Qi, J (2011) Integration of construction worker fall safety in design through the use of building information modeling. PhD thesis, University of Florida, USA.
Abstract
The construction industry has incurred the most fatalities of any U. S. industry in the private sector in recent years. While many factors may contribute to this statistic, one likely cause is due to designers who often lack design for construction safety knowledge, which results in many safety hazards being built into project models. To improve the current situation, this research was undertaken to identify the possible influence of Building Information Modeling technology on construction safety. After identifying the extent of the positive impact of BIM technology on safety, the research entailed the development of a design for construction worker safety tool which efficiently makes designing for safety suggestions available to designers and constructors. Particular emphasis was placed on fall accidents since falls are the most frequently occurring cause of fatalities on construction sites. The Design-Build delivery method is helpful for implementing this tool. The traditional Design-Bid-Build approach limits the abilities of contractors to contribute their knowledge to the project during the design phase, when they could add significant value to the project. With this designing for safety tool, it is possible for project participants to work together to optimize the building models/drawings, which provide valuable downstream benefits. Meanwhile, using the checking results from this tool, the constructors have the opportunity to take preliminary safety measures to address construction site hazards from the beginning of the project.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Thesis advisor: | Hinze, J and Issa, R R |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | building information modeling; construction safety; construction site; construction worker; delivery method; hazards; integration; private sector; safety |
| Index terms: | drawing, construction site, integration, construction safety, building information modelling, safety measures, private sector, delivery method, designer, design-build delivery, falls, design-bid-build, design phase, construction industry, construction worker, fatalities |
| Subjects: | information systems, environmental health, industry analysis, organizational analysis, delivery method, health risk and incident analysis, work location, technical documentation, profession, health safety and environment, professional practice, contractual arrangements, practitioner |
| Topics: | Organizational Design, Site Management, Design Practice, Digital Applications, Roles and Professions, Business Strategy, Research Practice, Procurement, Sustainability, Health and Safety |
| Descriptive scope: | 3 PCT |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here