construction project

Construction safety
Unfortunately the construction industry has become stereotyped as an accident prone industry, in fact only mining and fishing industries have higher fatalities. Depressingly, the accident rates experienced closely correlate to the level of activity within the industry, indicating that when work load is is high, safety tends to receive less attention.

It is argued that construction management must have a prime concern for safety and therefore should have a moral, economic, and legal commitment to ensure workplace safety on sites. However the responsibility for safety must commence upstream of the construction phase of a project; architects and engineers must have the technical knowledge to design buildings which can be safely constructed, as well as a commitment to safe working conditions for site workers.

Construction Safety costs
To many managers who have been brought up to the importance of construction scheduling, and controlling costs, the economic aspect of safety is the most forceful. In construction the costs associated with an accident can be immense. For material losses in which no injury occurs the accounting of loss can be easily assessed; but where human loss is concerned, the costing becomes more difficult since life or a physical facility cannot crudely be financially evaluated, yet it has been widely recognized that monetary compensation to either the injured party or relatives in the event of fatality has to be paid. Most compensation payments are paid by the contractor's insurance company. Insurance companies will base their premiums upon historical evidence and a poor safety record will inevitably be reflected in insurance premiums.

However, the loss to a company by an accident can be broken into:

lost working hours of an injured employee.
Cost of repair or replacement of property damage, whether it is an equipment or an element of the permanent construction.
Insurance premiums increase.
Rescheduling costs or even delay costs in some cases. Though, it was noticed that  contractors who use Q Scheduling for construction scheduling can reduce this effect tremendously since the technique is rather flexible in respect of performance rates and alternatives, yet other safety costs would be inevitable.