Construction Research Congress 2022: Health and Safety, Workforce, and Education

The construction sector in the United States (US) is facing a shortage of employees due to high and disproportionate rates of retirement. Experienced professionals are leaving the industry to pave the way for inexperienced recruits lacking implicit or experiential knowledge. This loss of knowledge contributes to annual financial losses as novices cannot gain experience at the required rate to combat the “knowledge drain.” Combining traditional tools with innovative technology such as virtual reality (VR) and mixed reality (MR) have the potential to bridge this gap in construction management (CM). VR is now being rapidly used in CM due to the ease it provides in information modeling, safety training, and knowledge management. This paper proposes a theoretical framework to understand whether tacit knowledge can be delivered using VR to improve students’ situational awareness in the context of CM education and mechanical, electrical, and plumbing (MEP) components. It utilizes VR in information transfer from an expert to novice, and then measures whether their knowledge is enhanced using such hybrid teaching methods instead of more traditional classrooms. The framework brings VR hardware into CM education and gives undergraduate students an opportunity to exploit its full worth. This work has the potential to create more experienced CM graduates before they join the industry and will enable improved tacit knowledge transfer from experts to novices.

The construction industry is looking for college graduates with leadership, communication skills, business acumen, and practical experience. Hence, a construction-related curriculum must provide students with opportunities to have real-world experience while working on their degree and have a culture of constant innovation in pedagogy to deliver theoretical-practical learning experiences. This paper systematizes the experience of developing a Construction Engineering and Management (CEM) track for the Civil Engineering undergraduate program at the University of Virginia (UVA). The track was developed with subject matter experts and executives from six construction companies and one design firm. With a renewed teaching-learning ecosystem, the track welcomes the missing actors, fits the industry needs, changes the traditional roles of professors and industry experts, and expands the classroom concept. The findings and lessons learned from this experience are relevant to civil and construction engineering programs seeking to improve existing curriculum or develop more context and practice-based curriculum.

Providing students with hands-on construction experiences enables them to apply conceptual knowledge to practical applications, but the high costs associated with this form of learning limit access to it. Therefore, this paper explores the use of augmented reality (AR) to enable students in a conventional classroom or lab setting to interact with virtual objects similar to how they would if they were physically constructing building components. More specifically, the authors tasked student participants with virtually constructing a wood-framed wall through AR with a Microsoft HoloLens. Participants were video-recorded and their behaviors were analyzed. Subsequently, observed behaviors in AR were analyzed and compared to expected behaviors in the physical environment. It was observed that students performing the tasks tended to mimic behaviors found in the physical environment in how they managed the virtual materials, leveraged physical tools in conjunction with virtual materials, and in their ability to recognize and fix mistakes. Some of the finer interactions observed with the virtual materials were found to be unique to the virtual environment, such as moving objects from a distance. Overall, these findings contribute to the understanding of how AR may be leveraged in classrooms to provide learning experiences that yield similar outcomes to those provided in more resource-intensive physical construction site environments.

Lack of diversity in construction is a tenacious issue. One highly visible manifestation of this issue is the underrepresentation of women within the industry and classroom. In undergraduate engineering education, the presentation of particular engineering persona and professional problems may motivate women to leave the field by hindering their identification with engineering. Recognizing that service-oriented engineering can encourage women’s participation, the authors assessed the gender-specific effect of humanitarian engineering contexts on students’ engineering identity development. Forty-two upper-division undergraduate civil and construction engineering students across two years were surveyed before and after taking a development engineering technical elective to measure changes in how central engineering was to self-concept, how positively they viewed and perceived others to view engineers, and how they felt they belonged in engineering. Results from a two-way mixed analysis of variance suggested that upon course completion students’ engineering identity did not change significantly, nor were women’s engineering identities differentially strengthened. The authors interpret the results in light of data limitations and course timing/elective nature to inform future engineering identity research and service-learning efforts.

The Construction Industry Institute (CII) is a research and development organization that focuses on the capital projects industry. With over 38 years of research, CII is a leader in the construction engineering and management (CEM) field. The objective of this research was to evaluate the impact of CII’s research publications on recent construction engineering and management academic publications. Researchers utilized Google Scholar to identify academic publications that cited CII. Data were collected for the time range between August 2018 and August 2021, yielding a dataset of 354 academic publications and over 500 citations to CII research publications. Analysis identified “Constructability: A Primer” as the most frequently cited research publication in this dataset. Additionally, front end planning, constructability, and planning for modularization were the top cited CII Best Practices. These findings indicate the popularity of the front end planning and constructability best practices among CII’s research publications. In addition to identifying the most frequently cited publications and best practices, there was also a gap with respect to publication citations related to strong areas of interest from the industry, such as advanced work packaging (AWP) and technology. These gaps identify some of the many opportunities for future research and development within the capital projects industry. Overall, CII’s research has disseminated into broader CEM research and their future-looking research outlook drives the capital projects industry forward as it tackles more uncertainty and new challenges.

Education in construction and sustainable disciplines mostly focus their pedagogies on vertical structures, emphasizing the planning pedagogy on traditional reactive planning techniques instead of advanced proactive methods as Front-End Planning (FEP). FEP supports defining the project scope, aligning stakeholders, and achieving sustainability at an early stage of the project. Therefore, it is critical to prepare our future workforce to realize the tools that foster meeting sustainability goals for infrastructure projects. This research evaluated the efficacy of proactive pedagogical approaches such as Problem Based Learning (PBL) activity at a Sustainable Construction class to assess the need to integrate FEP tools and sustainability for infrastructure projects in construction education. The results indicate that the activity fostered students’ familiarity with FEP tools and encouraged teamwork for attaining sustainable infrastructure projects. The results also demonstrate that almost 96% of the students strongly believe the FEP and infrastructure sustainability are fundamental topics that need to be included in construction engineering and management curricula.

Construction is one of the leading industries in terms of workplace accidents and therefore particular interest has been placed on construction safety training. Construction safety training has taken advantage of Virtual Reality (VR) environments and many studies have highlighted its benefits. However, recent studies show that there are deficiencies in current VR safety training and notice challenges in effective learning. Although immersing in a VR environment induces cognitive stress, the participants’ reflective experiences during the VR interaction were often overlooked. Therefore, to advance the body of knowledge in construction safety training, where monitoring brain cognitive states and activity could serve as an effective feedback tool for enhancing the VR safety training modules, this research focuses on developing a framework to analyze a correlation between the cognitive response measured from the brain activity versus the one obtained from regular online questionnaires. The proposed framework is grounded on a mix-designed research methodology following the Human Subject Research protocol of two Texas universities. The framework includes eight stages: (1) Consent information, (2) Set-up of the functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to measure brain activity, (3) Stroop Test (Congruent and Incongruent), (4) Relaxation period, (5) Set-up VR headset, (6) VR simulation, (7) Post-test questionnaire survey, and (8) Correlation test. The result of this study is very important because it provides some light on the correlation and discrepancy between the brain activity of the participants and the information normally collected using an online questionnaire which will help to improve the existing VR simulation/games.

Robotic technologies have considerable potential to revolutionize the construction industry. This capacity has been mostly realized in the realm of human-robot collaboration wherein human dexterity and robotic precision allow the successful completion of tasks. Yet, these joint interactions demand knowledgeable and adept operators and engineers who have the necessary technical competencies to execute safe operations in the human-robot collaborative work environment. However, conventional learning systems (slides and videos) are not able to simulate the authentic complexities of practice. Therefore, this research aims to explore the feasibility of embodied virtual agents for augmenting students’ knowledge in safe practices of human-robot collaboration in construction. To that end, the study developed an immersive learning environment enhanced with a virtual agent to provide procedural instructions that can accompany the user throughout the learning experience. A self-assessment approach was leveraged among twelve students to compare the efficacy of students’ learning outcomes using the proposed learning system and the traditional learning systems (slides). Responses were statistically compared using the Wilcoxon-signed rank test. Results indicated a significant difference in the learning outcomes between the developed system and the traditional system. Findings demonstrated the potential of the simulated learning environment laden with the embodied virtual agents to enhance the students’ learning of robotic safety in construction.

Recent studies indicated that automation will disproportionately affect middle-skill jobs and intensify the polarization in the labor market. A major challenge for middle-skill workers is that they may need to transition to different jobs during their professional life. Lifelong learning is a potential solution to help people transition to new jobs when necessary. One of the approaches to promote lifelong learning is on-the-job training that helps workers learn new skills through interaction with other professions. However, not all jobs offer the same level of potential for this approach. Understanding connections among construction jobs based on their required skills, knowledge, and abilities is the first step toward designing a systematic plan for on-the-job training. To address this need, we use network science to analyze the Occupational Information Network (O*NET) data developed by the US Department of Labor. A multipartite network of 84 construction jobs, 35 skills, 52 abilities, and 33 knowledge areas is created to calculate and analyze three network indices including degree centrality, eigenvector centrality, and closeness centrality to understand potential capacity of learning through interaction with other professions for each job.

Construction and engineering higher education programs continuously adapt to industry needs regarding the latest technologies that industry professionals incorporate into projects. As technologies continue to advance, it is important to evolve higher education programs by infusing technologies into their curricula so that future generations of professionals can successfully use technologies in construction that can potentially improve efficiency and safety. One such advanced technology is unmanned aircraft vehicles (UAVs), which are becoming more prominent in construction due to their versatility. UAV technologies in the classroom has been limited, and mostly in the form of UAV training courses or courses geared toward different geomatics facets. However, the potential for using UAVs in higher education can include tasks such as land surveying, site layout, and inspections. This study investigates construction management and civil engineering programs through a literature review and exploratory survey to determine who is bringing UAVs into the classroom, how it is being done, and what steps are needed to implement UAVs into the classroom. The findings provide the state of practice and a knowledge platform to implement UAVs for construction and engineering higher education programs.

Site visits or field trips have been a tool utilized by construction engineering and management educators to engage students in active learning, assist traditional lessons, and attain stronger and deeper student learning experiences. Nevertheless, site visits present major logistical and accessibility challenges, which reduces the number of students that have access to the benefits of such a technique. The limitations for site visits have further broadened recently, as COVID-19 public health concerns has forced educators to move to online course delivery quickly and the majority of site visits have been canceled. This study presents the development of VR-OnSite—a web-based virtual environment that offers a social field trip experience for large groups of students that resembles real-world jobsite conditions. A pilot study was conducted with sixteen students that followed a guided site visit within the context of a railway transportation project. The use of VR-OnSite resulted in statistically significant increase in student perceived knowledge in railway transportation and high engagement during the virtual site visit.

Online courses allow for flexible learning opportunities critical to providing educational experiences to keep students engaged with their field of study. In this study, a virtual workshop was delivered to students with little-to-no knowledge of construction scheduling in a one-hour session. Eighty-seven students participated in the workshops. The participants were primarily undergraduate students enrolled in civil engineering, civil engineering technology, construction, and architecture programs. A Quasi-experimental approach was employed in this study, and pre- and post-workshop tests were administered to assess the effectiveness of the sessions, including the workshop learning outcomes. This paper discusses the workshop’s effects on student learning outcomes by analyzing data from the pre- and post-workshop tests based on specific demographics, including gender, cumulative GPA, and students’ prior construction and scheduling experience. This study also evaluates student performance based on the level of difficulty of the questions asked. The Wilcoxon Signed-Rank test to compare students’ pre- and post-workshop answers to each scheduling question showed statistically significant improvements in all of the post-workshop answers regardless of the level of difficulty of the questions and the learning outcomes.

Employability in any field, and especially in construction, is enhanced by the right amount of skill sets, competences, and attributes. However, today there exist notable skill gaps between students’ preparation and industry requirements. This study therefore seeks to address the perceived importance and expectancy gap of skill sets for new entrants in the construction industry to increase their employability. Effects of the backgrounds of both respondents, i.e., professionals and students, on the perceptions of desirable skill sets were also examined. Seventy-two different skill sets, identified through a comprehensive review of literature, were assessed based on responses from a questionnaire survey. Through MANOVA and independent t-test, empirical analysis was conducted to reveal substantial dissimilarities in the perceptions of practitioners and students. However, irrespective of the level of experience and gender, industry practitioners’ responses shown no differences with regards to perceived importance of desirable skill sets. Similarly, regardless of gender, students showed similarities in their responses while examining effects of their backgrounds. The findings are crucial to academic institutions trying to re-examine the development of curricula to incorporate desirable skill sets from the perspectives of students and practitioners. Similarly, the means of imparting the identified desirable skills for enhancing employability in students by academia needs amendment.

Building Information Modeling (BIM) technology has proven great impacts on design, management, maintenance, communication, and collaboration in recent years. As economies expand, the construction industry has a growing demand for BIM professionals. BIM gradually appears to become a considerable topic to construct or adapt to the current construction curriculum. It is essential for higher education and industry innovations to maintain constant growth. Thus, this study aims to investigate and learn the current developed BIM courses and explore the industry needs on BIM skills. The researchers review the current curriculum of construction programs in the US and conduct interviews with multiple BIM professionals to understand the industry needs for BIM. The findings of this study are expected to (1) address and minimize the BIM skills gap between academic construction programs and the construction industry; and (2) give curriculum development suggestions and improvement strategies on BIM education to equip students with competitive in-demand skills.

Effective communication is essential for students in construction management and relevant fields. Nevertheless, very little emphasis on communication practices has been placed in the construction management curriculum, and limited communication skills are still widely found among students. Ideal construction site visits not only supplement traditional learning in the classrooms but also provide opportunities to communicate with professionals onsite. However, challenges exist that limit the application of site visits and ultimately reduce such opportunities to practice communication skills with experts on the jobsites. This research aims to help overcome the barriers by proposing a novel approach that leverages 360-degree digital sites with virtual human as conversational partners on site (iVisit-Communicate). In this paper, the design and development processes of iVisit-Communicate were described in detail, followed by a case study of its implementation on a digital site visit to a mechanical room. It was found that most students agreed that iVisit-Communicate provided them an opportunity to practice communication skills.

Globalization has led to increased demand for international education and education experiences by domestic students. However, the current body of knowledge regarding these experiences is scarce and mostly dominated by subjective accounts. This paper explores the research content and methods necessary to capture the impact of an abroad education and research experience. This ongoing study combines bibliometric analysis, literature review, and qualitative analysis of selected articles. Based on the body of knowledge in social sciences, student competencies impacted by an international academic intervention incorporate the following knowledge domains: (1) intercultural competence; (2) professional development; (3) intellectual growth; (4) academic development; and (5) personal development. A comprehensive review of existing approaches for assessing international student experiences was also contrasted against accepted research procedures. While a mixed-methods approach to collect data via survey instruments and face-to-face interviews can enhance the depth and breadth of the observations, collecting data at different points in time enables the capture of both immediate and sustained impacts on the student. Besides self-reported data, the evaluation of the students’ research advisors and peers should also be conducted.

Past studies have emphasized the impacts of natural disasters on the general community and students; however, they have not focused on analyzing these impacts on students based on their demographic characteristics. As a result, this study identifies how students’ demographic characteristics can influence their disaster preparedness and awareness. To accomplish the research objectives existing literature was reviewed, and a structured survey was developed. In total, 111 completed responses were received after distributing the survey among university students. The Kruskal Wallis test was used to analyze the collected survey data and identify significant Disaster Preparedness Indicators (DPIs) based on students’ demographic characteristics. The confirmatory Factor Analysis technique was used to investigate primary components associated with DPIs. Next, Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) was used to determine the relationships between the identified components. The results indicated that 15 DPIs associated with five-student sociodemographic characteristics (Level of Education, Gender, Ethnicity, Area of Living, and Age) were significant, belonging to four critical components. The results revealed that government/university responsibility, emergency procedures, university curriculum, and Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) adoption were critical components for students’ disaster preparedness and awareness. The outcomes of this study will help education administrators and curriculum development committees focus on significant DPIs from the perspective of students while developing effective disaster preparedness plans and strategies.

This paper discusses students’ perspectives about the instructional delivery methods they prefer and find most effective in an integrated construction management curriculum at a major university. Utilizing a spiral learning (SL) framework, integrated project-based laboratories have been designed to complement and enhance student learning throughout the curriculum, providing opportunities for students to build and perform experiential lab activities by applying knowledge first learned through various methods of instruction; students then build upon that knowledge in each successive course. Instructional delivery methods are examined through a student survey on their perceived effectiveness and preferences through various instructional modalities including asynchronous, virtual synchronous, face-to-face, and a hybrid. With a 95% confidence interval and a 7.8% margin of error, 65% of students both preferred and found hands-on building and lab activities to be most effective over all other instructional delivery methods. These results were consistent across all delivery modes in all courses with a problem-based learning component within the SL construction management curriculum.

While distance and online education had some initial momentum with many universities fully or partially embracing distance education prior to 2019, the COVID-19 pandemic forced the switch to distance education as a precautionary move. Site visits and hands-on experiences can provide valuable experiences to students during their education; however, in a distance education system, conducting a physical site visit and providing a hands-on experience is not an easy task. This paper reports on the use of virtual site visits and experiencing virtual hands-on training using immersive videos. This method has been adopted and tested in two courses that were previously face to face, which were then shifted to an online format due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The use of immersive videos gave students who would not have the ability to experience a physical site visit the opportunity to experience the construction site environment, and receive educational direction during a pre-recorded, hands-on, immersive video project. In the following, students’ provided feedback on their experience with this technology and its comparison to using other available tools in distance education is presented, and the implications for future research and the potential implementation of this technology is discussed.

Many college students had to switch to remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. Analyzing their workload and productivity after this major change is helpful to improve remote learning and teaching under these circumstances; however, there is limited quantitative evidence. Therefore, this study aims to quantitatively explore the impact of remote learning on college students’ workload and productivity in the US during the pandemic. Within this issue, this research also asseses the impact of assistantships (i.e., students get paid for research, teaching, or other work) on students’ workload and productivity, which has not been examined in remote learning during the pandemic. An online survey was developed and distributed, with 48 valid responses received. Descriptive analysis showed that total workload and overall productivity in remote learning were decreased, and students with assistantships had a higher total workload and higher productivity than those of students without assistantships. T-test indicated that the overall productivity in remote learning was reduced, with the most significant decrease in lecture attendance. Specifically, no significant difference in total workload between face-to-face and remote learning was detected, while significant differences in total workload and overall productivity between students with and without assistantships were identified. Further exploration of participants’ comments suggested the folloiwng major reasons for decreased productivity, including inadequate learning location, distraction, lack of self-motivation, and technology and connectivity issues. This study can help students and instructors better arrange study contents to improve remote learning productivity and further reduce the negative impact of the pandemic on education activities.

Data analytics and computational thinking are essential for processing and analyzing data from sensors, and presenting the results in formats suitable for decision-making. However, most undergraduate construction engineering and management students struggle with understanding the required computational concepts and workflows because they lack the theoretical foundations. This has resulted in a shortage of skilled workforce equipped with the required competencies for developing sustainable solutions with sensor data. End-user programming environments present students with a means to execute complex analysis by employing visual programming mechanics. With end-user programming, students can easily formulate problems, logically organize, analyze sensor data, represent data through abstractions, and adapt the results to a wide variety of problems. This paper presents a conceptual system based on end-user programming and grounded in the Learning-for-Use theory which can equip construction engineering and management students with the competencies needed to implement sensor data analytics in the construction industry. The system allows students to specify algorithms by directly interacting with data and objects to analyze sensor data and generate information to support decision-making in construction projects. An envisioned scenario is presented to demonstrate the potential of the system in advancing students’ data analytics and computational thinking skills. The study contributes to existing knowledge in the application of computational thinking and data analytics paradigms in construction engineering education.

Student engagement is a significant predictor of students’ academic performance that has shown essential benefits for collaborative learning in higher education. Activities of social networking are common practices for college students to pursue higher academic achievement by taking advantage of collaborative learning. Nevertheless, there is a gap in understanding the relationship between student engagement and academic networking patterns. Using social network analysis, this study quantitatively explored the relationships between student engagement and academic networking at the individual level in the contexts of construction education. The self-reported collaboration and engagement data were collected from only dozens of undergraduate construction students at two universities in the US. The regression analysis revealed a positive relationship between student engagement and their academic network degree centrality. The findings suggest that students are more engaged in the coursework when directly collaborating with more peer classmates. Especially, students who seek collaboration with peer classmates can build great social capital and thus high engagement in class. Implications are finally discussed for construction educators to focus on student collaboration and advance the understanding of student needs.

This paper describes the design of a learning factory for construction that addresses the growing demand for future skills of production engineers and staff. Existing learning factories often focus on the technical skills whereas the presented learning factory also trains decision making, group work, and project performance monitoring skills. This paper refers to the existing categories of learning factories and unveils its numerous features relevant for construction. The design of our learning factory includes theoretical and practical parts, which prove to be successful when realized by the authors. The layout consists of multiple stages of a production system, from manual to automatized off-site manufacturing, in-time delivery, and robotic assembly. The practical tasks cover the introduction of smart devices, connection of information flows as well as monitoring of performance and control. The didactical design of the training program provides a sustainable approach that includes preparation utilizing lean construction principles, mid-term coaching, and success monitoring after the training. Here, the emphasis of the presented work focuses on closing the feedback loop of lean construction planning, progress tracking, and status control using cloud-based information modeling as well as Internet-of-Things (IoT) technology for reporting actual progress in the production system. As such, learning factories are envisioned to become part of a research and teaching environment where one of the underlying goals is to enable production engineers and staff for change management, decision making, and innovation in construction. Future work on learning factories in construction include a detailed study of the learning outcomes.

Challenges associated with the design and construction of the built environment are complex. Students need training to help them deal with this complexity and to help them explore and reframe problems early during project planning and design. Concept maps provide a visual representation of complex information and the relationships between this information. The research presented in this paper tested whether priming students to think in systems by asking them to draw concept maps changes how they construct problem statements. In total, 40 engineering students participated in the study. Half were asked to draw a concept map before constructing a problem statement about how to improve mobility systems around campus. The cognitive effort (i.e., time and words) students spent on the task and the number of unique system elements included in their problem statement were measured. Students that received the concept mapping intervention spent significantly more time thinking about the problem, developed longer problem statements, and included more unique elements of systems. These findings suggest using concept mapping can aid students’ conceptualization of complex problems.

The research presented in this paper explores the effect of concept maps on students’ neurocognition when constructing engineering problem statements. In total, 66 engineering students participated in the experiment. Half of the students were asked to create a concept map illustrating all of the systems and stakeholders represented in a building on campus. The other half of students were not asked to draw a concept map. Both groups were then asked to construct an engineering problem statement about improvements to the building. While performing the problem statement task, their neurocognitive activation in their prefrontal cortex (PFC) was measured using a non-intrusive neuroimaging technique called functional near-infrared spectroscopy. The students that were asked to complete the concept mapping task required less cognitive effort to formulate and analyze their problem statements. The specific regions that were less activated were regions of the brain generally associated with working memory and problem evaluation. These results provide new insight into the changes in mental processing that occurs when using tools like concept maps and may provide helpful techniques for students to structure engineering problems.

The effectiveness of Augmented Reality (AR)-based learning platform in providing the feeling of social presence to the online learners in the field of engineering education is yet to be studied intensively. This paper emphasizes the need for an application of AR in online STEM education as well as the effect of social presence on learners’ cognition. To fulfill this knowledge gap of exploring the effect of social presence on online learning students, the paper will present a framework of incorporating social presence elements into the AR-based learning platform, where students can talk/chat with each other and discuss the problem-solving techniques during online learning. The development of such a platform utilizing AR tools is discussed. It is expected that the result of the study will help provide further evidence as well as a theoretical framework to researchers and practitioners to develop a more advanced AR platform that is beneficial to online engineering learners.

Recent efforts to revamp safety training programs have focused on improving learning outcomes among workers by incorporating principles of behavioral psychology and adult learning. Unfortunately, a number of these studies lack the requisite external validity. Even when construction workers are adequately sampled, these targeted multimedia-based interventions (e.g., Naturalistic Injury Simulations) have been shown in isolation to improve desired precursors of learning and retention, hence their efficacy within the confines of traditional safety training settings remains nebulous. Thus, this paper aims to conduct a pilot investigation on the efficacy of validated multimedia training program elements within a traditional instructor-centric pedagogical framework for safety orientation and training. Using a longitudinal A+B experiment, variability in workers’ hazard recognition, risk perception, risk tolerance, and emotional arousal before and after the training session were measured. Furthermore, analysis was also conducted to determine if the desired psychological triggers positively impacted the safety performance of workers. Results show that these empirically validated adult learning-based training interventions may not naturally align with traditional training frameworks as no improvements in hazard recognition performance, risk perception, and risk tolerance was observed. This preliminary analysis indicates that construction practitioners and academics need to further examine and understand how to deliver these novel training interventions effectively within the constraints of traditional training frameworks.

Scrutinizing and learning from workplace accidents is critical to making continual improvements to any safety management system. Systematic investigations into where vulnerabilities and opportunities exist can yield targeted corrective actions that prevent future events. Over the last several decades, many frameworks of incident investigation and organizational learning have been developed. Unfortunately, the knowledge on conducting high-quality investigations is dispersed across disparate domains making it difficult for safety practitioners to identify the limitations with existing practice and propose targeted pathways for improvement. This paper reviews the fragmented literature and identifies various key themes that underpin an excellent investigation and learning process within any organization. In addition, a social constructionist methodology was adopted to explore current best practices within the construction industry through conversations with 19 experts from the occupational health and safety domain. The findings reported can serve the safety practitioners and academics with an insight into the state-of-the-science in the incident investigation practices adopted within the industry.

Post-disaster reconstruction efforts are becoming increasingly more important with the increase in natural disasters in recent years. These efforts support rapid recovery and are fundamental to the resilience of the impacted communities. However, such efforts that involve complex activities in difficult and uncertain environments impose considerable health and safety challenges. The health and safety challenges are particularly heightened in the context of developing nations that lack necessary resources as compared to their more developed counterparts. An understanding of the health and safety challenges in the context of these developing nations is fundamental to the development of health and safety best practices that support effective and rapid recovery. This study examines the health and safety challenges as reported by stakeholders impacted in the 2015 Gorkha earthquake in Nepal. The data were captured using a set of semi-structured interviews with several stakeholders that include general contractors, owners, government officials, engineers, supervisors, and workers. After transcribing the interviews as textual data, a popular and frequently used topic modeling algorithm, Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA), was adopted to unveil health and safety related themes as reported by the stakeholders. The findings of the study identify the major health and safety related challenges in the context of a post-disaster reconstruction effort and will serve as the foundation for future research efforts that focus on health and safety management solutions. The findings of the study can also be used by the governments and stakeholders with supervisory role to create a safer work-environment for the reconstruction workers.

The primary objective of most safety management programs is to eliminate serious injuries and fatalities. However, serious injury prevention and control efforts are hampered by the lack of consensus amongst safety practitioners on what constitutes a “serious” injury. Existence of varied definitions, presumptions, and judgment-based assessments stifle the consistency needed for effective communication and shared learning. This paper comprehensively reviews how the healthcare, occupational safety, military, transportation, insurance law, law enforcement, and professional sports industries and trade or regulatory agencies identify, classify, and rationalize the seriousness of an injury. The philosophies, practices, and thresholds identified from the review have been used to propose considerations and recommendations for the construction sector for determining whether an injury is serious or not. This paper proffers recommendations for a new framework on injury severity determination based on the ability to perform Activities of Daily Living (ADLs); this framework is both a worker-centric philosophy and a standardizable practice for the industry at large.

Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) account for more than half of all the injuries and illnesses in the construction industry. Concrete formwork construction is recognized as one of the work tasks in which workers have a high risk of developing MSDs. Previous research has focused extensively on the use of conventional job-built formwork. Given the fact that prefabricated/modular formwork has been increasingly adopted, this paper presents a study designed to investigate the differences in work tasks and activities associated with different types of formwork systems, and determine the prevalence and nature of MSDs by surveying formwork workers. The responses to the survey reveal that the work tasks and activities for conventional job-built and prefabricated formwork are similar, except that prefabricated formwork requires less work or effort during specific tasks, such as sawing/cutting materials and nailing/screwing/drilling formwork components or other materials. Regarding MSD-related symptoms, the majority of the surveyed formwork workers have experienced aches, pains, or discomfort in their bodies during the past 12 months, mostly in their lower back, upper back, neck, right shoulder, right wrist, and hip/buttocks. Repetition, awkward working postures, and force were rated as the three physical factors that contribute the most to the development of MSD-related symptoms. The results of the study provide an improved understanding of formwork activities, as well as the prevalence of work-related MSD symptoms in workers for formwork operations, which could be used by formwork designers and constructors to improve worker health and safety.

The global shortage of skilled workers is affecting the construction industry more than many of the other sectors in the US, and the competitive market for new workers has finally convinced the industry that it is important to strengthen the hiring pool, increase workplace diversity, and attract more women. However, various safety and health issues are unique to female engineers and laborers and create many challenges for women entering and remaining in the construction field. Thus, there is a need to identify the strategies and best practices that have the greatest potential to overcome the barriers and encourage women to pursue construction careers. This paper employs the Delphi technique to determine, rank, and weigh the potential strategies. To achieve this purpose, 26 strategies were considered, following a comprehensive study of previous research. Then, ten women active in construction were invited to take part in a Delphi study. Through two rounds of the Delphi study, ten effective strategies were identified, ranked, and weighted. Providing proper sanitary facilities for women at job sites, offering challenging roles and opportunities for the growth of women, a flexible organizational culture, and providing role models were identified as the top four potential strategies. Employers and practitioners will benefit from the findings of this study as they adopt the identified innovative strategies and strengthen the hiring and retention of women in construction.

Wearable biosensors have been applied for continuously monitoring construction workers’ stress during fieldwork in minimally invasive ways. However, little effort has been made to differentiate between stress types [e.g., eustress (positive stress) and distress (negative stress)] even though the impact of stress on workers differs significantly depending on the stress type. For example, while eustress can improve overall worker performance, distress is a root cause of detrimental “stress-induced” consequences (e.g., lack of task-focus and depression). Since emotional and physiological responses to different stress types manifest in varied brain activity, the authors propose an electroencephalogram (EEG)-based stress type classification method. The proposed method was tested using EEG signals labeled as three types of stress: low-stress, eustress, and distress. Test accuracy was 0.842, indicating that the proposed method is promising toward understanding different stress types. This finding can contribute to advancing stress management in construction fields by enabling selective stress interventions that alleviate distress while keeping the benefits from eustress.

Well-designed manual work operations are critical to enhancing the productivity and safety of modular construction production lines. Thus, it is essential to analyze current work procedures, and then design the safest and most efficient work methods accordingly. However, what is lacking is an approach for identifying optimal work methods based on consideration, simultaneously, of several design criteria, such as workplace configurations, task time, and ergonomic risk. Furthermore, existing perception-based methods are not conducive to a careful examination of the trade-off between safety and efficiency for different work scenarios. To overcome these limitations, this paper proposes an integrated approach to manual work design optimization in modular construction. This is accomplished by coupling Lean manufacturing tools and statistical analysis of the design of experiments (DOE) with 3D-based ergonomic posture assessment and Predetermined Motion Time Systems (PMTS). As a case study, a drywall sanding task in a modular construction production line is designed. The results indicate the effectiveness of the proposed method to investigate multiple scenarios and thereby achieve optimum design.

It is well known in the construction industry that an organization’s safety climate impacts its workers’ safety behavior and is associated with better safety performance. However, the perception of an organization’s management’s safety rarely coincides with that of its employees. The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) is interested in improving their safety performance and, particularly, among their at-high-risk workgroup-highway maintenance crews by developing and implementing a positive safety climate. A cultural assessment was conducted by adopting and modifying a safety climate assessment tool, the “S-CAT,” created by the Center for Construction Research and Training (CPWR). The S-CAT tool was adopted to quantify the existing safety climate and assess the established safety programs and controls’ efficiency in reducing work hazard risks among KYTC maintenance workers. The state of eight safety climate factors and 38 leading indicators was investigated and assessed, and the overall safety climate was found to be compliant and transitioning toward proactive, targeted to reach an exemplary state.

Large construction organizations have the leverage to develop and implement robust safety systems to improve their safety performance and enhance their overall safety culture. However, this is not the case with small construction organizations, where safety systems and safety culture foundations are almost non-existent or minimal. In addition to the absence of safety resources and systems, significant barriers hinder the safety performance of small construction organizations that are evaluating tender submissions based on the lowest bid price accompanied by the fierce competition and lack of safety commitment from construction clients. This paper’s primary contribution is to propose and develop a robust and feasible safety culture model for small construction organizations to improve their safety performance. Improving small organizations’ safety performance requires collaboration with construction clients, and large construction organizations, and general contractors. The collaboration from different stakeholders is vital to generate a comprehensive safety culture framework to lead small construction organizations to better safety performance.

Modeling traffic crashes within work zones is critical to crash analysis and prevention, and it requires spatially relating each crash to a specific work zone if applicable. Currently, this is achieved by finding the corresponding work zone recorded for each crash in the crash database, or by assigning a crash to the work zone with the closest reference point to it. The challenges are twofold: (1) crash data can be limited and incomplete. Only a few large work zones are recorded in the crash database; and (2) reference points of a work zone do not accurately represent the work zone area, especially in cases of long work zones along curved roadways. Both issues would cause either inaccurate or infeasible mapping of crashes to work zones, which was overlooked in the work zone related crash analysis in the past. In this paper, a novel map-matching algorithm is developed to accurately and automatically map crashes to their respective work zone projects utilizing their combined attributes, including geographic coordinates, traffic flow directions, and route numbers. The algorithm is tested using the Pennsylvania Crash database and Pennsylvania Roadway Conditions Reporting System (RCRS) data from 2015 to 2017. We show that the new algorithm can substantially reduce the localization error of crashes mapped to work zones from hundreds of meters to meters comparing to existing algorithms. In addition, the proposed algorithm is computationally efficient, which takes tens of hours for mapping all crashes in the state-level roadway networks on a regular personal computer.

The construction industry is known for its masculine culture where workplace discrimination, biases, and harassment exist. While interventions such as greater workplace diversity, equity and inclusion programs, and mentoring initiatives are directed toward fostering career engagement and employee retention, women continue to leave professional positions in the construction industry. Using an ethnographic methodology, the aim of this study was to identify and examine the dynamics involved in the perseverance of professional women working in the construction industry. In-depth interviews were conducted, and a qualitative approach toward gathering data was utilized. Consistent questions were posed to the participants primarily through synchronous communications, and specific construction companies and professional women employees were asked to participate. Results suggest that women in leadership positions who previously experienced harassment had male interventionists, and are now serving as the primary interventionists for younger women in their companies. Further results suggest increased women’s participation is realized by forming multiple supportive organizational structures within the construction workplace culture and enacting zero-tolerance guidelines to curb inappropriate or harassing behavior. These research findings underscore the need for further exploration of novel interventional mechanisms toward greater retention of women in the industry.

Small construction firms face higher rates of fatal and nonfatal injury. These firms often lack the necessary resources to create, maintain, and fund adequate safety and health policies. Thus, there is a need to better understand factors that contribute to small construction firms’ overall safety performance. This study aims to assess the influence of annual revenue on the safety culture, safety climate, and safety behavior of construction firms. An online survey was administered to achieve the study aim. The results from the survey suggest statistically significant correlations between annual revenue and both safety culture and safety behavior scores. However, no statistically significant correlation between annual revenue and safety climate was detected. Therefore, there is a crucial need to improve the safety management techniques to achieve higher levels of safety performance of smaller construction firms in terms of annual revenue. This study contributes to the body of knowledge by improving the understanding of annual revenue’s influence on construction firms’ overall safety performance.

Construction safety is paramount in the success of construction projects for all parties involved. Resiliency is a growing trend in research to understand the capabilities of project teams to anticipate, track, monitor, correct, respond, and learn from safety risks. Safety resilience in construction has previously been reviewed; however, much of the literature primarily focused on performance indicators revolving around specific types of projects. Therefore, this paper is focused on the review of safety resilience in general construction. The objective of this paper is to review current related literature to discuss the meaning of safety resilience, identify primary factors that attribute to safety resilience, and identify methods used to measure safety resilience on construction projects. Furthermore, this review will present findings showing safety resilience is dependent upon network characteristics and how robust the network is, and finally summarize areas where future research is needed and current challenges faced by researchers. This paper has provided a useful reference for future researchers in the field of safety resilience in construction.

Worker health and safety remains to be of high concern throughout the construction industry. Multiple innovative methods and practices have been developed in order to enhance worker health and safety in the construction industry. Green construction is one of the innovations that is expected to enhance worker health and safety. The aim of this research study is to investigate the impact of green construction on safety performance in the construction industry. It is hypothesized that green construction positively influences worker health and safety and is, therefore, associated with fewer workplace incidents compared with traditional, non-green construction. To test this hypothesis, a survey questionnaire is developed and distributed to project managers to collect incident data from green and non-green construction projects. After collecting the data, statistical analysis is performed to determine the impact of green construction on safety performance. Results from the study indicate that there is no statistical evidence in support of the research hypothesis that green construction is associated with reduced incident rates. Recommendations to facilitate the integration of workplace health and safety in sustainable design and construction are provided. It is expected that this integration would be associated with improved working conditions and fewer incidents.

Poor hazard recognition is a significant safety issue in the construction industry. Past research efforts have focused on assessing, developing, and improving the hazard recognition skill of construction workers. However, much of this useful information is fragmented and dispersed across the broader literature. The current article focuses on summarizing the state of the science and identifying future opportunities to combat poor hazard recognition in the construction industry. This study adopted a three-level “smart literature review” approach unlike traditional literature reviews. To locate relevant research, keyword searches that included “construction hazard recognition” or “construction hazard identification” were performed in the Scopus database. After a two-round screening process, 168 relevant documents were selected for further analysis. Finally, this study leveraged a machine learning algorithm, Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA), to perform the content analysis. The analysis resulted in eight separate topics that have been discussed in the broader construction hazard recognition literature. The research findings will serve as a resource for researchers and construction leaders to better understand the state of the science on construction hazard recognition and identify potential directions for future research opportunities.

Human-robot collaboration (HRC) in construction primarily aims at supporting human workers in performing demanding tasks. In human-robot teams, maintaining proper situational awareness is a key element of successful collaboration. In this context, one effective approach is to incorporate visual cues (i.e., explicit visual aids) into HRC through novel visualization technologies. To that end, this study investigates the impact of visual cues on workers’ situational awareness during HRC at construction jobsites. Visual cues, mainly related to the safe distance of working with autonomous robots, were embedded into an immersive virtual environment. An experiment then was conducted in which participants performed a brick-laying task in collaboration with an autonomous material lift enhancer robot with and without provided visual cues. Participants’ situational awareness in each condition was measured using electroencephalogram (EEG) signals during the task performance. Beta-band activity in specific brain regions was used as an indicator of situational awareness status. The Mann-Whitney U test revealed statistically significant differences between Beta activity in two experimental conditions, indicating higher situational awareness during HRC with visual cues. The findings of this study can pave the path toward effective utilization of visual cues in future human-robot collaboration at construction.

Construction workers often expose to heat stress hazards as temperature and humidity increase. Heat-related illnesses include heat stroke, heat exhaustion, heat cramps, and heat rash conditions. Without immediate and correct treatments, patients may suffer from brain damage or other organ failures, and even death. Heat exposure can also cause fatigue and then lead to other construction accidents. It is crucial to raise awareness of heat-related illnesses and equip people with the means and methods to prevent them from happening. This study aims to assess the current status of people’s knowledge of heat-related illnesses using an online survey questionnaire. The results suggest that further heat-related training should put more focus on the training topics of heat-related illnesses prevention strategies, first-aid, and symptom identifications. The participants whose work is directly related to safety have a better understanding of heat-related illness symptoms than the rest. The results also indicate that the participants’ knowledge of heat-related illness prevention is related to their age and whether they had participated in heat-related training. The findings of this research can help with the development of future heat-related illnesses training and facilitate construction companies to improve their current safety culture and practices.

In the last decade, Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) have started being used in the construction industry at an increasing rate. Previous studies focused on exploring their applications for a variety of tasks as well as measuring their impact on productivity. However, potential risks associated with UAS use on job sites, which could result in injuries to workers and damage to the site or environment, have not been studied adequately. Thus, this study attempts to fill this gap by identifying, assessing, and prioritizing the safety risk factors associated with UAS implementation in construction using a Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process (FAHP). A hierarchy model of safety risk factors associated with the use of UAS in construction was determined thorough literature review. In the next step, the identified risk factors were assessed based on the survey responses obtained from a qualified expert panel composed of members from both academia and industry. In the next step, the identified risk factors were ranked. This study makes an important contribution to practice by promoting awareness of the most serious safety risk factors associated with implementing UAS in construction. It is expected that industry professionals and decision makers could use this knowledge to design proper procedures and practices to mitigate high-level risks associated with using UAS in construction and take the necessary safety precautions.

To prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus at construction sites, accounting for the surveillance and precautions imposed by the pandemic means frequent contact tracing, symptom monitoring, and PPE reminders. During the pandemic, many construction projects continued because of the need for a priority building that was under construction, such as for a healthcare project. To promote safety under unprecedented circumstances, this paper proposes an intelligent robotic surveillance system that can locate workers and identify whether they are properly wearing masks. The system leverages autonomous terrestrial robots equipped with wide-angle cameras to capture images of their surroundings and a two-dimensional laser scanner for simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM). In this system, the robot is equipped with precise image processing in a well-trained convolutional neural network (VGG16) to recognize workplace entities, particularly workers and their masks, with 83.3% accuracy. Simultaneously, the mounted laser scanner enables the robot to generate the map of the surrounding environment based on the near-real-time Hector SLAM algorithm. In situ recognition would help track workers who improperly use masks and trigger interventions that would diminish the spread of the virus at the construction site. The proposed robotic system will non-intrusively and privately inform workers to use proper protocol to protect them from COVID-19 and other deadly viruses, thereby improving health and safety.

Safety culture can change human behavior pattern from consciousness level, and realize accident prevention by reducing or even eliminating unsafe behaviors. However, it is impossible to systematically and directly develop safety culture enhancement measures with reference to the existing dimensions and items of safety culture measurement methods. Therefore, based on the “Wuli-Shili-Renli” (WSR) system approach, a construction project safety culture element system is constructed, which includes three dimensions of human, affairs, and things, as well as related elements and properties. Furthermore, according to management mechanism design theory, a management mechanism analysis model of safety culture improvement measures is proposed with the kernel of adjustment of the states of elements, properties, and their logical relationship. The application and effect of proposed method are introduced in combination with case study. The proposed approach can systematically analyze and improve the existing improvement measures and provide new perspective for the development of new measures.

Studies suggest that multiskilling strategies can play a significant role to reduce labor shortages in the construction industry. Multiskilling is a labor strategy that involves the training of employees to acquire different skills and tasks in addition to their primary role in the workplace. This paper analyzes the adoption of multiskilling strategy in the US construction industry between 2005 and 2019 by examining 638,469 exam completions from the National Center for Construction Education and Research (NCCER) and its National Craft Assessment and Certification Program (NCACP). The paper measures the growth of multiskilling workers based upon race, gender, and dual-skill pairing patterns between 2005 and 2019. In addition, the effect of formal training on the multiskilling workers has been examined to investigate the impact on the strategy. Findings suggest that level of multiskilling among the observed population of craft professionals in the North American construction workforce did statistically grow from 2005 to 2019. Additionally, top dual-skill pairings vary between multiskilling craft professionals based on many demographics.

Roofers spend considerable time in awkward postures due to steep-slope rooftops. The combination of these postures, the forces acting on them, and the time spent in such postures increases the chance of roofers developing musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs). Several studies have connected these awkward postures to potential risk factors for injuries and disorders; however, existing models are not appropriate in roof workplaces because they are designed to assess work-related risk factors for general tasks. This study examines the impacts of work-related factors, namely working posture and roof slope, on kinematics measurements of body segments in a laboratory setting. To achieve this objective, time-stamped motion data from inertial measurement unit (IMU) devices (i.e., accelerometer, gyroscope, and quaternion signals) were collected from a sample of six undergraduate students at George Mason University. Participants performed two common roofing activities, namely walking along the roof and squatting in different roof slopes (0°, 30°). Comparing IMU signals using statistical analysis demonstrated significant differences in body kinematics between roofing activities on the slope and level ground. Overall, sloped-surface activities on a 30° roof resulted in changes in about 26% of walking and 12% of squatting variables. Such information is useful for a logical understanding of roofing MSD development and may lead to better interventions and guidelines for reducing roofing injuries.

The construction industry is historically a male-dominant sector. Since 2000, only about ten percent of the construction workers have been women, which means that they are consistently underrepresented. The structure of organization, nature, and environment of the sector possess a range of barriers to women. As a result, the objective of this study was to determine the difficulties faced by female construction workers and classify them into categories of family-related, colleague-related, organizational, health and safety challenges, and individual challenges. A thorough review of previous contributions to this topic was conducted to discover the challenges to women that have been identified by other researchers. Interviews with nine women active in the construction industry were conducted to collect their viewpoints and classify their challenges, and 22 barriers were identified, of which the most important were found to be gender discrimination, work-life balance, stress, and sexual harassment. In addition, the lack of flexible work options, childcare programs, and paid leaves (e.g., maternity leave) create invisible challenges that narrow women’s professional opportunities. The outcomes of this study will be helpful to construction employers and decision-makers in government as they adopt strategies and develop policies to help women advance in the construction sector.

As retirement rates of older workers increase, millennials have become the largest cohort within the transportation construction workforce. This transition to a younger workforce has resulted in the loss of institutional knowledge and issues regarding workforce resilience. There is a need, then, to hire new, younger employees and to build their institutional knowledge. There are noted differences between workers of different generations; these differences are a driving concern to human resource professionals. Job postings are the gateway to public agency recruitment, and the way they are written could affect their attraction to younger generations of workers. There are job characteristics that are more attractive to younger generations, such as work-life balance, flexible schedules, recognition as a valued contributor, and substantial opportunities for advancement and promotion. Utilizing these characteristics, the authors created a method of evaluation that can be used to rank job postings on their appeal to younger generations. The results of this study will help public agencies advertise to younger generations more effectively and improve their hiring success.

What gets measured, gets improved. This applies to safety in the construction industry, where the primary measure of safety performance of construction workers is the OSHA recordable incidence rate. While this reactive metric is important to understand the frequency of injuries, it does not assist in managing the safety, health, and overall well-being of construction workers. Therefore, researchers encourage using metrics that assist in indicating a higher likelihood of an injury occurring since such metrics would be more beneficial to improving safety and health. While proactive safety performance indicators have been extensively discussed in the literature of construction research, minimal attention has been paid to using these metrics in the highway construction and maintenance sector. This study addressed this gap by developing a holistic action-ready mechanism to assess safety performance of highway maintenance personnel in Kentucky. Using the analytic hierarchy process analysis (AHP), 5 metrics and 65 leading indicators were selected and weighed to proactively reflect the safety performance of the targeted workforce. The final product of the study is a scorecard used to assess safety performance of Kentucky highway maintenance crews on a district level, an area level, and a program level. This study provides a useful proactive tool that can be used by States DOTs to assess safety performance of their maintenance crews. In addition, the study contributes to the body of knowledge by discussing the use of proactive performance metrics in the highway construction and maintenance sector.

Natural disasters, including hurricanes and floods, cause severe damage and require significant clean-up activities that typically involve skilled support staff such as construction workers, who play essential roles in the response, clean-up, and other recovery activities. During this process, the workers are exposed to many hazards that are unusual for conventional construction activities. For this reason, it is crucial to identify and assess the post-disaster clean-up safety risks to these workers. This research aims to determine the everyday hazards faced by workers during post-disaster reconstruction (PDR) and determine management strategies to overcome them. Recent studies were reviewed to determine the above-mentioned hazards and management strategies, and 17 hazards were identified that imperil the health and safety of PDR workers. Among them are physical hardships, extreme weather, lack of PPE, chemical and biological hazards, and factors related to the inability to perceive risks. To overcome these hazards, 12 strategies are identified including hands-on training for community workers and using the appropriate use of personal protective equipment (PPE). This study’s outcomes will help construction companies to gain a better understanding of the various hazards and will assist reconstruction workers in following safety practices in post-disaster recovery operations.

Construction safety training interventions are widely adopted to enhance workplace safety and reduce injury rates. Unfortunately, desirable levels of safety performance or return on investments have not been achieved in practice as per previous research. To address this issue, a large body of research has focused on designing, developing, and testing construction safety training interventions. These efforts have significantly advanced our understanding of how training can be leveraged to enhance safety outcomes. However, this large body of research is fragmented and dispersed across various sources. This paper provides a concise synthesis of research related to safety training interventions and answers the following questions: (1) what type of training interventions have been designed, developed, and tested; (2) what safety outcomes the interventions have sought to target; (3) how the target safety outcomes were measured; and (4) what the future opportunities as per the study findings. This paper will be beneficial to industry stakeholders and professional safety trainers interested in improving safety performance through greater awareness of intervention programs. The article will also serve as a resource to academic researchers interested in the state of the science as it pertains to construction safety training. Practitioners may use the findings to improve training effectiveness in practice, and academic researchers may build upon the findings to develop more robust safety training interventions.

Pandemics, such as Covid-19 virus spread fast with significant impact on people and the economy. The construction industry with productivity stagnation of over two decades is not excluded from this significant impact or restrictions that determine the present way of life. These restrictions (e.g., government shutdowns, social distancing, and face mask requirement) impede several construction processes resulting in scheduling restrictions, increased work-related hazards, and developing challenges helping to sabotage existing labor force shortage issues. Consequently, researchers and practitioners have focused on low-risk activities, staggered schedules, etc. However, there is a need to appraise the impact of Covid-19 on construction labor force while making a case for construction automation. In this study, the authors utilized a state of practice review of Covid-19-related developments (i.e., disruptions, standards, and regulatory practices) within construction, along with qualitative and quantitative approach among twelve professionals. The study identified productivity, safety, and quality concerns affecting the construction workforce before proposing a workflow for increased automation within the industry to deal with the present and future pandemics. The findings demonstrate the need and emphasize the importance of embracing automation for construction processes in phases that can improve labor force issues and performance metrics to change the path for lingering concerns in construction.

Construction and demolition (C&D) waste is generated from the various construction activities. The disposal of C&D waste materials in landfills can adversely affect the environment and human health and is not viable economically. Also, C&D waste materials left on construction sites can threaten the safety of construction workers. The application of strategic C&D waste management practices is essential for sustainable management of limited resources and thereby can benefit the environment, economy, and public safety. The objective of this paper was to explore various waste management practices to control C&D waste and the current status of C&D waste management in the United States (US) through a literature review. As a result, this paper presented clear descriptions of the C&D waste management practices in the EPA waste management hierarchy, employing a few examples. The 2018 C&D waste data from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) were utilized to understand the current status of the C&D waste management in the US. The C&D waste management practices feasible for a few sluggish materials for next-use were presented to raise the recovery rate of C&D waste in the US. The findings of this study can be summarized as follows: (1) the C&D waste recovery rate in the US was below the average of some developed countries; (2) the recovery rates of some waste materials negatively affected the overall C&D waste recovery rate; and (3) the C&D waste management needs more strategic commitment to the upper-level practices in the waste management hierarchy.

One of the trades most susceptible to occupational hazards in the construction industry is roofing contractors, whose projects inherently involve exposure to falls from height. In response, this study used a random forest data mining technique to analyze the impacts of accidents’ contributing factors on roofers’ injuries. The analysis examined over 600 incidents obtained from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA’s) database of fatal and nonfatal accident reports. Some of the contributing factors considered include source of injury, cause of injury, project cost, project end use, project type, injured body part, and day of injury. The results of validated random forest model revealed that the most important factor for predicting the nature of injury is injured body part followed by source of injury. The presented results can be used by managers, policymakers, and safety professionals to reduce the frequency and severity of incidents.

In construction, the high amount of work musculoskeletal disorders (WMSD) continues to be a major source of concern for practitioners and researchers. In response to this concern, construction stakeholders have increasingly utilized advanced simulation technics to investigate musculoskeletal risks that contribute to WMSDs and inform ergonomic changes to work environments and operations. Specifically, studies at the intersection of biomechanical analysis (BA) and construction worker safety and health have increased recently. While using BA tools in construction research and practice is commendable, synthesized information on the application and utility of these tools is lacking. To enhance the quality of research within this domain, it is essential to provide a synthesis that summarizes BA efficacy in examining working postural faults in construction activities, their relevance in construction research, data collection limitations, and future directions. Utilizing a three-phase review process, the present study queried SCOPUS database, which helped identify 15 articles adherent to the pre-defined inclusion criteria. Results from the present study suggest that research utilizing BA in construction more than doubled in the last 10 years. To improve the quality and generalizability of biomechanics and ergonomics research in construction safety and health management, future construction studies should: assess under-researched construction activities with high WMSD prevalence; include a more significant number of experienced workers; increase participants diversity (female and non-Caucasian) in experiments; and utilize advanced Artificial Intelligence algorithms to build robust and precise biomechanical models which will be useful in analyzing the growing wealth of high-dimensional data.

The construction industry’s workforce is experiencing deteriorating mental health. In Nigeria, the reported prevalence rate of depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation among construction supervisors is 55.1%, 14.8%, and 0.1%, respectively. Thus, spurring this research into examining measures to implement to prevent and mitigate the onset of common mental ill-health. This was done by evaluating a mix of 19 strategies divided into seven constructs that can be adopted to promote mental health. The strategies were selected from existing literature using the multi-modal intervention approach to mental health promotion as a guiding principle. Surveys were collected from 82 purposively selected construction supervisors and experts, and were analyzed using mean score and Mann-Whitney U test. The study revealed that strategies related to morale-boosting are essential. The study highlights primary, secondary, and tertiary intervention strategies that could be implemented to boost mental health and well-being in the construction workplace. This study contributes to the existing global body of knowledge on measures essential for workplace intervention on health and safety.

A massive amount of harmful asphalt fumes is emitted from the Hot Mix Asphalt (HMA) during asphalt pavement construction. The traditional measurement of asphalt fumes concentration is mostly based on onsite sampling and laboratory experiments. This study proposes asphalt paving model based on computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to investigate the diffusion of asphalt fumes. A three-dimensional physical model of asphalt fumes diffusion was built and then controlled by the technology of dynamic mesh to analyze the process of the asphalt paving. Five monitoring points were set up in the actual construction site to validate the effectiveness of the simulation model and identify the factors affecting the diffusion. It is found that the relative error range is 3.79%–7.93%, which verifies the effectiveness of the numerical simulation results, and that the wind speed becomes the main factor, which promotes the asphalt fume diffusion. This study contributes to the improvement of pavement construction and helps make construction plans efficiently for pavement managers.

Hearing loss is a significant problem in the construction industry. Research shows several construction workers have hearing difficulty and some hearing impairment that impacts day-to-day activities. Despite these statistics, construction sites remain a significant source of noise exposure. While other industries have developed and implemented effective technology-driven interventions, the construction industry significantly lags. Therefore, there is a need for construction researchers and practitioners to investigate noise exposure, develop domain-specific technology-based solutions, and encourage the implementation of these solutions. Thus, this study, as part of larger effort, explores the incident of construction noise and strategies for detection and prevention. The authors conducted a literature review to identify top construction tasks with high levels of harmful noise exposure and establish the hierarchy of control levels and associated strategies for noise management. Next, 22 construction managers were surveyed to provide insights from a management perspective regarding the perceived level of workers’ noise exposure, gauge the effectiveness of noise management practices and controls, and identify technologies with the potential to detect and prevent noise hazards. Results from the present study indicate that the existing noise management practices, by themselves, are not very effective, and should be complemented with emerging technologies. Overall, this study will benefit construction practitioners in raising awareness on the potential role emerging interventions could have in noise mitigation, while supporting research efforts geared toward the development and adoption of technology-supported controls to reduce noise exposure during construction projects.

Historically, the construction industry is not perceived as having the most culturally or socially tolerant workplace compared to other industries. Studies indicate that a culturally tolerant workplace climate has a positive impact on workplace and employee productivity. In this study, we surveyed 2740 construction workers across the United States using an online questionnaire. The survey participants were asked to rate how they feel on a Likert scale ranging from “Strongly Disagree” to “Strongly Agree” five categories regarding whether (1) they feel respected at work, (2) job conditions allow them to be as productive as they could be, (3) they are treated in a manner that is unprofessional either publicly or privately, (4) they have been the target of bad jokes or derogatory comments, and (5) their coworkers can be relied on when they need help. These questions are adopted from the “General Social Survey (GSS),” a nationally representative survey of adults in the United States, and the best source for sociological and attitudinal trend data covering the US. The purpose of this paper is to analyze and compare the construction workforce’s attitudes to these social and cultural issues with national trends using the GSS data. Furthermore, the collected results will be analyzed based on gender groups. Key findings show, with statistical significance, that the construction industry has worse experiences in categories 2 and 4, and that females in the construction industry have significantly worse experiences compared to males in all analyzed categories.

The use of drones in construction grew exponentially over the last few years, making the construction industry one of the fastest commercial adopters of drones. Drones are widely used in the construction industry for applications such as aerial mapping, safety and quality inspection, job site logistics, and progress monitoring. The integration of drones in construction job sites raises novel occupational safety and health issues for construction workers. Workers on heights are particularly exposed to the health and safety risks posed by drones. This work-in-progress paper presents the analysis and development phases of the study aimed at developing and evaluating training content for construction workers on heights. The objective is to train workers about drones in their environment and the associated health and safety risks. The training content includes Virtual Reality (VR) simulations, audio-visual instructions, and a VR game consisting of virtual drones to train workers in an effective, realistic, and safe environment. The learning objectives of the training are to (1) train workers about the basic operation and uses of different types of drones used on construction sites; (2) train workers about the health and safety risks associated with drones, including physical risks, attentional costs, and psychological impacts; and (3) train workers to work safely with drones.

Researchers and practitioners believe that incorporating emerging technologies such as robotics and automation (RA) offers new possibilities to combat challenges inherent to construction trades. Regardless of the potential positive impact of RA, human-robot interactions (HRI) could introduce new hazards on the job site or elevate the potential impact of existing hazards. While some studies have assessed the effectiveness of RA technologies, no study has evaluated the hazards associated with HRI in construction. In response to this need, the authors, as part of an ongoing study, conducted a detailed literature review to identify the different levels/categories of RA and hazards they introduce or escalate. Thereafter, a survey questionnaire was distributed to 29 construction experts to verify if the identified hazards are connected to the RA levels. The literature review revealed three technological levels of RA application based on proximity between the worker/controller and the construction robot, seven HRI hazard groups (Human Control, Unauthorized Access or Operational Situation Awareness, Mechanical Concerns, Environmental Sources, Power Systems, and Improper Installation), and 32 hazards associated with the use of RAs in the three categories. The expert panel verified the categories and provided insight on the interactions between the identified hazards and the RA categories. The present study provides useful information needed to enhance pre-planning activities for operations involving the use of RA.

Construction is one of the most hazardous industries for its workers responsible for performing physically and mentally demanding tasks. Several factors impact the safety performance of construction workers. The inherent nature of construction makes workers susceptible to suffer from high-fatigue levels. Fatigue has been proven to have adverse impacts on the functionality of workers and their safety performance. In other words, reducing fatigue positively contributes to safety risk mitigation and accident prevention in construction. Safety training programs (i.e., OSHA 10/30) aim to enhance construction safety and prevent accidents. Therefore, this study hypothesized that such safety training programs equip construction workers with the necessary skills to reduce fatigue risk. To test the research hypothesis, 117 construction workers in the United States participated in the study. Fifty-six (48%) workers had received OSHA 10 and/or 30-hour training, while 60 (52%) of them had not received the training. The fatigue levels of both groups were measured using Occupational Fatigue Exhaustion Recovery (OFER) Scale. The data analysis showed a significant difference (p-value < 0.01) in the fatigue levels between workers who received OSHA safety training (OFER-Score = 33%) and workers who did not receive safety training (OFER-Score = 42%). The results of this study demonstrate that safety training such as OSHA 10/30 is associated with lower fatigue levels among workers. The findings suggest that such training courses that familiarize workers with safety skills (e.g., mitigating ergonomic risks) can help them perform their duties effectively and ergonomically, leading to lower fatigue levels.

Electrocution is one of the major causes of fatalities in the construction industry. Despite periodic safety training aimed at retaining workers’ vigilance (i.e., sustained attention) to electrical hazards, workers tend to fail to maintain vigilance toward frequent encounters with electrical hazards. Providing an effective intervention that restores workers’ vigilance is thus critical to reducing electrocution accidents. To this end, this study proposes a Virtual Reality (VR) safety training environment that exposes workers to repeated electrical hazards and simulates an electrocution accident when workers come in contact with the hazards. A pilot experiment was conducted, and participants’ vigilance (i.e., eye fixations on the hazard) was measured using eye-tracking sensors. The results reveal the potential effect of experiencing VR-simulated electrocution on enhancing workers’ vigilance to electrical hazards. The outcomes of this study will lay the foundation for further studies to employ VR as a safety training environment that allows workers to experience a simulated electrocution, thereby contributing to a potential reduction in fatal electrocutions.

Safety training is essential to encouraging construction workers to actively prevent construction accidents. Virtual reality (VR)-based safety training is becoming popular because it enhances trainees’ learning without increasing physical hazards. Investigating the effectiveness of VR-based safety training will provide a basis to determine what should be maintained and complemented in safety training. A wearable electroencephalogram (EEG) device can analyze trainees’ valence and arousal during the training and, in turn, measure their emotions (e.g., excitement and disappointment) which indicate their interests in learning and their level of knowledge acquisition. Thus, the emotional states can be used to evaluate the training effectiveness. Unfortunately, it still remains unclear how trainees’ emotions vary throughout the training. Therefore, the authors measure construction workers’ emotions during a VR-based safety training using EEG signals to evaluate its effectiveness. To achieve this objective, the VR safety training regarding fall prevention was performed with 20 construction workers who wore a wearable EEG headset to collect their EEG signals during the training. The training results are threefold. First, while learning about a safe harness and lanyard, an average construction worker felt excited except for when a scaffold system was collapsed. Second, experienced construction workers on average felt excited throughout the training. Third, while less experienced workers felt excited during the introduction of the safety gears, they felt tense when making a safety decision. These results indicate that using EEG signals during VR-based safety training will enable trainees’ emotional state measurement and, in turn, a better design of safety training.

One of the most controversial issues today is gender discrimination, which affects a significant part of the world’s population and is even more accentuated in developing countries, where the role of women is subject to cultural stereotypes. The construction industry represents a leading economic business sector around the globe, employing millions of women and men directly and indirectly; in a country like Colombia, this industry shows a low proportion in the ascription of women in contrast to that of men; subsequently, this article presents the perception of genders in the Colombian construction sector from the labor, educational, and leadership perspectives. The study data were collected through surveys of affiliated workers at all organizational levels in the sector and addressed gender disparities in salary, position, and influence. Additionally, the study showed that women are more likely to suffer discrimination or harassment in their educational and work environments and are still perceived to have lower earnings in their jobs simply because of their gender. From the organizational vision, it is concluded that women are perceived with a democratic/human relations leadership style and men with a democratic/autocratic style. Despite the relevance of the gender issue in the 21st century, there are shortcomings in mechanisms to reduce the gender gap in the construction sector.

Safety attitude plays a major role in the safety performance of construction workers. Research has demonstrated that a positive safety attitude decreases the likelihood of workers’ unsafe behavior. Unsafe behavior is reportedly accountable for the majority of construction accidents. The construction industry, unfortunately, suffers from high rates of fatal and non-fatal accidents, and workers’ safety performance enhancement is essential to prevent accidents in workplaces. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) offers safety training, among which OSHA 10-h and OSHA 30-h programs are the most recognized and prevalent training. Extensive research studies have evaluated the effectiveness of such training programs. However, the impact of these outreach courses on the safety attitude of construction workers has not been investigated. Therefore, this article aims to examine the impact of OSHA 10/30-h construction training on the safety attitude. One-hundred and seventeen construction workers in the United States were recruited, and their safety attitude was measured using a standard questionnaire. Among the participants, 56 (48%) had participated in OSHA 10 and/or OSHA 30, and the rest of the workers asserted they did not attend such training courses. The results of the t-tests show a statistically significant difference among workers’ safety attitudes, indicating that OSHA 10/30-h training succeeded in changing the safety attitude of workers for the better (cognitive and behavioral). Given the importance of safety attitude, the study’s findings urge the safety trainers, professionals, and policymakers to incorporate safety attitude enhancement elements to OSHA 10/30 agendas and advance their training effectiveness to improve construction safety.

Interpersonal conflicts at work (ICW) and individual resilience (IR) that describes a person’s positive psychological capacity for performance improvement have the potential to affect construction safety performance. However, few research has been conducted to investigate these two factors on construction sites, e.g., how often ICW occurs on construction sites and whether the occurrence frequency is distributed similarly across countries. It is also necessary to examine whether workers from different countries interpret ICW and IR conceptually similar, which is a precondition for any comparison. By surveying 420 US construction workers and 837 Canadian construction workers, this study conducted measurement equivalence tests and compared the frequency of ICW on the surveyed construction sites. The results show that US and Canadian construction workers interpreted ICW and IR conceptually similar, although with different demographic background. In addition, US respondents reported fewer conflicts with their supervisors, which may be related to the slightly higher age, lower participation in safety committees, and fewer supervisors on site.

Effective safety risk management plays an important role in improving construction workers’ safety. A review on existing literature suggests that most published works focus on identifying and assessing the impact of workplace hazards, such as working at height and noisy worksite on a construction worker’s overall safety. However, hazards are often assessed independently, disregarding the potential correlations and interactions among multiple hazards concurrently present at the job site. Moreover, the possible temporal and spatial association between various hazards and the workers’ safety risk perception is mostly ignored. Therefore, the present study aims at investigating how knowledge of new hazards can shift workers’ safety risk assessment. As part of a larger study, data were collected from 57 Civil and Construction Engineering students using images integrated into an interactive survey to achieve the goal of this research. Responses on the severity and frequency of seven potential accidents were captured and analyzed for three work scenarios with different information levels (different number of hazards). Findings showed participants’ assessment of safety risk increased as more hazard-related information was introduced to the work environment. However, participants focused on the most significant change while downplaying the potential impact of other hazards that could lead to an accident on the job site. The present study contributes to safety research by showing the potential interdependencies between safety risk factors. Safety trainers should account for the impact of these interdependencies when designing and delivering safety training.

Research shows women’s participation in executive teams leads to higher value through different perspective and fresh ideas, improved connections with internal and external stakeholders, greater innovation, and improved financial performance. With only 3.5% executive leadership and 4.9% total senior leadership engineering billets filled by women, underrepresentation in the civil engineering/construction industry deprives firms and their customers of the benefits from a diverse workforce. Using Engineering News Record’s (ENR’s) 2019 Top 400 list, this study analyzes published LinkedIn profiles for over 3,000 executives to compare impact of positions held, education earned, and networking proclivity on career progression for women and men. Understanding individual and collective career experience provides valuable insight on the skills, abilities, and qualities required to reach the highest levels of the industry. Future generations of leaders can learn and apply these tools, techniques, and tactics in their own growth from the earliest entry level stages to accelerate progression through the ranks.

Given the dynamic and complex nature of the construction industry, maintaining situation awareness at job sites is critical. To react properly, workers must identify dynamic safety hazards within the scene. The majority of studies assessing construction workers’ situation awareness have utilized static images, virtual reality, and other types of simulation methods, but questions remain as to whether these formats are able to capture and monitor workers’ naturalistic behaviors and hazard identification abilities. To identify whether the format of hazardous stimuli (i.e., static, image-based vs. dynamic, and video-based formats) impact workers’ subjective and objective hazard identification and situation awareness metrics, this study developed 23 safety hazard scenarios utilizing state-of-the-art augmented 360° panoramas and then tracked differences in workers’ visual search patterns and hazard identification abilities using eye-tracking technology. The workers’ cognitive responses, evidenced by their eye movements, showed that workers had significantly varied cognitive processes and abilities depending on the format of stimuli: Workers with lower hazard identification skills were more likely to miss hazards in a dynamic environment. This result suggests that the experimental setting should be carefully designed to determine construction workers’ natural cognitive process.

The construction industry is regarded as one of the most highly hazardous industries. Workers are vulnerable to numerous injuries every day due to a lack of efficient safety management at their workplaces, and despite every accident being recorded, efforts with minimum impacts are made to improve the workers’ safety. Construction laborers often have to perform their activities in severe weather, enduring both extremely hot and cold temperatures, and as a result, they are prone to developing various health issues leading to accidents. This paper aims to identify strategies and recommendations to improve the occupational health and safety of construction laborers who work in extreme environments. To achieve the objectives of this study, a survey was developed and distributed among workers through an online platform, which yielded 27 responses, then the collected data were analyzed, and the results were used to devise ways to improve the safety and health of workers. The survey results revealed that construction field workers are unable to perform in extreme temperatures because of the lack of proper cooling and heating systems and that most of them experience physical fatigue while exerting themselves in extreme heat. Such circumstances can be managed, and the workers’ productivity can improve by establishing an efficient plan for rotating the jobs and providing work/rest cycles. The recommendations of this study can be helpful to construction practitioners who strive to improve the physical, mental, and emotional safety and health of those working under extreme temperatures on construction sites.

Workplace hazards and accidents occur more frequently in the construction industry than in any other industries. Occupational hazards cannot be completely eliminated but can be reduced to an extent where workers can perform activities in a safe environment. Health and safety of workers in construction site is of at most importance to employers, which when ignored can lead to fatal injuries and even death affecting the progress of work and project completion time. The goal of this study is to identify critical factors affecting workers health in extreme weather conditions and to identify the vulnerable workers based on age, gender, and ethnicity. Therefore, a questionnaire survey was developed and distributed to identify critical health challenges faced by construction workers while working in unfavorable weather conditions. The results revealed that workers with pre-existing medical condition like hyper-tension face higher unfavorable impacts on their health while working in extreme hot weather. Based on gender, female workers suffer from more heat related disorders compared to male workers. Based on age, workers above 50 years are more affected when working in extreme weather conditions compared to workers of other age groups. In addition, some workers reported increased irritation and distraction from work due to physical discomfort of working in unfavorable environment leading to more accidents at workplace. Moreover, some workers reported increased onset of muscle fatigue due to tight thermal clothing during cold weather conditions. Prolonged exposure to cold winds tends to distract the workers, leading to workers becoming more hallucinatory and disoriented. The results of this study will help employers and project managers to take proper actions against the unforeseen factors affecting the workers’ health and safety in the construction sites with extreme weather conditions.

Construction workers are often faced with several safety and health risks due to their constant exposure to extreme weather elements and hazardous materials in form of chemicals, gases, particulate matter (PM), and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Continuous automated sensing of these inclement environmental conditions and hazardous materials for the provision of early warning alerts to workers is necessary for predicting and preventing future safety and health issues. This paper presents a two-phase investigative approach aimed at characterizing the role of wearable sensing devices (WSDs) in predicting and preventing injuries, illnesses, and accidents associated with environmental hazards on construction sites. First, a systematic review of the categories of environmental hazards on construction sites and the typical controls used to provide an additional layer of protection for workers is conducted. Thereafter, 23 environmental hazard-related injury, illness, and accident cases were extracted from archival databases to analyze the potential impact of utilizing WSDs as prevention tools for achieving more effective environmental monitoring on construction sites. This study provides valuable insights into how further investigation can be structured to evaluate the utility and implementation of this category for technology for effectively monitoring and eliminating the negative impact of harmful environmental conditions and materials on construction workers.

Recent research suggests construction workers fall prey to the cognitive biases of risk compensation, wherein workers offset safety improvements by taking more risks. Parallel previous literature indicates that time pressure and mental load may increase workers’ arousal and stress. However, it is unclear whether time, productivity, and/or cognitive demands can worsen risk compensation behaviors by stimulating workers to make riskier decisions to complete tasks faster. Combining a multi-modal mixed-reality environment with wearable neuro-psychophysiological sensors, this study examines changes in safety and task performance for high-risk electrical-line tasks simulated under time/performance pressure and cognitive demand. The results show risk-compensation is in play as subjects over-rely on safety technologies and maintain their risk perception even while undertaking more risks to adapt to increased time pressure and/or cognitive demand. This paper contributes to body of knowledge by affecting safety-training approaches and the controls needed when providing workers with safety protection and new technological advances.

Reliance on emerging technologies as pivotal tools for occupational safety and health (OSH) management in the construction industry is expected to rise with technological advancement and increased access to these innovative devices. Therefore, it is essential to uncover crucial factors that influence construction workers’ sustained use of technology for OSH management. Given that previous studies posit a relationship between behavior, worker attitude, and workers’ openness to innovation adoption, the present paper aims to investigate the potential connections between safety compliance (SC), safety attitude (SA), and construction workers’ safety innovativeness (SI). To achieve this aim, the authors surveyed 63 construction workers in the US. The SC and SA of workers were assessed using validated instruments and constructs, while safety innovativeness was assessed using items adapted from worker innovativeness research. Statistical analysis of the data revealed a positive and significant correlation between SC, SA, and a worker’s intention to adopt safety innovations (between 0.410 and 0.646). Also, analysis of the potential impact of demographic factors (work experience and worker designation) on the mean value of each construct suggests that there was no significant difference among the responses of the different demographic groups (p-value > 0.005). Therefore, the present study concludes that SC and SA could be significant predictors of SI. It is therefore recommended that future studies focused on developing and testing conceptual models for predicting the acceptance of technologies used for OSH management should include safety compliance and safety attitude constructs.

Dynamic worksite conditions and proximity to live traffic frequently expose highway workers to unsafe proximities, resulting in accidents. Improving workers’ situation awareness is one of the measures to prevent worksite injuries. The research investigates factors that impact workers’ situation awareness in highway work zones and explores applicable human-centered hazard warning methods under various worksite scenarios. To this end, two surveys were conducted with construction workers and managers. The first survey aims to compare the participants’ perception of worksite injuries, safety management, and the company’s safety culture. It also investigates the difference of perception between workers and managers that contributes to unsafe behaviors. The second survey investigated workers’ hazard detection ability under various work zone conditions, warning alarm methods preference, and wearable warning device location preference. The research looks into situation awareness from multiple aspects and provides helpful advice for human-centered alarm design based on highway workers’ experiences. The results provide a useful reference for wearable PPE design to improve roadway worksites’ safety levels.