Shapira, A and Simcha, M (2009) AHP-based weighting of factors affecting safety on construction sites with tower cranes. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 135(4), pp. 307-318. ISSN 0733-9364
Abstract
Aspiring to adopt a nonstatistical quantitative approach to safety assessment, this study implements a multiattribute decision-making tool to elicit knowledge from experts and formalize it into a set of weighted safety factors. The environment addressed is the construction site and the specific factors studied are those affecting safety due to the operation of tower cranes. Nineteen senior construction equipment and safety experts were interviewed and led through the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) to provide their assessments on the relative importance of safety factors obtained in an earlier study. The results accentuate the dominance of the crane operator and general superintendent on the site safety scene and play down the contribution of "classic" site hazards such as power lines. Quantitative measuring of safety, such as reflected in the weights obtained in this study, is important in communicating safety requirements and focusing the limited resources available for safety improvements. These factor weights are also deemed to be a vital component in the development of a comprehensive model that will allow the computation of safety indices for individual construction sites employing tower cranes. It is expected that the methodology can then be adopted for addressing other site safety issues as well.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | construction sites; cranes; hazards; quantitative analysis; safety |
| Index terms: | quantitative analysis, safety factor, methodology, decision-making, computation, safety issue, construction site, relative importance, crane operator, tower crane, construction equipment |
| Subjects: | decision analysis, financial risk, construction equipment, research methods, maintenance engineering, data analysis and analytics, work location, practitioner, risk assessment, computational methods |
| Topics: | Plant and Equipment, Roles and Professions, Risk Management, Research Practice, Cost Management, Business Strategy, Site Management, Digital Applications |
| Descriptive scope: | 3 PCT |
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