Safety is a major challenge in the Construction industry. Researchers have shown that many construction fatalities could have been avoided with proper design considerations. Design for safety (DfS) knowledge helps designers to identify how their design may pose a risk during the life cycle of a building facility. Hence, designers can use DfS knowledge to address these safety issues in the design phase. Nevertheless, identified risk and required mitigation of the risk must be noted in a risk register. Moreover, all the risks cannot be addressed or eliminated during design. Hence, residual risks must be addressed during actual construction, operation and maintenance. This study proposes a DfS knowledge-based risk register system that registers design deficient risk with mitigation action and the residual risks that must be addressed during actual construction. The risk register is integrated with the BIM so that the residual risks can be easily visualized in BIM compliant 3D model for further action in later phases. A structure of risk identification procedure incorporating DfS knowledge is described. Identified risks are stored in a database. Mitigation action along with residual risks and responsible persons/parties for a design element are linked with the BIM model. Such early identification of hazard would be very useful to be prepared for any potential risk in advance which can save significant time and cost for the constructor.
Exploring inattentional blindness in failure of safety risk perception: Focusing on safety knowledge in construction industry
