Birmingham 2022: A Construction Risk Assessment of Commonwealth Games

This report presents a construction risk assessment for the Birmingham Commonwealth Games project, highlighting potential risks at different stages of its lifecycle. It identifies key risks such as crowd management, loss of reputation, aggressive behavior, uncertainty, and financial loss, evaluating tw...Read More

Construction risk
assessment

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
Managing Project Commonwealth Games: Birmingham................................................................3
Background & History..............................................................................................................3
Project Management of Mega Sports Event...........................................................................3
A critical review of different types of risks facing this project at different stages of its life cycle.3
The Evaluation of two identified risks and discussion related to the mitigation strategies.........5
Heat Diagrams related to the risks identified in the case.............................................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION
Risk is inherent in almost every activity. It surrounds us in our educational, business and
personal lives as well. Nowadays, it is mandatory to learn this life skill as to identify, analyse,
assess, control, avoid, minimise or eliminate unacceptable risks. Risk assessment is a process in
which potential effects or harm of a hazard are estimated to determine the level of risk and which
helps to analyse what could happen if a hazard occurs (Dikmen, and et.al., 2018). It is performed
by a competent person which measures the risk effectively and also efficient in controlling risks
and take corrective actions in any potential situations. The success of an event is measured in
many ways and safety comes under it. Events differ in size, nature and type but all events require
assessment, monitor and controlling of risks. There are many steps involved in risk assessment
process such as hazard identification, risk assessment and risk control. The following report
highlights the case of Birmingham, 2022 and the commonwealth games which are going to take
place in the city. The risks which are related to this project are discussed herein and their
assessment are provided.
Managing Project Commonwealth Games: Birmingham
Background & History
Project Management of Mega Sports Event
A critical review of different types of risks facing this project at different
stages of its life cycle
The risks which are associated with the Commonwealth Games project in Birmingham
are as follows:
 Crowd Management – Crowds at events bring a huge amount of energy and no one
wants to end up with a project that lacks it. The management of crowd is the biggest task
in an event as no one knows how many people will come to attend the event. Things are
run on an estimation and projection is done with consideration of past outcomes and
prevailing circumstances in the country. With the right planning in advance, there is still
chances that you will get buzzing atmosphere without the stress of trying to throw in last
minute management techniques (Nguyen, and Tran, 2021). And as mentioned in the
project, Birmingham is expected an increase of between 5,00,000 and 1 million visitors
on each of the 11 days of the games. The event will be hosted in Alexander Stadium in

the Perry Bar Area that is increasing its capacity to 50,000 for the event but still we
cannot rely on the predictions. They will definitely risk occurs if more than expected
people will come to attend the event
 Loss of Reputation – Loss of reputation is the most critical risk which can effect
severely the image of any city, region or business, etc. Birmingham is a modern,
cosmopolitan city, also the youngest in Europe and very diverse as mentioned in the
project, so if the Commonwealth Games event will not have executed according to the
planning may adversely affect the image and reset it with heavy discouragement from
public and companies who shows interest in investing in the city in near future.
 Aggressive Behaviour – This event is heavily discouraged by the economists already
because of the financial inefficiency of the city and the economic benefits which are
expected are only based on mere predictions (Lyu, and et.al., 2020). Birmingham is
already in debt and in order to offset the cost of games, the city is expected to introduce a
hotel tax which definitely creates resentment in public as no one wants to pay it. This
results in heavy risk too as if people are not supporting something then, they will
definitely not be going to attend it.
 Risk of Uncertainty- This risk is related to the uncertain events which can occur anytime
and impacts the smooth functioning of event or project. The risk of uncertainty appears
from the luck of conditions that may intervene in the day to day activities of an event.
There are different types of uncertainty risks related to an event such as natural
calamities, fire, market downfall, legal actions, political unrest, etc. In Birmingham, the
uncertainty is coming in light due to the public and economist's reaction regarding
hosting the Commonwealth Games as they are totally against of it because of the
financial conditions which are not favourable in the city and due to this, people could
oppose the event by not attending it; which may cause heavy losses to the city which will
definitely not expected.
 Financial Loss – In Birmingham city, the financial disturbances are on its peak (Zhou,
and et.al., 2020). They have debts larger than a few small African countries. We are
expecting economic benefits and also expect that it will create 22,000 more jobs over 4
years. But these are mere predictions, things could go against of it. The event faces the
heavy risk of financial loss as already Birmingham is in debt.

The Evaluation of two identified risks and discussion related to the mitigation strategies
Heat Diagrams related to the risks identified in the case

CONCLUSION

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Zhou, H., and et.al., 2020. Risk assessment and management via multi-source information fusion
for undersea tunnel construction. Automation in Construction, 111, p.103050.
Lyu, H.M., and et.al., 2020. Risk assessment using a new consulting process in fuzzy
AHP. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 146(3), p.04019112.
Nguyen, L.D. and Tran, D.Q., 2021. Measurement of Fuzzy Membership Functions in
Construction Risk Assessment. Journal of Construction Engineering and
Management, 147(4), p.04021005.
Dikmen, I., and et.al., 2018. Effects of risk attitude and controllability assumption on risk
ratings: Observational study on international construction project risk
assessment. Journal of management in engineering, 34(6), p.04018037.