Rafiq M. Choudhry

Measuring Safety Climate of a Construction Company

Safety climate can benefit contractors, specialty contractors, and owners of industries by providing them with the knowledge of attitudes and perceptions that can help to consistently achieve better safety performance. The objective of this research was to determine safety climate that would enhance safety culture and positively impact perceived safety performance on construction projects. A safety climate questionnaire survey was conducted on the construction sites of a leading construction company and its subcontractors in Hong Kong. Approximately, 1,500 hard copy questionnaires were distributed and the response rate was excellent, resulting in 1,120 valid questionnaires being collected from 22 construction projects. By means of factor analysis, two underlying safety climate factors were extracted, accounting for 43.9% of the total variance. Multiple regression analysis confirmed that these climate factors, “management commitment and employee involvement” and “inappropriate safety procedure and work pra...

Identification of Risk Management System in Construction Industry in Pakistan

AbstractRisk management is a relatively new field in the construction industry of Pakistan, but it is gradually gaining prominence because of increased construction activity and competitiveness. This is an empirical survey-based study of risk management in the construction industry of Pakistan. It reports the findings of the importance of risks, their current management techniques, the existing status of risk management systems of the organizations, and barriers to effective risk management from the perspective of key stakeholders. The analysis of the results reveals that financial and economic factors, followed by quality, are the most important risks, and the industry generally tries to avoid or transfer these risks. Results indicated that the risk management system and practices of most of the organizations are reactive, semipermanent, informal, and unstructured with nonexistent and limited committed resources to deal with risks. Nonetheless, the results of interviews indicate that there is awareness a...

Cost and Schedule Risk Analysis of Bridge Construction in Pakistan: Establishing Risk Guidelines

AbstractThe construction process is inherently prone to risks. Risk management is an essential and integral part of project management on virtually all construction projects. Risk analysis is one of the core components of risk management that enables professionals to quantify and analyze risks that may pose potential threats to project performance in terms of cost, quality, safety, and time. This research was conducted to identify and analyze risks associated with bridge construction in Pakistan. A questionnaire was conducted to collect data. Risks affecting bridge construction project performance were identified through interviews conducted with engineers and managers involved with various bridge projects. Cost and schedule impacts of project risks were supplemented by conducting a case study using the Monte Carlo simulation. The key findings indicate that financial risks were a major factor that affected cost and schedule objectives. The highest ranked factor identified was unavailability of funds with ...

Subcontracting Practices in the Construction Industry of Pakistan

AbstractSubcontracting on construction projects is a common and well-established practice. Contractors enlist the services of subcontractors to achieve certain objectives, including obtaining cost reductions, securing access to specialized services, and risk sharing. Nonetheless, subcontracting on a project can introduce certain associated problems that can affect construction management and construction quality. This research explored exclusively the subcontracting practices in the construction industry of Pakistan, identified the main problem areas, examined the overall satisfaction with the quality of service provided by subcontractors, and focused on ways to improve the quality of construction affected by subcontracting. A questionnaire survey was conducted to investigate the extent and involvement of construction firms in subcontracting, reasons for subcontracting, and the selection criteria of subcontractors. Additionally, interviews were conducted with researchers, professionals, and experts in the...

Implementation of BBS and the Impact of Site-Level Commitment

AbstractThis work presents the results of a case study and addresses an important area within the field of construction safety management, namely behavior-based safety (BBS). The study investigates the implementation process of the BBS management approach and assesses how the commitment of site-level management, BBS implementation observers, and operatives’ impact on safety performance by using data collected from construction sites located in Hong Kong. While achieving the set objectives, this work provoked several aspects of education, training, and engineer’s obligations towards managing safety on construction sites. The research introduces BBS practices in five categories: personal protective equipment, house keeping, access to heights, plant and equipment, and scaffolding. Intervention was introduced and its impacts on site safety were monitored and analyzed. The results revealed that improvement in safety performance was higher when the site-management team was more committed to implementing the int...

Challenging and Enforcing Safety Management in Developing Countries: A Strategy

Abstract To eliminate fatalities and injuries, this work aims to present empirical research based on the examination of safety management practices currently operational in the construction industries of Pakistan, China and Hong Kong with a view to enhancing safety in developing countries. The current safety situation in the construction industries of Pakistan and China (and specifically Hong Kong) vis-à-vis safety schemes, challenges and opportunities, and enforcement is presented. Emerging themes from qualitative analysis substantiate the significance of ten factors highlighting the importance of implementing safety management systems on construction sites. The identified factors are safety as a value, safety system, safety organization, safety training, research and development, personal protection program, toolbox talks and a site safety cycle, plant department, safety and productivity, and development of construction business. Research demonstrates that constructors in the developing countries need to implement safety, health and environmental (SH&E) management systems within their companies. To deliver projects without injuries, a strategy for implementing a safety system is given to help reduce job site risks.

Contractors’ Perception towards Causes of Claims in Construction Projects

Abstract The construction industry is an important sector for the development of the Gaza Strip. A key factor to a successful construction project is to complete the project without any claims occurrence. Nonetheless, claims are very common in the construction industry of Palestine. The aim of this paper is to identify and rank the existing causes of claims according to their relative importance in the construction industry from the perspective of the local contractors. The paper reports on a questionnaire-based research investigation targeting local contractors by analyzing their perception towards causes of claims. The results found the main causes of claims and they are: awarding bid to the lower bidder; border closures; residents’ interference during project implementation; road blockage and difficulties in passing between cities and governorate It was found that owners may not award the contract to the lowest responsive bidder. Owners may coordinate with the local residents of the area to inform them about the benefit of projects. Owners may assist contractors in removing obstacles of the project site to avoid delays. It is hoped that these findings will guide efforts to improve the performance of the construction industry and will be useful to international engineering and construction companies seeking a share in the Palestine and regional markets.