1. Construction Health and Safety Management
By Dr Simon Smith – licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution – Non-Commercial – Share Alike License

2. Part 4: Risk Management in Construction
Construction Health & Safety Management
Simon Smith (University of Edinburgh)
& Philip Matyear (Balfour Beatty)
Part 4: Risk Management in Construction

3. Introduction We have looked H&S legislation
It must be remembered that legislation alone will not protect – it is merely the ‘rules’
We have considered the behavioural and cultural aspects of H&S Management
We have looked at practical aspects of health & safety on construction sites
We have considered specific areas where hazards occur
This lecture will consider
how H&S management is implemented at a site level
the wider concept of engineering risk management

4. Health & Safety Hierarchy
General site
safety
management
Risk Assessment is part of Risk Management which is covered in greater depth later in this lecture
Fundamental
topic: covered in
greater
depth

5. Health & Safety Legislation
As covered Part 4
For example:
The Health & Safety at Work etc Act 1974
The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999
The Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998
The Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992
The Construction (Head Protection) Regulations 1989
Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations 1992
Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002
Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007

6. Health & Safety File To recap:
contains all H&S information about the project for those that follow (i.e. clients & users)
should contain information about the design & construction of every structure & element of the project
responsibility lies with the CDM Co-ordinator who must
keep it up to date
deliver to client at end of project

7. The Method Statement
A Method Statement defines the scope of the work to be performed in producing a significant section or phase of the project
It is also produced as part of the Project Quality Plan
It is a statement about the desired level of quality
As a definition of the work involved it allows assessments of the risks involved to be made
Once prepared it should be passed to every person involved in that part of the project – whatever capacity they may have

8. An example of a Cover Sheet for a method statement

9. Method Statements – areas covered
A method statement is a large document and therefore cannot be prepared for all activities
Work activities are therefore split into areas – usually geographic but also process areas
The project manager is responsible for determining what method statements are required – he must find the right balance:
too broad a scope and detail will be lost
too narrow and the volume of paperwork will dominate

10. Method Statements – examples
On a road project we may have the following method statements:
One for each major structure (e.g. bridges)
One for a group of minor structures (e.g. culverts)
Earthworks
Fencing
Site clearance
Drainage
Road surfacing
Traffic management
Safety fencing
Any other specialist subcontractor operations

11. Content of a method statement
The operations concerned
A risk assessment of the operations
A listing of key drawings
The direction and sequence of work
The types of resources to be used
A basic layout or sketch
Delegated responsibility for the work
Any other specific aspects of the work

12. Operation Plans The next level in the H&S hierarchy
It is prepared for each discrete activity of work
There may be a number of operation plans for an area of work already covered by a method statement
The operation plan is usually drawn up by the site engineer looking after the work
A pro-form is usually used

13. Operation Plans – pro-forma

14. Risk Assessments ‘Risk’ is a large part of any project
financial, technical & safety risk
It is just one stage in the overall risk management strategy prepared for every project
We shall look at the subject in greater depth in a moment
Each method statement will have detailed risk assessments:

15. An example of a risk assessment which also indicates the controls to be put in to place for identified hazards. The final column is the residual risk, after the control measures have been put in place

16. Risk assessment only useful if the info in it is well considered...
This Risk Assessment is not well conceived. It seems to be undertaken for the hazard of smoking in a car park. But the RA concludes that this hazard is ‘likely’ to result in a ‘single death’. Is that realistic?

17. Risk Management Risks are ever present
The management of risk is an area of significant expansion over the last decade.
Within the construction and process industries the consequences of an accident can be significant (e.g.Piper Alpha)
Detailed management of risks are routinely carried out, conducted at all stages of a project life cycle
We will look at:
Define risk concepts
Introduce the Risk Management Procedure

18. Engineering: Small Risks
Two of these photos show seemingly bad situations but with no fatalities. The web clip shows a small construction accident but with 2 fatalities.

19. Large Physical Hazards - Piper Alpha (before & after)

20. Large Consequences: Hatfield, Ladbroke Grove, Potters Bar & Greyrigg Rail Accidents
17 October 2000,
4 killed
Grayrigg,
23 February 2007,
1 killed
Potters Bar,
10 May 2002,
7 killed
Ladbroke Grove,
5 October 1999,
31 killed

21. Some Definitions Harm BS8444: Part 3: 1996
“Physical injury or damage to health, property or the environment”
BS8444: Part 3: 1996
In all aspects of project management, we want to minimise, if not eliminate any kind of harm
Harm may be, for example:
Employee injury or death
Financial effects
Environmental accident

22. Definitions cont. Hazard
A source of potential harm or a situation with potential for harm in terms of human injury, damage to property, damage to the environment, or combination thereof
In project management terms, we need to control financial hazards as well as physical ones
Examples may be:
Falls from heights
Collapse of excavations
Dropped objects
Poor environmental management
Abnormal inflation
Abnormal weather conditions

23. Non-physical hazards Skills shortage Design changes
Inflation
Supplier changes
Supplier collapses
Reduction in supplies
Cultural misunderstandings
Corruption
Interest rate changes
Market condition changes
Changes in labour supply
Skills shortage
Design changes
Changes in legislation
Security threats
Political changes/instability
Demand changes
Public opinion …

24. Definitions cont.
Risk
The combination of the probability of an abnormal event or failure and the consequence(s) of that event or failure to a system’s operators, users or its environment
Risk always involves two aspects:
Probability of a hazard taking place, and
The severity of the harm that occurs
Low probability, high severity = high risk
High probability, low severity = intermediate risk
Low probability, low severity = low risk

25. Hazard Identification
Definitions cont.
Risk Management
The systematic application of management policies, procedures and practises to the tasks of identifying, analysing, evaluating, responding and monitoring risk
Five stages:
Hazard Identification
Baker, Ponniah, Smith, 1999
Survey of Risk Management in Major UK Companies,
Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering Education & Practice,

26. Hazard Identification
The stage where all potential hazards in a project are identified
To me the most important part of any risk management process
Because non-identified hazards cannot have their risk assessed
“There are known knowns. These are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we now know we don’t know. But there are also unknown unknowns. These are things we do not know we don’t know”
Donald Rumsfeld, 12 Feb 2002
(relating to the increasingly unstable situation in post-invasion Afghanistan
The point about this quote is the last line – if there are hazards we do not know about and worse, if we are unaware of our ignorance, then this results in an uncontrolled situation.

27. Hazard Identification
Possible methods of identification
Individual Consultation
interviews with project personnel
lengthy & time consuming
Group discussions
formal brainstorming
requires motivation & teamwork
HAZOP
HAZard and OPerability studies
Formal questioning of processes, e.g design

28. Risk Estimation Potential hazards have been identified
Now need to assess:
Probability of occurrence
Severity if occurs
Can be done in two main ways:
Qualitatively
in a linguistic manner
usually done first; high probability/severity cases then may be examined:
Quantitatively
in a numerical manner

29. Risk Estimation cont Qualitative Techniques Fuzzy set analysis
Understands that likelihood and consequences may not be definite, but rather will belong to a ‘fuzzy set’ which has degrees of membership
expresses the outcome in readily understood language terms
For example – ‘very likely risk with severe impact’

30. Risk Estimation cont Qualitative Techniques
Interviewing and Brainstorming
is an extension of two of the techniques employed in the identification stage.
Personal and Corporate Experience
if it exists should be exploited.
Judgment
We are all professionals and able to form valid judgements

31. Risk Estimation cont Quantitative Techniques
Expected Monetary Value (EMV)
i.e. putting a financial value to the expected result of a risk.
Allows a quantification of a risk outcome
Expected Net Present Value (ENPV)
Also used for appraising the financial nature of long term projects
an extension of EMV by calculating the present value of a probability state
Decision Analysis
looks at possible outcomes and determining optimal choices
more...

32. Risk Estimation cont Quantitative Techniques cont Sensitivity Analysis
tests how sensitive an event outcome is to slight changes on the input variables.
Delphi peer groups
a Delphi group will pool the knowledge & experience of a number of experts
attempts to put quantitative values to results obtained in a manner similar to discussion groups and brainstorming.
Simulation
creates a probable life history of an event and thus allows its outcome to be predicted.

33. BS8444-3: 1996 – Estimation methods

34. BS8444-3: 1996 – Additional estimation methods

35. Risk Evaluation 3rd part of Risk Assessment
Need to combine the severity and probability of the identified hazards
Allows tolerability decisions to be made
Can be done using a risk matrix:
“T” in the risk matrix can represent ‘Trivial’ but ‘Tolerable’ is a better description as these are risks that we are happy to retain and deal with as they arise. Everything else must be responded to.

36. Risk Evaluation – BS8444-3: 1996
A similar table from BS8444

37. Practical Risk Assessment Procedure
Identify the principal hazards that will be present in the operation.
Assign a number 1 to 5 for both Consequences of Hazard and Probability of Occurrence.
The Risk (i.e. the product of Consequence and Probability), indicates the level of action.
Identify persons affected by the risk
Respond to the risk
Monitor and update as necessary.
Hazard Identification, Risk Estimation and Risk Evaluation together make Risk Assessment. A practical approach to risk assessments for site situations is given here.

38. Risk Response
If risks are identified as being intolerable how can these be dealt with?
There are four main methods of responding to such risks:
Risk Avoidance
Risk Transfer
Risk Retention
Risk Reduction
British standards and other textbooks offer the least guidance on this stage
Because responses must be designed to fit the situation

39. Risk Response 1. Risk Avoidance
Managing or developing a situation in which the identified risks do not occur, e.g:
not proceeding with the project
tendering at a very high bid
placing conditions on a bid
changing design
choosing different currency
... ?

40. Risk Response cont 2. Risk Transfer Via Subcontractors Via Insurance
a third party undertakes the high risk portion of the work and the responsibility that goes with it
Via Insurance
A pre-determined insurance premium is often better than unexpected costs due to risk
may be done using a captive insurance company
involves excesses
some risks may result in premiums higher than the probable financial loss

41. Risk Response cont Some risks may be better managed internally
3. Risk Retention
Some risks may be better managed internally
High frequency/low severity or very low frequency/high severity risks may be best retained
4. Risk Reduction
The most usual way in which to manage common risks is to reduce either the severity, the chance of occurrence or both. E.g:
early warning systems
Reduces probability of hazard happening
improved maintenance
Reduces probability of failure
physical mitigations
May reduce both probability or severity

42. EXAMPLE ONLY Risk Response cont
The choice of method used to respond to risk will largely depend on company policy
Using the risk matrix model, a typical project scenario may be:
EXAMPLE ONLY

43. Risk Monitoring The final stage of risk management
Risk situation will continue to change throughout the life of the project
New hazards will become present
Existing hazards will stop or change
The management must be continually monitored, reviewed and improved
Existing risks may be managed differently
therefore
Risk monitoring completes cycle back to risk identification

44. Risk Monitoring
Does existing hazard still exist? NO
Remove mitigations
Risk situation will continue to change throughout the life of the project
New hazards will become present
Existing hazards will stop or change
YES
Has the probability of occurrence increased?
Has the severity of potential harm increased? NO NO
Do nothing
Do nothing
YES
Have new hazards arisen?
(Re)Assess Risk
YES