Alba Fuertes

Mitigating construction safety risks using prevention through design.

INTRODUCTION Research and practice have demonstrated that decisions made prior to work at construction sites can influence construction worker safety. However, it has also been argued that most architects and design engineers possess neither the knowledge of construction safety nor the knowledge of construction processes necessary to effectively perform Construction Hazards Prevention through Design (CHPtD). METHOD This paper introduces a quantitative methodology that supports designers by providing a way to evaluate the safety-related performance of residential construction designs using a risk analysis-based approach. The methodology compares the overall safety risk level of various construction designs and ranks the significance of the various safety risks of each of these designs. The methodology also compares the absolute importance of a particular safety risk in various construction designs. RESULTS Because the methodology identifies the relevance of each safety risk at a particular site prior to the construction stage, significant risks are highlighted in advance. Thus, a range of measures for mitigating safety risks can then be implemented during on-site construction. IMPACT ON INDUSTRY The methodology is specially worthwhile for designers, who can compare construction techniques and systems during the design phase and determine the corresponding level of safety risk without their creative talents being restricted. By using this methodology, construction companies can improve their on-site safety performance.

Standardizing Housing Defects: Classification, Validation, and Benefits

AbstractDefects produce economic and temporal deviations in construction projects. Although learning from past experiences can help reduce defects and their consequences, usually data is not easily available or is poorly structured and difficult to analyze. Several structured classification systems for defects exist, but regionally specific construction activities make the data unviable for research use. This paper presents the development and the validation of a defects’ classification system for the Spanish housing sector. From the analysis of the existing defect classification systems, a first draft was developed to be discussed and improved in a series of workshops done by a panel of experts. Afterward, the final classification was validated by experts’ interviews. The experts evaluated the epistemological adequacy and reusability of the proposed classification system. The results demonstrate the suitability of the classification system. In addition, the validation revealed that the classification can...

A comparative analysis of occupational health and safety risk prevention practices in Sweden and Spain

INTRODUCTION Scandinavian countries such as Sweden implemented the occupational health and safety (OHS) measures in the European Directive 89/391/EEC earlier than other European counties, including Spain. In fact, statistics on workplace accident rates reveal that between 2004 and 2009, there were considerably fewer accidents in Sweden than in Spain. METHOD The objective of the research described in this paper was to reduce workplace accidents and to improve OHS management in Spain by exploring the OHS practices in Sweden. For this purpose, an exploratory comparative study was conducted, which focused on the effectiveness of the EU directive in both countries. The study included a cross-sectional analysis of workplace accident rates and other contextual indicators in both national contexts. A case study of 14 Swedish and Spanish companies identified 14 differences in the preventive practices implemented. These differences were then assessed with a Delphi study to evaluate their contribution to the reduction of workplace accidents and their potential for improving health and safety management in Spain. RESULTS The results showed that there was agreement concerning 12 of the 14 practices. Finally, we discuss opportunities of improvement in Spanish companies so that they can make their risk management practices more effective. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS The findings of this comparative study on the implementation of the European Directive 89/391/EEC in both Sweden and Spain have revealed health and safety managerial practices which, if properly implemented, could contribute to improved work conditions and accident statistics of Spanish companies. In particular, the results suggest that Spanish employers, safety managers, external prevention services, safety deputies and Labour Inspectorates should consider implementing streamlined internal preventive management, promoting the integration of prevention responsibilities to the chain of command, and preventing health and safety management from becoming a mere exchange of documents. The authors also encourage future research studies to use the methodology presented to compare and assess the European Directive 89/391/EEC implementation in other European countries.

Model for Enhancing Integrated Identification, Assessment, and Operational Control of On-Site Environmental Impacts and Health and Safety Risks in Construction Firms

AbstractCertifiable management-system standards apply similar management techniques and principles, but each system still tends to have a separate structure in construction companies. Research and practice have demonstrated that management tasks may be duplicated when standards are implemented in parallel. Consequently, integrated management systems are strongly advocated. However, existing literature demonstrates that the integration of planning and control instruments involves a high level of uncertainty. This paper presents an innovative model to enhance the integration of environmental- and health and safety–management systems in construction companies, focusing on the subsystems for identifying, assessing, and operationally controlling environmental aspects and health and safety hazards and using risk as an integrating factor. The findings of this study have direct implications for both designers and contractors because the model helps to explicitly consider on-site environmental impacts and construc...

Influence of building type on post-handover defects in housing

Clients’ lack of involvement in defining quality requirements for dwellings built by developers leads to a perception of poor quality at the time of purchase. The research presented in this paper aims to broaden previous research on defects by analyzing the defects that remain in the post-handover stage, which usually lasts 12 months after the handover period, and identifying the factors that influence the appearance of these defects, determining whether a significant difference exists in the quality of the two main residential building types built by developers: flats and detached houses. It also analyzes and discusses the areas and elements in which the defects were detected. The data were obtained from client complaint forms completed after the handover of 95 dwellings in Spain. The data were then statistically analyzed using a t-test analysis, a Pearson’s parametric correlation, and a chi-square test. The research reveals that clients detect more defects in flats than in detached houses. The lower quality of the materials used in flats and the tighter schedule to which flats are subject may cause these differences.

Posthandover Housing Defects: Sources and Origins

In Spain, the high levels of inexperienced workers and the long chains of subcontracting contribute to the poor quality of dwellings. Althoughthe Ley reguladora de la subcontratacion en el Sector de la Construccion (subcontracting law) has established quality measures, the number of customer complaints is still increasing. In this paper, a total of 2,351 posthandover defects derived from four Spanish builders and seven residential developments are classi fi ed according to their source and origin. The research reveals that the most common defects identi fi ed by customers at posthandover were derived from bad workmanship and were related to construction errors and omissions. Typical defects were foundtoincludeincorrectinstallation,appearancedefects,andmissinganitemortaskmainlyrelatedto fi nishingandconsideredtobeminor.No defects were caused by poor design because they are mainly detected and resolved during construction or become apparent after some years of use. This study demonstrates the negative impact of redoing defective work during the fi nal stages of construction and provides knowledge to de fi ne measures to improve the quality of the fi nished buildings, such as understanding customer expectations and preferences, training programs for workers, specialization of subcontractors, and tightening external controls prior to handover.

Development of an Ontology for the Document Management Systems for Construction

This paper describes the development of an ontology for the AEC/FM projects’ documentation management that allows the classification of the documents along the lifecycle of AEC/FM projects. This ontology is aimed at reducing the interoperability and information exchange problems, inherent nowadays in AEC/FM projects, establishing a hierarchical structure of the different areas that conform the lifecycle of AEC/FM projects and an interrelationship system between them. Therefore, all the documentation created along a project could be classified in the different areas of the project lifecycle and related to them by this hierarchical structure. Moreover, metadata like identifier, creation date,... have been incorporated to documents in order to be completed and modified by the author to facilitate users’ understanding. Therefore, this ontology is the first step to improve the Document Management Systems in AEC/FM projects and their interoperability limitations.

Experiences of success in industrial plants projects

Success has always been the ultimate goal of construction projects, and different researchers have tried to evaluate it using different factors. Although specialized industrial construction usually involves very large scale projects with a high degree of technological complexity, research has mostly focused on civil and residential success factors. Experiences in Industrial Plants projects can help to improve project management and productivity in such a specialized sector. In this kind of projects, the contractual arrangement is one of the core differences on Project management and thus project success. This research seeks to develop a schema for classifying critical success factors as well as a methodology for evaluating projects. This methodology was adopted to evaluate critical success factors in Industrial Plants projects with different contractual arrangements. Findings suggest that although the construction stage has been the focus of many studies, the first stages are decisive for the success of projects; contract construction projects consider project planning to be more important; lump sum contract construction projects give greater importance to monitoring the benefits; bidding competition projects consider the available technology with greater rigor, etc. The results indicate that different Industrial Plants projects involve different success factors and management characteristics to achieve project objectives.

Contractors' Perspective on the Selection of Innovative Sustainable Technologies for Low Carbon Retail Buildings

The use of innovative sustainable technologies (IST) has been regarded as an effective approach to enhancing energy efficiency and reducing carbon emissions of buildings. However, contractors face significant challenges in the selection of IST. The reported challenges in the literature include: lack of skills and knowledge, uncertainties, risks and the rapid development of a large number of technological alternatives and decision criteria. The selection process emerges as a multi-attribute, value-based task that includes both qualitative and quantitative factors, which are often assessed with imprecise data and human judgments. This paper aims to establish the decision criteria for the selection of IST for achieving low carbon existing retail buildings with a focus on the main contractor’s perspective. The arguments are informed by the combination of literature review and an in-depth case study with a UK leading contractor. Five broad decision criteria are identified systematically drawing on the contractor’s practice. The established criteria are weighted and ranked using the analytic hierarchy process and expert opinions; with ‘margin opportunity’ being the most important, followed by ‘repeat business’, ‘investment costs’, ‘differentiation’ and then ‘transferability’. The findings should facilitate the integration of various facets of the selection process and stimulate contractors to use IST.

Knowledge Management and e-Learning for Underground Construction Projects

This paper describes a Knowledge management system (SGAC––Active Knowledge Management System) to manage the knowledge generated in a research project. This system aims both at organising project information during the project and at transferring this knowledge to other researchers from the same scientific domain so as to enhance e-learning. This paper approaches the problem of knowledge transfer from a case study angle. The system is developed inside “The Multidimensional City” project, which is a multi-disciplinary research project that promotes the development and implementation of Spanish technological innovation in underground construction. The SGAC system aims at achieving full integration of large set of contents created in research projects related to underground construction sites. Then, the project has developed several types of metadata for tagging and enriching contents. All this enriched information becomes the base of different e-learning courses in underground construction, promoting an updated education in this knowledge area and the dissemination of the results generated in the research project.