Improving fall from height risk reduction

Abstract

Innovative solutions for safety and risk management on construction sites are required to reduce the amount of accidents that occur globally, as too many occupational accidents still happen in the Architecture, Engineering and Construction industry. A particular problem is the fall from height (FFH) accidents on construction sites, due to failing barriers with the underlying cause of insufficient planning. In previous research it has been suggested to develop dedicated BIM plug-ins to automate and visualise risk identification and evaluation of construction sites as a means to assist the safety management process. To explore the impact of BIM on FFH accident reduction through automation and visualisation, a digital tool prototype is developed. This prototype focusses on fall from height (FFH) identification on construction sites during early project phases of civil engineering projects. It is programmed in Autodesk Dynamo for Revit, based on technical and functional requirements derived from literature and industry professionals. A simulation of the FFH tool prototype has been conducted through a pilot project. The result of this product development is a working fall from height detection prototype that is to be used as a supporting tool during the safety analysis of construction site design in Dutch civil engineering projects. The developed tool is added to the body of products that can be used for digitalisation and innovation within the construction process, where it digitalises part of the safety management process that is otherwise performed manually. The added value of the tool prototype is the addition of automated risk detection, creating support in the design and planning process and providing added information to group discussion on safety matters in risk identification and evaluation meetings. Recommendation for future use of the tool is to implement the FFH tool prototype during the design phase to provide the designer with insights in the safety of the constructability. Additionally, the FFH tool prototype can be implemented by safety managers to use the results during safety meetings for better discussion and evaluation of the construction site. For the implementation, improvement of the level of detail in the 3D models for the projects and including temporary construction site works is essential. For further development it is recommended to focus on improving the import of linked models into the script and developing alternative operations to determine the height differences. More developments and improvements can be made to the script to increase the applicability on more complex projects. Concluding, the FFH tool prototype is considered to bring added value in digitalising an otherwise manual process regarding safety management. It is suggested to incorporate use of the FFH tool prototype in the design and planning process to proactively engage in digitalising and innovating engineering processes.