It has long been recognized in the field of safety that the safety of any operation is determined long before the people, procedures, and equipment come together at the project site. The construction industry in general, and heavy construction in specific, is exposed to more risk and uncertainty due to the project size, duration, complexity, and due to the participation of different stakeholders in project execution including project engineer, construction manager, and contractors. Design and planning are crucial to the ultimate success of the project and construction site safety is no exception. If NCDOT waits until the project starts or until it is time to conduct regular maintenance and/or rehabilitation; a great opportunity to impact results has already been missed. According to recent research investigating the relationship between the timing of risk control selection decision and the quality of risk controls, the greater the proportion of risk controls selected during the preconstruction stages of the project, the better the risk control outcomes.
NCDOT has conducted a recent research program that provided guidelines to implement formal constructability review meetings. Without integrating a formal process of anticipating health and safety issues in upstream decision-making, a significant ability to reduce hazards and risks across the life cycle of NCDOT projects is diminished. The constructability review meetings should be used as an existing process where health and safety issues can be anticipated, identified, evaluated, and controlled. In highway construction, Oregon DOT found that Traffic Control Plan quality and worker and motorist safety were higher on projects for which constructability reviews and design peer reviews were conducted. Moreover, Oregon DOT research investigation found that constructability and design reviews were more impactful when the contractor superintendent and TCP designer had more years or experience and had undergone specialized training.
The main objective of this proposed research is to support NCDOT in fulfilling its strategic mission of connecting people, products, and places safely and efficiently. The research objective will be attained through the following tasks:
1. Develop pre-qualification criteria incorporating construction site safety – to be used in inviting contractors to participate in constructability review meetings and/or participate in NCDOT projects bidding.
2. Develop a safety matrix to be used (checked) in the constructability review meetings for different types of NCDOT projects.
3. Provide NCDOT with guidelines to be used in future assessments of construction projects safety including the construction of highways, tunnels, bridges, and NCDOT facilities.
The research findings could be used to augment the findings of the Constructability Review Effectiveness project (concluded in December 2022). The implementation of project findings could fall under the Contract Standards & Development Unit that process new and existing contract partners for contract work or contractors prequalifying unit to enhance the NCDOT’s project safety, constructability, and avoid potential cost or schedule overruns resulting due to the elimination of occupational safety issues.
