Health and Safety Management of a New Building Construction Site - Case Study Example

lth and Safety Mаnаgеmеnt of А New Building Cоnstruсtiоn Site Name University Date Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Introduction 3 Effective Health and safety management in building and construction 3 Hazards construction workers are exposed to 4 Site layout plans for construction 5 Traffic Management in Construction Sites 6 Offices and Welfare Facilities in the Contraction Area 7 Issues surrounding specific: e.g. Gases/biological/chemicals/ effluent 8 Environmental permits for waste activities needed 9 Organization issues 9 Conclusion 9 References………………………………………………………………………………………… 10 Неаlth and Safety Mаnаgеmеnt of А New Building Cоnstruсtiоn Site Introduction Buildings have the ability to present potential risks both during the contraction process and in their operations. A lot of responsibility is placed upon the shoulders of those responsible for designing, commissioning, constructing and the operations in the buildings to ensure health and safety of the users and contraction workers. These health and safety measures need to be strongly considered before the beginning of any construction work. Before any construction process, Health and Safety Executives alongside other legal bodies have to b notified. To ensure there is health and safety in the construction process (Roy 2010). This study will be looking at the residential contraction projects given that the area is considered to be of a high hazard that often comprise of a wide range of different activities that involve alteration, repairs and construction processes. The construction workers at the residential contraction are fully engaged in a variety of activities that are capable of exposing them to very serious hazards (Pico 2013). These hazards include the workers falling from roof tops of buildings, some falling victims of heavy construction equipment, buildings collapsing on them, exposure to dust, silica and asbestos particles and possible electrocutions. There is a need for the overall construction process to ensure reduction and possible elimination of all the contraction hazards that will put the life of the people around the construction site in danger. All the contraction related hazards must be well identified, and relevant instruments put in place to ensure the risks are completely mitigated (Yilmaz & Fatih 2015). Effective Health and safety management in building and construction There is need to develop a health and safety system which involves the introduction of processes that have particularly been designed to reduce and cut down any incidences of injury and illness caused during the process of building and construction. For the system to be successfully implemented, management commitment is greatly required with an effective allocation of resources towards maintaining health and safety at the construction site. The scope, capacity and complexity of an effective health and safety management system varies from size to the type of contraction in question. In this case, looking at the construction of a residential building basic components of a healthy system which include hazard identification and assessment as well as the overall management leadership as well as organizational commitments (Yilmaz & Fatih 2015). There is a need to also develop ways to control hazards that may arise in the construction site and allow work site inspections to be carried around the construction zone. An effective health and safety system also allows for an easy identification, reporting and investigation of any incident which is ideal for saving lives at the construction site. With effective health and safety system, the emergency response plan is always effective which is well integrated with program administration (Bahn & Barratt-Pugh 2014). The employees participating in the health and safety programs conduct regular reviews of the safety measures around the contraction site. Certified personnel who are well informed about the safety procedures within the construction zone play effective roles in conducting these reviews (Khosravi et al. 2014). Hazards construction workers are exposed to The construction site has various hazards that construction workers and any person around the construction project are exposed. Most of this include construction falls, workers being trapped in various objects and machinery, electrically related hazards, and many other hazards. These hazards are potential causes of injuries, diseases and deaths. The hazards need to be potentially identified before they turn out to be catastrophic. The leading cause of these hazards is as a result of the failure in correctly identifying them due to limited and poor training as well as overall supervision of the construction workers. Limited training has been largely witnessed in areas such as the task design of the safety measures, overall inspection of safety as well as monitoring specific safety-related issues in the construction process. The failure of providing adequate information and skills in this areas often result in the increased risks that expose most of the workers to accidents and other health related disasters while in the working environment (Khosravi et al. 2014). Falling from the construction sites have been the leading cause of health and safety concerns in the United Kingdom. With particular interest to the older construction workers, falls are the leading cause of injuries and deaths in the construction industry. Protection from falls is required in all the possible places where construction takes place especially on the high buildings. The protection is extended to people who are at risk of falling into dangerous construction equipment (Iacuone 2015). The crushing of construction equipment and motor vehicles is another hazard within the construction environment. It is essential for the workers operating the machines to be effectively trained and monitored while they are operating the motor vehicles and other equipment. The motor vehicles need to be well developed with a service breaking system, emergency breaking systems as well as possible parking breaking system all integrated but working separately. The machines and vehicles have to be equipped with warning signals that are audible enough to be hard over a wide area incase the operate has the choice of using them. It is important for all moving machines to have windows and doors, powered windshield wipers with a very clear site view from all the angles while in the machine. The operates need to be constantly given refreshment training before they use the machines and the other contraction equipment (Galvin 2004). Site layout plans for construction According to the regulation of the United Kingdom standards, a site layout plan of the whole construction needs to be designed by the contractors as being part of their mobilization activities before any construction work is undertaken. The contraction site layout plan has to involve the identification, to size and an onsite position of all the facilities both permanent and temporary. The layout has to include all the locations of the cranes and their radii together with their different capacities. The site offices must be positioned on the site and their location provided to all the workers. Welfare activities, off-loading as well as storage areas must be located in the site layout (Pico 2013). The area needs to have a parking area that is far from the contraction zone and its location provided in the site layout. The area has to have separate access for the pedestrians with separate entrances and temporary roads. On the layout, details for the holding facilities, electrical power supply, water distribution and drainage have to be provided to everybody in the site. The layout has to include the best lighting locations, information and communication instruments that can be accessed by everybody and site security systems (Brown & Hutton 2011). Materials in bulks: layout areas There are cases where contractors may be having a lot of residential contraction projects, the contractors will have to allow the employees to make most of the major decisions for the site work safety planning measures. The heavy and bulk materials used in contraction must be stored at a common point within the design layout of the plan. With site planning and construction layout of the layout areas, there is a need to provide accurate identification, sizing as well as positioning of any temporary facilities on the site. The information has a significant impact on the safety as well as the efficiency of the operations within the construction site. The layout area model has to be well integrated with developed safety performance criteria that have been designed to improve all the safety operations and an enhanced control of the movement of hazardous materials on the site (Tokbolat & Serik 2015). The layout structure needs to be well equipped with relevant decision-making variables, optimization goals, and objectives as well as a practical constraint within the site layout. The safety of the construction layout is most often affected by many different factors that include the planning model, the layout itself, safety details and the level of worker training among other factors (Eagle 2015). Traffic Management in Construction Sites Managing traffic within the construction environment is a vital part in ensuring the workplace is free from risks related to the health and safety of the construction workers. In a contraction process of residential building, powered mobile plants that move around, reversing, loading as well as unloading have been linked to the majority of injuries, accidents and deaths. The mobile equipment that influences the traffic of the contraction is included workers, pedestrians, forklifts, cranes, vehicles and site visitors. The best traffic management strategy involves protecting the people by eliminating the possible traffic hazards they are exposed to. Eliminating traffic hazards is done by the using the best designs of the site layout that limits the nitration of people and moving machines. A good example is keeping out vehicles in the pedestrian pathways and prohibiting pedestrians in the vehicles and moving equipment spaces. In case there are areas where it is not possible to separate the equipment and the workers, it is imperative to minimize any form of health and safety concerns. Such activity can be done by carefully planning as well as controlling the movement of vehicles and pedestrians within the site (Tokbolat & Serik 2015). Providing the relevant information trough training, instructions and supervision is one of the required actions in traffic management. There is a need to have personnel on the ground responsible for directing the traffic in the contraction zone. The people responsible must provide information to everybody entering and leaving the site to ensure they are well protected from possible accidents and contraction hazards. The contraction workers should also be adequately guided through training on how to carry out their activities within the construction areas. There is a need for the contractors to check for licenses, qualifications and possible fitness for the workers who are specifically engaged in driving the construction equipment and other operations. The traffic rules of the contraction layout must be well-advised to the drivers whether they are workers or visitors. The safety policies in the contraction zone have to be fully implemented without any contemplation to those who break the rules. Traffic offenders must be punished accordingly in relation top the rules they break to ensure all the users are keen on keeping the rules (Pico 2013). Offices and Welfare Facilities in the Contraction Area Offices are an important facility within the work environment. The offices will provide contraction workers with management functions that will eventually ensure the normal running of the construction process. The offices and welfare facilities will provide workers with areas such as the toilet, washing and changing facilities, protective clothing storage facilities, eating and refreshment facilities, places designed for smokers to protect the non-smokers among other necessary requirements for the workers in the construction environment (Monazzam, Eyvazlou & Mirkazemi 2014). The United Kingdom has legislation rules together with the Approved Code of Practice and Guidance covers the provision of these services in the contraction areas. Providing these facilities for all the employees working on the residential building project is the responsibility of the contactors and their offices. These facilities must be provided irrespective of the type of worker, workplace location and the length of the employment contract. In line with the UK regulations, the services are subject to the "so far as is a reasonably practicable" stipulation. The employer is supposed to provide the facilities unless it is clearly unreasonable regarding the time, cost or any physical difficulty that can be understood . The availability of these welfare facilities, their specific location, and regular maintenance has to be well considered at the planning stage (Drenthen & Keulartz 2014). Before the beginning of any contraction work including a demolition, these facilities should be the first to be erected. When planning to provide for these facilities, the relevant offices should consider the nature of the work that is to be carried out together with the risk associated with the facility. For example, considering the provision of showers in the project will to a large extent involve the use of hazardous chemicals and other harmful substances. The management should also consider the distance the workers will be traveling to access these facilities. Other considerations include the number of workers using the welfare facilities, the number of locations to find the welfare facilities, their cleaning, and maintenance and if there is a need to relocate them during the contraction phases. Issues surrounding specific: e.g. Gases/biological/chemicals/ effluent The use of gases biological chemicals and other effluent require a license and possible authorisation to prevent activities that may cause pollution. The construction may present some environmental impacts about the type of gases produced, biological hazards and other effluents. Such impacts include land contamination from the chemicals used, waste disposal such as the effluents, residuals, spent catalysts and other types of solvents. There is the use of fossil fuels such as gas and oil burning in the contraction machines (Drenthen & Keulartz 2014). These activities are carried out to the required levels of regulating within the United Kingdom. The use of chemicals and other biohazard materials must be used with protective clothing and ensure the workers are well protected, and the right channels are used in their disposal. Environmental permits for waste activities needed An environmental permit is strongly required to especially if the waste activities are potentially harmful to the environment. These permits will ensure the right strategies have been employed to lessen environmental pollution. The use of mobile plants can be used to get rid of these materials to a better place where they can be correctly disposed of (Tokbolat & Serik 2015). Organization issues For a perfect management organization in a construction project, there is a need for efficient utilization of labor, materials as well as the equipment. The improvement in the use of workforce productivity should be of greater concern for the organization. The ability to develop attract, and retain employees depends on the safety regulations that have been put in place by the organization. People are the most valuable treasure in any construction project especially in the construction industry which is specifically known for its low-tech labour intensive practice (Drenthen & Keulartz 2014). Material handling also is an important consideration in the construction industry. These materials need to be safe for use by the set rules and regulations to minimize their hazarder’s effects on human beings who may be using them. Specifically, qualified individuals who are well trained to handle machines should be employed to manipulate them. The use of new and advanced equipment has been made possible in the recent years. The improved machines have the ability to reduce accidents and offer excellent protection devices for contraction workers as well as other people who may be within the construction vicinity (Tokbolat & Serik 2015). Conclusion Health and safety in a contraction environment are very well regulated by most of the governments within the United Kingdom. The contraction industry is considered the industry of action. There is a need to provide safe working conditions to the employees, visitors, and anybody around the construction site. Most of the health and safety regulation bodies in the United Kingdom are working around the clock to ensure safe contraction of projects take place within their areas of jurisdictions. The regulation bodies are more focuses on the reduction of traumatic injuries, fatalities and any disorders that arise within the industry in their strategies. Such takes place through collaborative efforts of the contactors, the labour unions alongside other organizations and the community at large. There is a need to monitor all kinds of movement in the construction project layout together with the movement of traffic, which should be reviewed on a regular basis to ensure safe working conditions the construction industry. The provision of safe working conditions as well as making sure the workers have received the required information through sufficient training and supervision provide a basis for safe working conditions. References Bahn, L & Barratt-Pugh, S (2014), Safety Training Evaluation: The Case of Construction Induction Training and the Impact on Work-Related Injuries in the Western Australian Construction Sector. International Journal of Training Research,Vol. 12:2 , 56-63. Brown, R.M & Hutton, D.S (2011), A Companion to Asian Art and Architecture, Wiley Blackwell, 2011: Malden, MA. 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