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1.21: Safety Management

  • Page ID
    41282
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    Learning Objectives

    After reading this chapter, you should be able to:

    • Understand that safety can never be compromised for other aspects of a construction project
    • Be able to define the importance of safety from an ethical and an economic perspective
    • Define effective safety management approaches to improve overall safety on construction projects
    • Be able to identify OSHA safety guideline locations and general reporting requirements
    • Understand the impact of construction accidents on projects

    The Importance of Safety

    As stated in the Fundamental Canons of the ASCE Code of Ethics:

    “1. Engineers shall hold paramount the safety, health and welfare of the public and shall strive to comply with the principles of sustainable development in the performance of their professional duties.” (ASCE 2017)

    The Top Risks and Accident Types

    Image showing the Fatal Four accident types in construction which are falls (36.9%), struck by object (10.3%), electrocutions (8.9%) and caught between objects (2.6%)
    Figure : The Fatal Four: Top Four Accident Types for Construction Fatalities

    Planning for Safety

    Every project should have a custom project safety plan. This safety plan should include:

    One important activity is to complete a Job Hazard Analysis for all core activities to be performed on the project. OSHA developed a brief booklet to outline an approach for developing a Job Hazard Analysis. The sample template included in this booklet is shown in Figure 2. The core process focuses on breaking down each core activity, e.g., bulk excavation, into specific tasks, e.g., 1) Excavate with excavator; 2) transport truck to excavation location; 3) load truck; and 4) transport truck to external site. For each of these tasks, the team should evaluate the specific hazards for the project, e.g., for task 1 related to excavation, the hazards may include overhead electrical lines in location of excavation, underground utilities in general location of excavation, and maintaining appropriate safety zone in the location of the excavation. Then hazard controls can be put into place to ensure that the hazards are minimized, e.g., marking overhead and underground utilities, etc.

    Each trade on the project should be planning these details related to their activities and they should be shared with the lead constructor(s) of the project.

    2022-06-23_16-29-18-617x1024.png
    Figure : Sample Job Hazard Analysis Form (Source: OSHA)
    OSHA Training Cards (sample) for Construction, General Industry, Maritime, and Disaster Site Worker showing the OSHA Trainer, OSHA 30 hour and OSHA 10 hour cards for construction
    Figure : OSHA Training Cards (sample) for Construction, General Industry, Maritime, and Disaster Site Worker (Source: OSHA Website)

    Safety Laws and Regulations

    The Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) was initially formed by

    The Impact of High-Quality Safety Programs

    Graph showing the reduction in CII Total Recordable Incident Rate from 7.19 in 1989 to 0.24 in 2018 while industry average declined from 14.3 in 1989 to 3.1 in 2017
    Figure : CII Members Reported Total Recordable Incident Rate Compared to Industry Average (Source: CII 2019)
    Graph showing the reduction in CII Days Away, Restricted or Transferred Rate from 1.9 in 1989 to 0.1 in 2018 while industry average declined from 6.8 in 1989 to 1.8 in 2017
    Figure : CII Members Reported Days Away, Restricted or Transferred Compared to Industry Average (Source: CII 2019)

    Review Questions

     

    References:

    ASCE. (2017). ASCE Code of Ethics. Available at https://www.asce.org/uploadedFiles/About_ASCE/Ethics/Content_Pieces/Code-of-Ethics-July-2017.pdf

    OSHA. (2022). Safety Standard for Construction, Regulation 1926, Available at https://www.osha.gov/laws-regs/regulations/standardnumber/1926

    Construction Industry Institute (CII). (2019). CII Safety Summary Report: Summary of CII 2018 Safety Rates. Construction Industry Institute, University of Texas at Austin, Available at https://www.construction-institute.org/securefile?filename=dpc2019_2.pdf#page=3


    This page titled 1.21: Safety Management is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by John Messner via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform.

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