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Innovative tool for risk assessment on construction sites

Country of Origin: Spain
Reference Number: TOES20190514001
Publication Date: 14 May 2019

Summary

A research group of occupational health and risk prevention sector from Spanish University has designed an innovative tool for the evaluation of existing risks on a construction site. The main innovation is that it adapts to the peculiarities of each work place, capturing the new concept named site risk. The group is looking for companies in the construction sector or risk prevention in construction to adopt the tool under a license agreement.

Description

The group investigates the occupational health and occupational risk prevention sector and they also collaborates with research groups from the civil engineering and building department.

Three researchers have developed this tool, capable of evaluating the existing risks in a construction site taking into account items on the organizational structure, existing resources and material conditions. 



The construction sector has a peculiarity: each place represents a unique workplace, with specific and different characteristics, and each characteristic and factor directly affects the generation of risks. This tool uses the Qualitative Occupational Safety Risk Assessment Model (QRAM) as an extern validity criterion. In addition, it is structured in three parts: the first one that must be

completed in the field work by a technician, the second and last one it’s about composition and weights to build 10 organizational variables and 10 risks. A part of the form refers to general information, organizational factors and resources. The second part is divided into 4 sections to determine the current risk conditions at the site.



As for the results obtained from the forms, the tool has four levels, where 0 supposes a complete compliance of security and, therefore, an almost nonexistent level of risk; and level 3 is a very poor or non-existent safety compliance in construction sites. The aim of this tool is to build a structure to provide enough site information to propose adequate interventions fitted to the site, stage ejection and resources.



The research group is looking for companies in the construction sector, as well as companies involved in risk prevention in the same sector interested in a license agreement with technical

assistance.

Advantages and Innovations

The tool captures, unlike the existing ones, the peculiarities of the different construction sites, because the other tools only focus on assessing identified risks from a predefined hierarchy of events.



Existing tools focus on individual construction risks, but there is a lack of methods centered on site risk as a unit.



The tool cannot be considered as a classical risk assessment tool, if not a site risk assessment. For this reason, it does not include assessment of each individual risk. But it includes expressly fall from height risk as one on his variables, because the general prevalence of this risk and the specific prevalence in construction sector.



It also contemplates the structural variable risks on the conditions of the materials, so the variables try to reflect the organic structure of the site, giving us on the one side general information of the site, and on the other side, specific information of the scenarios, which impact the overall valuation of a construction site.

Stage Of Development

Prototype available for demonstration

Stage Of Development Comment

The tool was used to assess 150 construction sites with diverse typologies, construction phases and sizes in order to obtain convergent and internal validity evidences. A downloadable product (app) is under development.

Requested partner

Companies in the construction or risk prevention sector that are interested in licensing this tool through a license agreement with technical assistance are sought.