FROM (Construction Industry Institute Director):
Wayne Crew or CII Executive Committee
Construction Industry Institute (CII)
3925 West Braker Lane
Austin, Texas 78759-5316
Phone: (512) 232-3000
Fax: (512) 499-8101
E-Mail: wcrew@mail.utexas.edu
TO (Receiving Organization):
Research Committee, CII
CC (Breakthrough Strategy Committee Sponsor):
Aivars Krumins
White Paper ID
#134
White Paper Title
Automatic Safety Checking of Construction Models and Schedules
Essential Question
Can safety issues that are unknowingly built into the construction schedule be automatically
identified early in the planning cycle and eliminated?
Summary of Idea (1-2 paragraphs):
Safety in construction requires care and planning throughout the project lifecycle, from design,
through construction planning, through construction execution and extending into operations and
maintenance. The literature and past research conducted by the Construction Industry (CII)
show, there is a lack of responsive tools and resources that assist designers and engineers when it
comes to construction safety. Current approaches are primarily text-based check-list type tools
which are either accessed via paper or software interfaces (e.g.; CII IR101-2, Design for
Construction Safety Toolbox) and applied manually to design drawings or in construction
documentation (e.g., in-field tablet computers). Manual checking is inherently error-prone.
Also, like all construction corrections, the earlier a fault is identified and corrected, the cheaper
the correction will cost in time and effort.
Information Modeling (e.g., Building Information Modeling in the A/E/C industry) is changing
the way safety can be approached. Modeling the construction sequence of a project (4D
modeling) is becoming common in construction planning and has applications in the entire lifecycle of a project (design, construction, operation and maintenance, decommissioning phases).
BIM and 4D simulation has been used to check for omissions in construction sequencing and to
manually plan for on-site logistics, crane movements and other scheduling processes. The
proposed work extends 4D scheduling to include automated hazard identification and correction
during construction planning and in certain cases, during design.
List of potential goals:
 Develop roadmap to integrate safety with existing and emerging intelligent technology,
e.g., information modeling.
 Define a platform that can automatically detect and assess safety issues and correct them
before construction starts, e.g., fall hazards (protect holes, openings, leading edges).
 Understand when and how this research will warrant and benefit construction safety.
 To identify what are the greatest opportunities for implementing an information modeling
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and learning network that allows users to design, plan, coordinate, and control safety and
manage risk hazards efficiently and effectively.
Request for:
Request for further review by the RC to include this topic in the research slate 2012.
Attachments:
The white paper is attached.
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Whi te Pa per # 1 3 4
B r eakt h ro u gh St r at eg y C o mmit t ee
Automatic Safety Checking of Construction Models and Schedules
Authors: Jochen Teizer, Charles M. Eastman, Krumins
1. Need and Potential
At the 2010 Annual Conference, Craig Martin gave a keynote about Beyond Zero®. At last
year’s conference, Wayne Crew noted that CII membership’s TRIR and DART, while good, has
been flat. The challenge to the membership is what are we doing to try to improve safety even
more. We are all looking for what approaches are available to continue the long term downward
safety statistics. One approach to consider is can safety issues that are unknowingly built into
the construction schedule be automatically identified early in the planning cycle and eliminated?
2. Background and Gaps
Construction safety can be enhanced by care and planning throughout the project lifecycle, from
design through construction planning through construction execution and extending into
operations and maintenance. The literature and past research conducted by the Construction
Industry (CII) show there is a lack of responsive tools and resources to assist designers and
engineers when it comes to construction safety. Current approaches are primarily text-based
check-list type tools which are either accessed via paper or software interfaces (e.g.; CII IR1012, Design for Construction Safety Toolbox) and applied manually to design drawings or in
construction documentation (e.g., in-field tablet computers).
3. State of the Art
Information Modeling (e.g., Building Information Modeling in the A/E/C industry) provides new
options in the way safety can be approached. Modeling the construction sequence of a project
(4D modeling) is becoming common in construction planning and has multiple uses. 4D
simulation has been used to check omissions in construction sequencing and to manually plan for
on-site logistics, crane movements and other scheduling processes. The proposed work extends
4D scheduling to include automated hazard identification and correction during construction
planning and in certain cases, during design.
The idea is to run the 4D simulation of the construction sequence and work breakdown structure
(WBS) applying automatic rule checking to identify safety issues. Preliminary work has shown
us the following types of safety conditions are among those that can be identified from a 4D
simulation: (1) lack of safety barriers around off-ground slab edges and holes; (2) uncovered
small holes where workers above could drop tools/material on workers below; (3) non-protected
openings in walls as they are erected; (4) material lifting operations that are scheduled above
active work areas; (5) overlapping and congested work areas; (6) material handling movements
through activity areas on the same slab; (7) the scheduling and placement of tethers in work
spaces where falling may occur; and (8) access pathway issues for mechanical equipment
installation. Many other safety checking issues are possible.
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Like all construction corrections, the earlier a fault is identified and corrected, the cheaper the
correction will cost in time and effort. By using such tools, the user can not only focus on a safe
design for a particular project, but participates through an interactive, graphical, computer
environment that flags hazards automatically, allows to communicate and control them before
they are encountered in the field.
CII has been conducting research that builds the foundation for this project (RT 269 - Real-time
Pro-Active Technology for Construction Safety, RT 284 - Leading Indicators for Safety, RT 293
- Strategies for HSE Hazard Recognition). CII has recently also published the second version of
Design for Construction Safety ToolBox (CII IR101-2), however, these studies have not been
addressing the need for automation and integration of emerging or already existing technology
for safety planning and hazard correction. The amount of data involved in construction planning
asks for a human-assisted system.
4. Recommended Path Forward
CII needs to investigate the hypotheses that is possible and benefits to identify potential hazards
automatically and correct them using rule-based algorithms. In this way, they could be
visualized faster and more reliably than through traditional human processes. When testing this
hypothesis, the research will lead to several positive deliverables including an automated safety
code checking system for use with (Building) Information Modeling, work breakdown structure,
and project schedules. The ultimate goal of the proposed work is to develop an open standard
and extensible safety rule checker for Information Models (e.g., BIM) and integrate it into
construction planning and simulation. This work will ultimately improve construction safety and
health risk assessment that can be as readily used as clash detection has been used in structural
design.
The proposed technology will undertake safety and health hazard identification at the design and
planning stage of a construction project. Such technology allows machine capture and
implementation of new safety knowledge as it is identified in an interoperable and sharable
manner in a manner similar to structural design safety, where new safety conditions become
embedded in structural codes. It is expected to benefit designers, engineers, contractors and
subcontractors in making better decisions before construction work is started and has the
potential to impact the entire life-cycle of a project including operations and maintenance, and
thus owners who also carry out building maintenance activities. This research may also assist
workers that need assistance in identifying hazards as safety managers cannot be in all places at
all times and safety managers sometimes do not know the intricacies of the work.
Construction worker fatalities and disabling injuries are morally unacceptable. In addition, the
industry-wide multibillion dollars direct and indirect costs associated with these injuries and
fatalities adversely impact project and organizational performance. Incorporating intelligent and
next generation safety measures in the planning phase directly improves safety on the job site,
and ultimately leads to lower total installed cost due to fewer dollars spent on mediating hazards
and acquiring construction insurance.
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It is not the intent for CII to develop the details of such a tool, but to investigate the benefits and
developing a road map to a point where FIATECH can define the detailed parameters required.
5. References
a) CII IR101-2 (2010), Design for Construction Safety Toolbox. Construction Industry
Institute. The University of Texas at Austin.
b) Zhang, S., Lee, J.K., Venugopal, M., Teizer, J., and Eastman, C. (2011). “Integrating
BIM and Safety: An Automated Rule-Based Checking System for Safety Planning and
Simulation”, 2011 Proceedings of CIB W099, Safety and Health in Construction,
Washington D.C.
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