Safety Hazard Identification on Construction Projects

TLDR

Hazard identification is fundamental to construction safety management, as unidentified hazards pose the greatest unmanageable risks. The study investigates current hazard identification levels on three UK construction projects and introduces an IT tool, Total‑Safety, to aid personnel in developing method statements with improved hazard identification. The authors present Total‑Safety, an IT tool with a module that assists construction personnel in creating method statements that enhance hazard identification. Only 6.7% of method statements identified all expected hazards, with maximum identification rates of 89.9% (nuclear), 72.8% (railway), and 66.5% (railway/general construction), indicating that hazard identification levels are far from ideal and revealing key barriers.

Abstract

Hazard identification is fundamental to construction safety management; unidentified hazards present the most unmanageable risks. This paper presents an investigation indicating the current levels of hazard identification on three U.K. construction projects. A maximum of only 6.7% of the method statements analyzed on these projects managed to identify all of the hazards that should have been identified, based upon current knowledge. Maximum hazard identification levels were found to be 0.899 (89.9%) for a construction project within the nuclear industry, 0.728 (72.8%) for a project within the railway industry, and 0.665 (66.5%) for a project within both the railway and general construction industry sector. The results indicate that hazard identification levels are far from ideal. A discussion on the reasons for low hazard identification levels indicates key barriers. This leads to the presentation of an Information Technology (IT) tool for construction project safety management (Total-Safety) and, in particular, a module within Total-Safety designed to help construction personnel develop method statements with improved levels of hazard identification.