Risk Assessment, Building Construction - Assignment Example

RISK ASSESSMENT Risk Assessment Customer Name: Lecturer Name: Date: Workplace Description Building Construction Construction is among the oldest professions in human history. Building construction is a workplace with several risks involved. In the research, building construction activities were considered, and the construction site with different stages of building completion was used for data collection. Construction is a collection of several activities, which depend on which stage the building is. In the building construction workplace, primary activities include site preparation with tasks such site clearance of any trees, rocks and debris, level the site if necessary and dig as required for the foundation being built, by the use of backhoe and/or bulldozer. Other activities are the foundation construction, with activities such as slab construction by pouring concrete, basement construction, or using Crawl Space as presented by Peter and John, (1992). Other activities are the floor construction, which entails several tasks such as framing, jointing, and concrete mixing and pouring. Walling is a set of activities, where Walls are assembled on the floor then raised into place, while giving the wall rigidity by the use of blocks, bricks, OSB sheathing or plywood. In the case of brick or block constructed walls, the activities include concrete mixing, moving the bricks, cement, sand and other materials to construction site, brick laying and placing concrete for foundations & basement walls as presented by Malcolm, (2003). Striping basement wall-forms and waterproofing and insulating basement walls, framing through installing joints, decking and corners are also important activities. If the building is in the dry in stages, activities include installation of sheathing, roof decking, felt, flashing and shingles, exterior doors, as well as completion of exterior brick, exterior siding, Utility Rough-Ins and Complete Concrete and Rough-in plumbing, Chapman, et al. (2003). The activities also involved placement of concrete for basement floors, which entailed several tasks such as concrete mixing, manual and automated movement of materials, and actual brick-laying as well as rough-in electrical setup. Other activities are Rough-in HVAC, rough-in communication - phone, cable, and computer, installation of wall insulation and drywall and plumbing Allan, (2005). Principles of Risk Assessment The principles of risk assessment are founded on the definition and understanding of the fundamental concepts and words underlying risks. A hazard is a tangible or probable danger or risk. Hazard is a process or an item with the potential of leading to an accident. On the other hand, a risk is defined to be a condition that entails an exposure to a hazard with probable occurrence something unpleasant. Risks have varying degrees of injury such as being low or high, while at the same time, the consequence of harm may be insignificant or grave. Using the term 'risk' in Occupational health and safety issues, serves a better purpose than using the term 'dangerous' because risk captures a broader range behaviours, risk is more likely to be perceived as a quantifiable probability and risk is more readily thought of as dimension and continuous variable (rather than a dichotomous one). Therefore “risk” is more likely thought of to be manageable than dangerous. Risk assessment is founded on the understanding that in implementing a project, the likelihood of risks occurring cannot be underestimated; therefore, there is need for a risk management, which is a process that process involves defining the project’s strategic objectives. This shall be followed by risk assessment which engages several activities such as risk identification, analysis, description, appraisal, estimation, and reporting which involves defining threats and opportunities that can be present in the project. The next phase in the risk management process is the decision making on the risks, which forms a basis for risk treatment, after which residual risk reporting is done followed by regular monitoring of the risks. By definition, risk assessment is primarily a careful inspection of what, in the course of work could be harmful to human beings, to enable the concerned parties to appraise the reigning situations if they have enough precautions in place or there exists room for improvement in terms of preventing harm. It is a legal and regulatory requirement that employees and other persons within the working vicinity have a right to be protected from harm. Therefore, organizations are legally required to execute reasonable control measures through assessing the risks in their workplace and hence have workable risk control plans in place. The principles of risk management include the principle of discovering things that can wrong. The fundamental core principle of risk assessment is the sighting of uncertainties inside the project. Even every well-planned building construction project can be jeopardised by the factors, influences and outcomes that remain unknown. Building construction is not an instantaneous activity, but rather a multi stage operation, which requires an exploration of the project at every level, from several perspectives to assertively uncover and document every ambiguity, which can probably influence the building construction outcome. The principle demands time, thought and collaboration for successful outcome. Another important principle of risk assessment is risk analysis. This is concerned with understanding what each uncertainty means after all uncertainties are identified and documented Alan and Gosden, (2004). Risk analysis involves questioning the building construction unknowns and uncertainties on their impacts on the entire project. In building risk analysis, a comprehensive and informed study of every potential problem, should be accomplished and rate each risk event on the possibility of occurring as rating the impacts of each event in steps from marginal to catastrophic. In the principle, the last stage involves deciding on an approach for mitigating each risk event. Risk analysis tabulates risk events and as well providing understandable assessment and prioritization. Risk Prioritization is also a fundamental principle in the building and construction industry. Risk prioritization results from understanding that the construction teams may lack sufficient time and resources to comprehensively address all uncertainties associated with the construction, therefore risks have to be dealt with according to their significance, where very important risk are dealt with first. 2.1 Data Collection Data collection is the crucial stage in the risk assessment study, to achieve the desired objectives within the scope of work. To get the data for the project paper, a structured checklist was prepared, which assisted in the examination of potential hazards, in the visited construction sites in England. The main types of construction sites under investigation are the residential houses development, and high-rise buildings. It was also important to consider the number of persons in the construction area, the machinery, and nature of work, project duration and the cost of the project. The data was collected through a combination of strategies, where the researcher used observation as well as referencing to secondary sources of data. The researcher walked around building construction sites, looking at what could potentially cause harm. The researcher then asks the construction workers of their opinions concerning what the observations on the work environment. In the case of vehicles, chemicals and machinery, the researcher checked manufacturers’ instructions or data sheets, which may be beneficial in highlighting the hazards and representing them in their actual perspective. Other non-apparent hazards were recognized through accident and medical records of the building construction companies. From the collected data, the research then focused on deciding on who and how the persons might be harmed such as the kind of injury or ill health that may arise so as to understand the most appropriate way of controlling the risk. The research considered different categories of persons, who are more likely to suffer from different hazards such as workers with disabilities, new workers or the old employees and the members of the public. This was then followed by drafting the results of the risk assessment and disseminating to the relevant stakeholders. The risk assessment was then reviewed and updated if necessary after which the final write up was done. Hazards in the building construction site In the building and construction workplace, several hazards exists which can potentially cause harm. These include defective scaffolding, erroneous power tools, falling construction material and electrical defaults. These hazards can potentially cause crane accidents, electrical injuries, forklift accidents, defective safety harness, welding accidents, burn injuries, chemical burns, slip, trip and fall at the building site, explosions and construction debris injury. Moreover, other hazards include exposure to harmful elements such as asbestos, and inhaling the cement containing elements of chromium. In the industry however, the construction workers may face different hazards from the non-workers. Employees are also exposed to hazards such as are falls from height, being struck by falling objects, motor vehicle crashes and excavation accidents. There are also potential hazards to non-workers, who may be persons surrounding the constructing area, or passing near the construction areas. These hazards include, exposed excavations, falling objects, and construction debris injury. Other hazards, which may be exposed to construction workers and non workers include Slips, Trips and Falls Work at Height, Buried and overhead services, Safe Isolation of Live Electricity, Working in Confined Spaces, Working with and use of Cement Mixers, Mechanical Excavators and Excavations, Brick and Block-work, Cutting and grinding (abrasive wheels) and Manual handling, Greer, (2002). Selection of control measures According to legal and regulatory requirements and documented evidences globally, among the leading cause of injury to construction workers is falls from heights. Control measures are therefore such as fall protection in the ramps, roofing, holes, leading edge work, precast erection, excavations, runways and other walkways, unprotected sides and edges, wall openings, overhand bricklaying and related work, hoist areas in addition to other walking/working surfaces. It is also necessary to define the limit height where fall protection is required. Moreover, there is need to protect construction workers from falling onto dangerous equipment. This can be achieved through the provision of positioning device systems, guardrail systems, warning line systems, individual fall arrest systems and safety net systems. Another measure is training the construction workers to understand the appropriate way to identify hazards and utilising the systems, Riki, (2004). In the industry, hazards caused by exposure to motor vehicle exposure can be controlled by measures such as only qualified persons operating the motor vehicles or Equipment on the construction site. Moreover, such motor vehicles have automatic accident detectors and stops such as emergency, parking and service brake system. The vehicles should not operate in enclosed environments, moreover equipment on the construction site should solely be utilised for their intended task and have lights and reflectors if the vehicles are to be used when there is limited source of lighting. An appropriate control measure for the Risk of a slip, trip or fall is prompt cleaning of spillages of liquids in the construction site, keeping construction site clean, tidy and uncluttered, and having flooring and stairs in good condition. The risk of being struck by a fork-lift truck, can be controlled by the wearing of high-visibility PPE, having the fork-lift truck in good mechanical condition and controlling the number of pedestrians and fork-lift trucks using the same area, Kerzner, (2009). Reasons for risk assessment There are several underlying reasons necessitating the need to carry out a risk assessment. These are the benefits of risk assessment. Carrying out a risk assessment enables the stakeholders to understand what can potentially cause harm to people or damage to things, enables providing a basis for decision making on deciding on which actions to take to guarantee that people are not hurt, nor property destroyed according to Michael and Carl, (1998). Risk assessment is therefore beneficial in decreasing the risks associated with occurrence of accidents and ill health to the construction employees, which could otherwise be costly, both physically and financially. Moreover, contacting risk assessment in construction site is one of the most elementary constructs of safety practice and good health. This offers the benefit of allowing construction companies to recognize the areas in the construction site, where the construction workers are most likely to be at risk, and develop stratagem to mitigate the risks as presented by Nick, (1998). Apart from being a regulatory and legal requirement, risk assessment is beneficial to building construction organizations, to guarantee that they have reduced the prospect for harm to their workforce ‘as far as is reasonably practicable' as presented by Tony and Faisal, (2008). This reduces manpower, monetary and material costs, through lost output, human resource loss, court costs, and inflated insurance premiums. Risk assessment is also beneficial in fostering innovation and learning, while having a general benefit to the society by balancing benefits and risks, with a focus on reducing real risks. Risk assessment in the building industry is also of importance in ensuring that risk generators in a position to responsibly manage the risk, while appreciating that failure to manage risks, has more negative consequences. Risk assessment also serves the purpose in educating individuals and the society that they have to exercise responsibility, apart from having the right to protection, according to Raymond and Nancy, (1993). Legal requirements for the risk assessment in Relation to building construction There are several regulatory and legal requirements, which relate to risk assessment in the construction workplace. The Health and Safety at Work, etc Act 1974 is very influential on risk assessments in that it offers a framework for ensuring the health and safety of all workers in any work activity, as well as any other person who may be affected by the work activity, in this case the building construction activity. In carrying out risk assessment in the construction site, all stakeholders are required to comply with the duties set out in the Act. Section two of the act, requires employees to guarantee the health, safety and welfare of employees as far as is reasonably practicable. The building organizations, with more than five people are required to have a written health and safety policy. Section 3 of the act, demands of employers to ensure that non-employees, who may possibly be affected by the work activities, in this case construction are not exposed to risks to their health and safety. Section 4 places safety requirements on anyone responsible, while section 7 and section 8, gives duty to employees at their places of work to take reasonable care of themselves or any other person as well as anything provided in the interest of health and safety, Leslie, (1995). The Workplace, (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 also influences risk assessment, since the regulations are concerned with physical conditions in the workplace, which are responsible for the source of hazards. These include regulations on first aid, provision of drinking water, maintenance of buildings and equipment, ventilation, temperatures and lighting in the course of the building construction. The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 requires that employers must carry out risk assessments to eliminate or reduce risks, and must record significant findings of a risk assessment. This influences the risk assessment since it requires the employers to work together with other stakeholders operating from the same environment to share information on risks, to see into it that health and safety channels identified as essential by risk assessments are implemented as presented by Peter, (1998). Employers also have to monitor and review those implementations, set up emergency procedures and inform the employees of the existence of the procedures Daniëlla et al., (2004). The Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992 influences the construction site activities which involve restraining, pulling, lifting, lowering, holding, pushing, carrying, moving an object, person or animal. Building materials such as sand, concrete, ballast, cement and bricks have manual operations, hence being influenced by the regulation, which demands of employers to minimize the health risks associated with manual handling, Kerzner, (2009). Apart from requiring employers to avoid the need to manually handle loads wherever possible, the regulations requires mechanizing of tasks, and that employers should carry out risk assessments, which should consider diverse factors as presented by Simon, (2009). Construction site involves the installation and the use of electricity; hence, the Electricity at Work Regulations 1989 affects the risk assessment, where employers are required to consider dutifully all foreseeable risks associated with work activities involving electricity. In the construction site therefore, any electrical installation has to be undertaken by a qualified electrician, with appropriate technical knowledge. The Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007 influence on the planning and management of construction projects requires early identification and reporting of risks and states on responding appropriately to prevent the risk of injury to any person during the construction as presented by Construction Confederation, (2008).   Conclusion From the study findings, there are several hazards, which can potentially result to risk in the construction site. Risk assessment serves several purposes in mitigating against the risk, which is influenced by several regulatory and legal requirements, which relate to site construction. Read More