Developing a schedule integrated automated safety planning tool for residential construction projects

Abstract

Construction safety culture can be greatly improved if safety planning is done hand-in-hand with project planning. This article investigates the integration of construction scheduling with construction safety planning by developing an automated safety planning add-in (ASPA) for Microsoft Project. A risk assessment database was developed that analysed the frequency and severity of hazards associated with construction tasks and the risk level of each hazard was calculated. The developed ASPA compares the ongoing construction activity in the schedule with the safety database, and an automated safety report is produced as a spreadsheet containing details of task name, risk priority, task start and end dates, and hazard and safety regulations related to the tasks. The schedule integrated ASPA was then tested for efficacy by implementing in a real-time project. The ASPA facilitated the safety engineers to plan daily activities by prior envisaging of hazards and safety regulations through schedule-based report generation.

Keywords: automated safety reports; construction hazards; construction safety regulations; risk assessment; safety planning.