Safety Culture: Mediating BIM & Construction Site Safety - Essay Sample

Introduction

Background

Safety is a priority in the construction industry (Zhang, Teizer, Lee, Eastman, &Venugopal, 2013). The construction firms need to take safety precautions to curb the potential hazard associated with construction. The construction site management team is entitled to ensure overall safety of the workers through deployment of latent regulations and policies that promotes workers' security (Chi, Kang, & Wang, 2013). Determination of construction space through fencing the site and demarcation of worker's space enhances safety (Tian&Yue, 2016). Integration of both BIM and WSN can facilitate the screening of the site thus aid in recognizing dangers and promote safety.

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Statement of the Problem

Risks and injuries are inevitable at the construction site and most of workers have lost lives while others sustained injuries at the construction sites (Volk, Stengel, &Schultmann, 2014). Majority of the accidents that occur at the site are due to poor communication strategies and mismanagement of the site. Moreover, many of the site managers fail to take the appropriate action to help victims or avoid prospect disaster from reoccurring. Inappropriate behaviors of some workers can also be the major contributing factor to injuries during the construction process.

Aim and Objectives

Aim

To investigate some of the primary cause of and reasons behind the several accidents that occurs at the construction site. The study equally seeks to investigate the likely association between poor information and communication delivery procedure and the latent causes of accidents that takes place at the construction site. Consequently, the project seeks to determine ways on how BIM application will be useful on the overall performance at the construction site as well as a strategy of preventing more accidents.

Objectives

• To investigate strategies in which BIM technologies improve information communication in construction projects
• To examine the effect of BIM technology in the preclusion and alleviation of safety risks in construction sites
• To assess the effect of a safety culture in decreasing safety risks in a construction site
• To discuss the mediating effect of a safety culture in the association between the adoption of BIM technology and achieving a safer construction site

Significance of the Study

The study provides important information concerning implementation of BIM in promotion of safety culture at the construction sites. The study is founded on the Hunan Province context, a home for mega projects. As such, the statistical evidence provided in the study justifies the adoption of BIM in promotion of safety at the construction site. BIM is a promising solution that will ensure safety of the construction workers as the adoption of technology progresses. BIM promotes project planning and realization of the construction project (Volk, Stengel, & Schultmann, 2014). Safety is an essential aspect of construction project in which the management needs to foster to attain a positive result of the project.

Literature Review

Safety Risks in Construction Site

Construction workers need to be aware of the need to promote safety and should be equipped with safety gears to limit safety risks such as collapse accidents, electrocution, and slips. Construction site managers need to promote safety through facilitating the quality and safety of the building process (Li, Hu, Xia, Skitmore& Li, 2018). Supervision of the building process often facilitates reduced safety risks.

Slips and Falls Non-fatal Accidents

Slips and falls are commonly experiences accidents at the construction site(Nagata et al., 2008). Establishing walkways is crucial to transport building material within the site. The construction of walkways needs materials that are easy to remove for instance wood or metallic bars. However, both metallic and wood walkways have challenges (Li, Hu, Xia, Skitmore& Li, 2018). Awareness of the occurrences of falls at the construction site helps avoidance of accidents.

Accidents Cause by Collapse

Collapse from high heights is a safety risk that workers are encouraged to take extreme caution. Developing temporary structures to hold workers is the main cause of collapse. Scaffolds and cranes account for most collapse accidents from high heights. Scissor lift can provide support at high heights where there is risk of collapse accidents due to faultiness of the life (Zhao & Zhang, 2011). Scissor lifts and cranes are safer in comparison to scaffolds and wooden structure supports2.1.3 Accidents Caused by Moving ObjectsMoving objects are part of construction as building materials are constantly moved in the construction site. The moving objects become safety risk based on how they are handled (Mesaros, Spisakova&Mackova, 2019). Construction machinery for instance excavators are also a safety risk when operated in muddy areas. Training on effective operation of machinery and tolls is necessary to improve safety.

Electrical Hazards

The use of electricity at the construction site is a temporal connection that causes electric shocks, hence the need to mark the regions where the electric cables pass (Zhu, Li & Wu, 2014). Electrical installations should be done by trained and qualified personnel.

Manual Handling Hazards

Handling manual construction materials is a safety risk at the construction site as every material has a particular way that should be handled. Using tools on purposes not intended and wrong handling of the tools elevates manual handling risks (Gangolells et al., 2010). Although the risk of manual handling of material is non-fatal, there is still need for sensitization of workers on effective ways of handling materials.

Harmful Material Hazards

Cement, paint, and mortar are some of the building equipment that are safety risk to the workers. Inhalation of cement and paint fumes affect the respiratory system of the workers while mortar causes dry skin and cracks when handled with bare hands (Zou, 2011). Sensitizing workers and wearing safety gears would aid in promot...