Safety and Risk Management in Construction - Hazards, Risks, and Mitigation Strategies

This presentation discusses the hazards and risks associated with the construction industry, including health and safety risks, fire risks, and client and contractor risks. It also explores the effectiveness of existing risk management strategies, such as BGC's TRISAFE framework, and provides an overview of risk identification, assessment, and mitigation strategies. The presentation is relevant for students studying construction, engineering, and risk management.

Safety and risk management
in Construction

Introduction
Construction companies plays a positive role:
• Helps to steer economic growth
• Generates employment
Major downside is that the profession is associated with
several types of hazards and health safety issues (Finkel,
2015)

BGC (Buckeridge Group of Companies)
It was set up in the year 1960, has another arm called the BGC
Constructions and it performs construction works all over Australia (BGC
Contracting, 2018).
BGC has built the famous Perth Arena

Construction industry
The construction industry generally involves the following:
• Construction works which involves the building in only specialized items only like works on the
woods, and electric related works.
• Construction of the real estate properties
• General construction
• Construction of road and bridge (Finkel, 2015).

Types of risks in Construction industry
The different types of the risks associated with the construction
industry as follows:
• Client Risks
• Contractor Risks
• Health and safety risks
• Fire risks in the construction projects (Choudhry & Iqbal, 2012)

Background of Health and safety risks
Statistics have shown that construction sites are one of the most hazardous and vulnerable places
for the employees. With 90 percent of the accidents are occurring that could have been avoided
(Hse.gov.uk, 2018).
Source: [Hse.gov.uk.,
2018]

Health and safety risks
The different types of the health and safety
risks are as follows:
• Electrical hazards
• Airborne toxins and fibres
• Fatal respiratory issues arising from
Asbestos
• Unintended falls and collapse
• Mishandling of materials
• Hand and vibration syndrome arising due
to the usage of power tools
• Hazardous noise levels
• Trips and slips
• Hazards from moving objects
• Hazards of working from height (Zhou,
Goh & Li, 2015)

Effectiveness of the existing risk management
BGC constructions employs TRISAFE framework that ensures the health and safety of the laborers
and the employees (BGC Contracting., 2018).

Effectiveness of the existing risk management

Effectiveness of the existing risk management
Continuous monitoring and measurement has led to combining of both the lag and the lead
indicators into the safety parameter analysis (BGC Contracting., 2018).

Risk management

Risk identification
Risk identification involves following steps:
• Creation of a systematic process
• Gathering information from different types of sources
• Application of the different risk identification tools
• Documentation of the risks
• Documentation of the process of risk identification.
• Assessing the effectiveness of the process (Hwang, Zhao & Toh, 2014).

Risk assessment
The steps of performing a risk assessment involves the following:
• Identification of the hazards
• Making decisions on who might be harmed from the risks.
• Evaluation of the risks and taking decisions on the control measures
• Recording the findings and implementation of the same
• Review of the assessment process and update it if necessary.

Risk mitigation
The risk mitigation involves the 4 different strategies:
• Risk can be avoided entirely by eliminating the root cause of the problem or the issue.
• Risk can be transferred to another party through the insurances and through the contractual
clauses.
• Reduction of the risks by making plans to reduce the risks wherever the problem is found to be
manifesting.
• Accepting the risk and this should the last resort (Hughes, Champion & Murdoch, 2015).

Risk monitoring
The different types of strategies that can be employed in risk monitoring are as follows:
• Continual- continuous form of risk monitoring
• Reassessment- tertiary or secondary risk management strategies
• Obligatory- risk is monitored through some organizational policies and laws set up by the
government.
• Voluntary- monitoring risk as per the standards set by the law (Hughes, Champion & Murdoch,
2015).

Identification of stakeholders
. The list of all the stakeholders are as follows:
• Civil engineer
• Plant technician
• Roofing technician
• Construction technician
• Construction laborers
• Governmental policymakers
• Emergency services
• Regulatory authorities
• Laborers
• Wood mechanist
• Plant mechanic
• Plant technician (Hwang, Zhao & Toh, 2014)

Reference
BGC Contracting. (2018). Health, Safety & Environment. Retrieved from https://www.bgc.cc/about-us/health-safety-
and-environment/
BGC Contracting. (2018). Our history. Retrieved from https://www.bgc.cc/about-us/our-history/
Choudhry, R. M., & Iqbal, K. (2012). Identification of risk management system in construction industry in Pakistan.
Journal of Management in Engineering, 29(1), 42-49.
Finkel, G. (2015). The economics of the construction industry. Routledge.
Hse.gov.uk. (2018). Statistics - Health and safety statistics for the construction sector in Great Britain’. Retrieved
from http://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/industry/construction/index.htm
Hughes, W., Champion, R., & Murdoch, J. (2015). Construction contracts: law and management. Routledge.
Hwang, B. G., Zhao, X., & Toh, L. P. (2014). Risk management in small construction projects in Singapore: Status,
barriers and impact. International Journal of Project Management, 32(1), 116-124.
Zhou, Z., Goh, Y. M., & Li, Q. (2015). Overview and analysis of safety management studies in the construction
industry. Safety science, 72, 337-350.