the eye movement data of the inspectors reveal information on hazard searching strategy. However, few studies have investigated scan patterns of hazard recognition in the construction industry. This paper aims to explore visual searching strategies through eye-tracking scan patterns for construction safety inspection. An experimental study with 47 participants was designed to identify hazards in a pseudo construction site, and the scanning data were collected with a portable eye-tracking device. Artificial intelligence was then used to quantitatively define areas of interest (AOIs) based on the extracted fixation data of all participants. Finally, the searching strategies of the participants who successfully recognized hazards were compared to the strategies of those who failed. The results show that the successful participants follow similar hazard searching patterns, which are different from those of the participants who failed. This paper reports on a conceptual study of hazard searching patterns based on visual scanpaths, contributing to research of the searching strategies for hazard recognition as well as providing practical implications for hazard inspection strategies in construction projects.

Previous research indicates that air quality near the cabs of nonroad diesel equipment may exceed recommended exposure limits for certain pollutants. The objective of this case study was to collect and analyze air pollutant data near the cabs of nonroad diesel equipment while performing real-world activities. Using state-of-the-art instrumentation, the research team conducted 24 tests on nine different items of nonroad equipment. The team collected data related to pollutant concentrations of carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, nitric oxide, nitrogen dioxide, particulate matter, and black carbon. Average concentrations of carbon monoxide and nitric oxide did not exceed published exposure limits on a consistent basis, but their maximum values occasionally exceeded the limits. Carbon dioxide concentrations frequently exceeded recommended levels for adequate ventilation. The most concerning results belonged to particulate matter and black carbon. Concentrations of respirable particulates often exceeded recommended levels on a sustained basis. Overall, the case study yielded enough information to conclude that studying near-cab air quality in nonroad equipment cabs is necessary to reduce hazards related to human health, safety, and productivity for equipment operators.

Increased urbanization, population growth, and economic development within the United States have led to an increased demand for freight travel to meet the needs of individuals and businesses. Consequently, freight transportation has grown significantly over time and has expanded beyond the capacity of the infrastructure systems, which has caused increased challenges in many regions. Trucks are the principal mode of freight transportation and are expected to increase in both value and tonnage. Traffic congestion has impacted the trucking industry and has caused a significant loss of productivity, which costs around 63 billion dollars annually. In order to maintain quality of life and enhance public safety, there is a growing need to dedicate more effort to investigating and planning traffic management, and to assessing the impact of trucks on the highway systems. Traffic diversion strategies can be implemented to mitigate the congested facilities by diverting traffic to potential alternate routes. Therefore, truck diversion decisions should be carefully managed in order to improve the safety and efficiency of the overall network system. The majority of previous studies focused on enhancing the traffic operation of passenger vehicles, rather than that of trucks. Additionally, the consideration of alternate route selection criteria has been limited. There is, therefore, a lack in the attention that has been paid to evaluating and assessing the impact of truck diversion on the performance of the selected routes. This paper presents a review of the incident-induced congestion problem and traffic diversion strategies in recent years. Furthermore, it identifies future challenges and concludes with recommendations for the future application of such strategies.

Safety is a major concern in the construction industry and studies show awareness training has one of the highest positive impact factors in reducing fatalities on construction sites. The main goal of the paper at hand is the creation of a fully immersive VR safety training combining several individual technologies to capture objective data as a reference point for personal feedback after the virtual training, such as motion tracking, eye tracking, augmented virtuality through a realistic power tool controller, and destructible elements within the virtual scene. The motivation for the presented concept is to increase the level of awareness on safety regulations and possible hazards due to oversights in the handling of power tools. The authors use immersive virtual reality technology to simulate real working processes and gather data in a quality seldomly matched by experiments in the real world. This is due to the amount of data generated by the intrinsic motion tracking of virtual reality devices combined with additional eye tracking hardware. In this paper, the authors describe their approach to create a construction safety training that generates precise data to enable individual feedback for the trainees. With requirements gathered in dialog with industry leaders and based on research conducted at the Ruhr-University Bochum the concept was implemented and tested at a craft worker education center. Elements of gamification serve as motivational purposes. In the developed life-like virtual environment, trainees assume the role of a maintenance technician to fulfill certain tasks. Both external factors (nearby workers, machinery, etc.) and internal factors (awareness, handling of tools) determine the success of the task and are therefore tracked and logged. Whenever trainees complete a virtual training, evaluation statistics are generated and can be retrieved by a trainer to offer individual feedback.

It is unfortunately a well-established fact that females and minorities are underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics; this trend holds true for construction engineering also. This raises equity and inclusion issues regarding learning and identification and questions about who students are obligated to be in a setting and who students are becoming in a setting. Considering the context of technical work in relation to engineering identities, such as the attributes of the engineer of 2020, engineering and engineers are positioned as making a difference in the world. This has implications for re-shaping students’ developing engineering identities in ways that have potential for attracting a wider pool of students to the discipline. As part of a larger project that explores this relationship, this paper is a first step in exploring students’ perceptions of engineering identity. In our analysis, we found that students described the typical engineer as a problem solver, analytical, smart, and humanitarian; and described their personal ideal of an engineer as humanitarian, smart, respectable, involved, and organized. This knowledge is the first step towards enabling construction educators to frame disciplinary content in ways that support inclusion of the construction student body and profession.

The inadequate supply of skilled construction craft workers is an issue that currently affects the performance of the construction industry. The performance of the construction industry has a significant influence on the growth of the national economy as well as citizens’ wellbeing. The challenges associated with the construction industry’s skilled worker shortage are cyclical. The cyclical nature is a result of the fact that the demand for construction in the U.S. depends on the performance of the overall U.S. economy. The current study evaluates the nature of the current shortage in the western region of North Carolina. Accordingly, the study examines the data collected by the Mountain Area Workforce Development Board, employing a survey that targeted construction firms. The authors have analyzed 46 completed surveys that were collected during the fall of 2018. Among other findings, the study reveals that the demand for laborers and licensed journeymen is higher than other construction positions such as supervisors and estimators. Also, the study shows that entry-level positions such as laborers have higher employee turnover rates compared to more experienced positions. The research could help develop a certified career pathway that provides short-term training and work-based learning opportunities for the raw construction workforce.

Capstone projects in construction management (CM) can take a wide variety of forms. However, their ultimate goal is to provide students a culminating experience to synthesize and apply business and project management skills that are essential in their future career. Due to the complicated nature of the construction industry, it is often a challenge for educators to design a CM capstone course that can simulate the real-world experience within a very limited timeframe and assess the diverse skill sets. This research presents a pilot study on the design of a two-semester-long capstone series with industry-facilitated team projects and independent research supervised by assigned faculty subject matter experts (SMEs). Different types of team projects were explored with a great range of topics. A set of core competencies were assessed using both direct and indirect measures of team deliverables (which included team project planning, design, and construction documentation), individual reflections, and research papers. The paper shares the course design, findings through student assessments, best practices, and challenges in regards to course management.

There are several metrics used to evaluate academic publications, including number of citations, h-index, and others. While these metrics are directly related to rewards in the academic community, it is debated whether they correctly reflect the true impact of research. As such, there is a need to clearly interpret and understand such metrics. The goal of this paper is to investigate the citation metrics used to assess academic publications in civil engineering (CE) with a considerable focus on construction engineering and management (CEM). The investigation of these two research fields is important since each one of them has its own characteristics. As such, the authors performed a global comparison between the different CE research specialty areas, with the CEM being one of them. On a more specific level, a similar comparison was performed on the different sub-disciplines in the CEM field. In addition, the authors investigated the citation metrics of the most cited publications in CE and CEM. After analyzing 67,800 journal papers, it was found that the number of publications and citations in CEM is lower than other CE specialty areas. The findings revealed also that there are several factors that influence the exposure and popularity of academic publications, such as research community size, connections to other disciplinary fields, and trendiness of the research field. Moreover, it was concluded that a single metric should not be considered alone to assess the quality and reach of publications and authors. However, a more complete and broad perspective is required. Ultimately, this research provides an evidence-based study of citation metrics in the field of CE specialty areas and the CEM sub-disciplines. This research also proposes guidelines that shall be considered when assessing and comparing publications across different research areas or even within the same field.

Today’s engineering and construction education paradigm places emphasis on the broader context of globalization, economics, the environment, and society. Divergent from traditional silo-based, discipline specific models, this broad and complex challenge necessitates the continued investigation of innovative interdisciplinary approaches for engineering and construction education. The 360 degree model for educating socially responsible global citizens developed by the authors (360 Global Ed model) addresses these current needs through a structured approach for developing students as global citizens through purposeful engagement. The 360 Global Ed model includes a theoretical framework, educational environment, academic coursework, and evidence-based outcomes. At the core of the model is an international service learning (ISL) experience. The model’s ISL component provides a collaborative, interdisciplinary classroom environment combined with an authentic international field experience. Six years of a mix-methods research assessment demonstrate the 360 Global Ed model’s outstanding results on the impact of student learning in the areas of global citizenship, personal and professional growth, and cultural intelligence. Additionally, over this period, the authors have also observed positive impacts on the host-country participants of the ISL component. This paper provides a background on the need for globalization, social responsibility and service learning in engineering and construction management education, reviews the 360 Global Ed model for educating socially responsible global citizens, and discusses assessment results on the impact of student learning and host-country teacher perceptions on the challenges and benefits of participating in the ISL program.

One valuable resource in the education of students is learning from current industry professionals. The successful partnership between industry and academics can improve learning outcomes for students, and provides a real-world perspective often missing from academia. One source of industry/academic collaboration is through an industry seminar or lecture series. In these lectures, professionals from different groups within the industry can address students on the topics they feel are the most important and pressing issues of the industry. The objective of this study is to assess the impact of these seminars on past students, evaluate the impact on current students, and identify ways to improve these seminars to have the greatest benefit to student learning. A survey of past and current students from a university with a construction management industry seminar has been created. Collected survey data provided insight into the success of these lecture series. This information can be valuable for faculty to understand the types of topics that should be covered in a lecture series, the topics that are in demand from the industry and current students, and lessons learned over more than 20 years of hosting a lecture series. The paper resulting from this study builds upon findings from similar studies within engineering education. The paper outlines the methodologies of an industry lecture series, and includes a discussion of results for an international survey of industry professionals and current university students. Findings show that specific, clearly defined learning outcomes, detailed feedback from students, faculty, and others participating in seminar, applicable course formatting and development, and overall student awareness can and will increase the quality of participation and the overall effectiveness of college seminars.

According to the most recent ASCE Infrastructure Report Card, there is a significant need to increase the level of effort and resources necessary to improve the nations aging infrastructure. Three general solutions have been proposed, and include investment, leadership and planning, and preparing for the future. Although these solutions require action at multiple levels across a broad spectrum, one area for change is within construction related curriculum. Unfortunately, many academic institutions have siloed construction and civil engineering programs, with minimal curriculum overlap. Much like the increase in integrative project delivery systems, where owners, contractors, and designers communicate more effectively, one specific academic need in addressing this issue is getting these different programs to also communicate more effectively regarding infrastructure education. This paper explores the current status of infrastructure content within construction and civil engineering related curriculum and identifies the need for enriching the infrastructure content within.

The reporting on workforce development and attracting professionals into science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) careers remains a prominent focus in the United States (U.S.). Whether in the construction or engineering sector, a similar crisis exists with maintaining and increasing the professional workforce. Underrepresented minority groups (e.g., women, ethnic minorities, and first-generation college students) are posited as a means to increase not only participation in these fields, but as an untapped resource in other STEM professions. In response, this study analyzes career decisions of undergraduate students in construction management and engineering technology bachelor’s degree programs in the U.S. to understand their resiliency and the role of self-efficacy across disparate groups. An online survey captured responses from nearly 200 student participants including demographic information. Preliminary findings show that females are equally likely to pursue hands-on careers as their male counterparts. In addition, there is no difference between the self-efficacy and resiliency of underrepresented minority groups against the majority racial group. The results from this study aim to dispel traditional notions such as math anxiety regarding female and minorities in STEM field. Moreover, it highlights common student characteristics from which recruiters can use to encourage future students to enter these careers.

Exploring construction education models, defined by the amount of lab or lecture content, and their characteristics, has been a focal point of many studies in recent years. Researchers investigate different aspects of construction curricula and provide guidelines to improve construction education. The range of factors and variables involved makes it hard to draw a solid conclusion and introduce a best-practice teaching methodology. Construction programs offer a curriculum which covers major subjects of the construction field, yet, the depth and breadth of each subject covered vary among construction programs and, hence, setting a benchmark for construction educators is not a simple process. However, addressing different aspects of construction education models provides educators and administrators with pieces to be utilized in a curriculum development process. One of these factors is students’ perception toward educational variables in the time context. Students’ perceptions strongly impact the outcome of a curriculum development program. This paper reports on a study conducted in the construction programs at Mississippi State University and Central Connecticut State University. The educational model of the construction program is different at these two institutions which creates different perceptions in students and faculty toward the construction educational content, and especially the associated time variable. This paper illustrates the similarities and differences of timing perception between two educational models and correlates the model with a variation of students’ perceptions. The results indicate the importance of time perception in educational models to achieve content excellence.

The construction management (CM) profession is expected to grow 11% by 2026, creating 44,800 positions for knowledgeable and skilled professionals. In 2015, women only held 6.7% of the available positions in CM illustrating their underrepresentation within this profession. Recruitment and retention of women within the construction industry and the CM profession is imperative to this industries growth. Current studies on diversity and inclusion suggest that achieving gender equity is not just about equal representation, but an increase in the bottom line. A strong correlation is found between diverse companies and increased profitability through improvement of customer orientation, increased employee satisfaction, and an ability to attract top talent to name a few. However, scholarly literature conducted within the field of CM on the factors influencing women to enter and stay in the field is sparse and often conflicting. Because of the conflicting research, the purpose of this paper is to identify and integrate research findings on the topic and to establish the extent with which the current research literature has clarified the influential factors associated with the recruitment and retention of women within CM programs and the profession. The objectives of this paper are to identify, evaluate, and integrate research findings of scholarly studies conducted within the United States (U.S.) between 2010–2019 regarding the recruitment and retention of women in CM. The paper aims to bring about awareness and educate influential stakeholders to inform practices and policies within the industry to reduce gender discrimination and promote recruitment and retention of women within the construction industry. These findings can also be used to inform future researchers interests in gender equity within CM and male-dominant professions.

Since the 1920s, standardized testing scores such as the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), followed by the American College Testing (ACT) Program in the 1950s, have been used in the college admissions process as an indicator of potential academic success. While only one of the factors considered in the admissions process, the scores are believed to be a way to compare applicants from different high schools and backgrounds. Standardized testing scores are typically used to indicate potential academic success in traditional lecture-based courses based on evidence of a direct correlation between high standardized test scores and future academic success. The construction management curriculum at Mississippi State University follows a problem-based pedagogy, which is a more active form of learning that engages a different thought process than the more passive lecture-based learning. Using ten years of admissions and academic data collected from 144 students who have completed the core studio sequence, this paper seeks to determine whether there is a correlation between standardized testing scores and academic success in problem-based learning. Preliminary results indicate there is a weak direct correlation between standardized testing scores and academic success and only to a certain point. The results of this study can be useful in recruiting and identifying at-risk students.

Construction management education encounters challenges in delivering timely feedback to students given the current significant growth in students’ population. How to provide detailed feedback while finishing the grading efficiently is a question that needs to be addressed. For example, activity-on-node (AON) is a precedence diagramming method to denote schedule activities using boxes. The calculation of AON parameters is an important skill for students. Such calculation must be performed following the logical sequence of activities. The grading of AON calculations is a time-consuming and labor intensive task, especially when the graders have to avoid penalizing students more than once for cascaded errors. In this paper, the authors developed an Excel-based automated grading method for AON calculations, which identified cascaded errors and avoided penalizing students multiple times for cascaded errors. Two case studies grading tests showed that the results of using the proposed method achieved 100% accuracy while reducing manual grading efforts. The proposed automated grading method opens a new door to improving grading efficiencies in construction management education, without penalizing students for cascaded errors or harming the level of details in feedback to students.

Due to the increasing adoption of prefabricated structures/components in the construction industry, the significance of using construction cranes for on-site installations is gradually increasing. As a result of the large size and bulky shape of the prefabricated components, the proper lifting and installation with cranes require better skills and proficiency from crane operators, compared with those performed through traditional cast-in-situ methods. Hence special requirements are needed on the operator training scheme. This paper investigates the operational considerations which a skilled crane operator would take into consideration in the modular integrated construction (MiC) environment. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to verify and rank the considerations with experts, including both operators and training tutors. The outcome reveals that “Overhead” is the top considerations during the operating stage, followed by “High Payload,” “Blinding Lifting,” “Change of Direction,” and “Short Path.” By addressing these operational considerations in training, trainees can be better prepared to avoid the related problems in the lifting of complicated module units. In addition, discrepancies were found in the interview feedback between the tutors’ group and the operators’ group. The findings of this research will contribute to not only the existing MiC crane training scheme but also the future crane operators’ workmanship considering constraints incurred by the modules while implementing this advanced construction method in the Hong Kong industry.

Engineering sectors suffer from lack of diversity, as most women are hesitant to pursue a career in these fields. Since the year 2000, less than fifteen percent of engineering populations and less than eight percent of transportation employees in engineering positions are women. In order to fill this gap, this study aims to host a series of workshops to attract Hispanic female students to leadership and executive positions in construction engineering. Workshops were hosted using two separate sets of modules: one for high school students, one for middle school students. Materials developed for the workshops mainly explored the new civil engineering technologies and their related career opportunities. The research team also explained the fundamentals of successful careers in academia or industry, and introduced women who are successful in both governmental and private entities. To achieve maximum results and encourage constructive discussions, seven females from academia and industry were invited to share their success stories and challenges. To assess the usefulness of the workshops in attracting female students to construction engineering, a survey was developed and distributed. The participants were asked to complete the surveys after the modules were presented and discussed. After a comparative analysis of the completed surveys, it was observed that the program was able to positively change the perception of female students towards pursuing careers in the construction engineering fields as a practitioner or researcher. The study also revealed that the lack of proper familiarization with engineering prospects during their early stages of education is making women timid about pursuing an engineering career. The findings of this study will help educational institutions and experts develop materials that will encourage their female students to explore and study positions in the construction engineering fields.

Interdisciplinary knowledge, skills, and values to develop sustainable built environments is critical for today’s workforce. Successfully integrating such knowledge in curricula in higher education institutions remains challenging: few evaluation tools exist that can measure interdisciplinary student learning outcomes and when they exist, tools primarily measure student perceptions instead of student learning outcomes. To address this gap in the literature, this research (1) conducted a literature review bridging four disciplines of the built environment at a Tier 1 research university (i.e., planning, interior design, construction management, and landscape architecture); (2) developed a diagnostic tool for student learning that can distinguish between disciplinary and interdisciplinary knowledge, skills, and values for sustainable built environments; and (3) used expert verifications and student test runs via pre- and post-diagnostic in selected courses taught cross-disciplinary in a school that houses four accredited programs of sustainable built environments to pilot the tool. The contribution to the body of knowledge with this study is the final diagnostic tool to objectively evaluate disciplinary and interdisciplinary sustainable built environment related student learning in the presented four disciplines. Despite the limited sample size, pre- and post-diagnostic comparisons show that the tool measured improvement in student learning in both disciplinary and interdisciplinary sustainable built environment categories. Finally, the paper provides directions for future research.

Engineering schools, including construction engineering and management programs, have been generally unable to recruit Native American (NA) faculty in the United States. Consequently, NA construction and engineering students lack role models in academia, and research universities miss the opportunity of producing research that is relevant to NA issues. To understand what are the challenges to hiring NA faculty as perceived by the institutions, the authors interviewed engineering deans from various research institutions across the country. The preliminary results presented in this paper show that university administrators perceive the “lack of NA applicants” as the main challenge to hiring NA faculty in engineering. However, the results also highlighted that most of the institutions that participated in this study do not provide enough resources to support the NA’s desire to give back to their communities. Most deans admitted not being aware of whether their colleges engage with NA tribes in terms of research and service. Also, from the few examples of tribal engagement brought up by the deans, most were limited to temporary research projects that investigated tribal issues. Finally, the vast majority of the deans acknowledged that their colleges avoid hiring their own Ph.D. candidates as faculty, which poses an extra challenge to NA applicants, many of which want to remain close to their families and communities.

The construction field trip is an interactive and essential component of construction education, and its significance is widely recognized by educators and researchers in the construction domain. However, due to its real-world nature, there are several challenges that limit the extensive employment of this teaching approach. A few examples of such spatiotemporal challenges are time conflict, large class sizes, short site visit duration, and not being able to see or hear in a crowded or noisy environment. Construction educators and researchers have been using virtual field trips to support traditional field trips or offer an alternative when these learning opportunities are not available. This paper presents the current status of virtual field trip application in construction education while specifically focusing on the construction subject areas, technology use, and learning assessment techniques used in those virtual field trips. The review shows that VFT has been mostly integrated with construction courses in fundamental and introductory level, and their learning objectives are mainly general and broad without a specific focus on certain construction aspects or techniques. The technologies to develop VFTs can be categorized into captured-reality using regular or 360 images or videos and virtual reality using computer-generated simulation of reality. Advantages and disadvantages of both technologies are discussed. Interview and questionnaires were mainly used to assess the reviewed VFT as a learning tool, and it is reported that in the majority of those papers, the feedback from students is mostly positive. These outcomes provide construction educators and researchers insights on successful implementation and potential challenges of virtual field trips in construction education.

With the evolving construction industry needs, the traditional engineering curriculum is limited in training construction professionals. The National Science Foundation latest reports indicate that industry valued skills are changing. Employers are interested in recruiting individuals with technical as well as contemporary and interdisciplinary abilities. The Associated General Contractors of America stated their concern about skilled professional supply. Workforce development has been of a growing interest in the industry. The need for administrative data to better understand construction graduates is growing, according to the National Academies. At the same time, student employability and retention are both focal points for universities, which makes the need for a students’ skills analysis as important as their demographics. This study suggests applying an exploratory analysis on students that have completed mandatory internships as part of their construction program at Arizona State University (ASU). The framework for the analysis is based on a literature review of social studies applied to construction programs. Variables such as scaled academic achievement, internship sector choice, and total grade attained on industry evaluation are part of the analyzed model. The collected data include scores on questions graded by direct evaluators from the companies as well as evaluations graded by the academic unit; reflecting each student’s performance based on recent student learning objectives as defined by the American Council for Construction Education. The results from this study show that the highest predictors of student success in the industry are ingenuity and creativity, punctuality and attendance, and lastly initiative. Finally, findings from this study can support decision makers in the employment process, and the final suggestions explore a novel approach to look at investment in students by industry partner companies.

In recent years, there has been an increase in the technical requirements for construction projects. In addition to building information modeling (BIM) being applied on many projects, several virtual design and construction (VDC) technologies such as virtual and augmented reality have started to gain attention on construction sites. Moreover, many research projects in the construction literature have been discussing the use of modular construction, robotics, and automation in construction. Based on these trends, it is crucial to equip students with the required knowledge in order to cultivate a more conscious and skilled labor force able to cope with the emerging changes in the industry. The purpose of this paper is to present the findings of interviews conducted with industry professionals aiming at assessing the essential skills in emerging technologies in the construction industry. Based on these skills, two graduate construction information systems classes at the M. E. Rinker, Sr. School of Construction Management at the University of Florida were structured and presented in this paper. The topics covered in these classes include advanced modeling and family editing of commercial and infrastructure projects, scripting and the use of game engines, robotics, and automation in construction. The paper explains the topics covered in the classes, the learning environment, as well as the educational approaches implemented in the classes. Through an experimental study, students reported a significant increase in their knowledge in the topics listed by the industry professionals during the interviews.

The construction industry suffers from a gender gap that ultimately leads to a workforce shortage in the industry. Since the year 2000, less than ten percent of construction personnel have been females, in spite of multiple researchers and practitioners searching for the reasons and solutions to the barriers that lead to this disproportion. Thus, the aims of this study are to determine why women aren’t attracted to the construction industry, and to find effective and efficient ways to address this issue. To achieve these objectives, a structured survey was developed and distributed to both female and male qualified experts involved in construction projects. Thirty-four (34) completed surveys were collected, and the data was analyzed. The results identified the 10 most significant barriers, of which gender bias, job site culture, and recruitment were the top 3, and recommended 11 ways to address the issue. It was shown that mentoring, outreach activities for high school students, and diversity standards and benchmark metrics could be useful in addressing the challenges associated with the gender gap. The findings of this study will help decision-makers adopt effective strategies that will lead to an increase in women’s involvement in the construction industry.

Research has demonstrated that a career in construction is neither sought after nor considered lucrative by young students and that there is little awareness about the preparation and education required to pursue a career in construction. This study provides insight from high school students’ perspective of who a construction manager is. In addition, it explores the perceptions associated with construction managers among parents, and a comparison to the children’s perspectives. Data was collected from Hispanic high school students, mothers, and fathers through the draw-a-construction manager test (an adaptation of the draw-a-scientist test). Analysis of the data revealed a significant misconception among both students and parents about what a construction manager looks like, where a construction manager works, and what the construction manager does. This study provides significant evidence towards the need to increase awareness among the Hispanic community about construction managers and construction management as a career path and suggests avenues for further exploration.

Several studies have provided empirical evidence that providing learners with field experiences can enhance the contextual understanding of the relationships between theory and practice. Site visits have the potential of stimulating students’ interest in the domain knowledge and skills, while also enhancing their professional development. For students pursuing careers in the construction industry, one way of gaining field experience has been by physically observing the construction process and engaging with the site personnel. Such experiences are particularly beneficial as industry practitioners are constantly devising innovative methods and practices of delivering safer, quicker, and more sustainable projects, which students can learn from. However, it is usually difficult to provide these experiences due to cost, safety, weather, and schedule constraints, and the inability of the project sites to accommodate large class sizes. Even when access to construction sites is granted, the following concerns still exist: the educational quality of the site visit is highly dependent on the activities that are occurring on the day of the visit; students with disabilities have difficulty navigating the job sites; and there are limited opportunities for students to engage with field personnel. This paper describes a specific effort that seeks to facilitate real-time bi-directional communication/interaction between field personnel on the construction site, and students and instructors in the classroom. It argues for the effective integration of computational resources, such as unmanned aerial systems, mixed reality, and eye-tracking, with construction engineering education, and outlines how bi-directional coordination can be maintained between the construction site and the classroom. The opportunity offered by the adoption of these computational resources to make the construction field experience more accessible is discussed and the key benefits highlighted.