Although interest in construction worker safety in the United States has expanded to owners of construction projects, this interest has not spread throughout the design community. Except for those employed in design–build firms, designers are typically not involved in the safety watch. Designers typically distance themselves from the responsibility for construction worker safety mainly because of their lack of knowledge of safe designs and the possibility of increasing their liability exposure. Today’s design codes and regulations in the U.S. reflect this attitude, and worker safety rests on the constructors’ shoulders. Currently, no national reference standards exist to bridge the gap between existing design standards and construction worker safety.
In Great Britain, the CDM Regulations have successfully addressed the need for designers to focus on worker safety, and outline mandatory steps for action. The CDM Regulations direct the designer to participate in the identification and reduction of health and safety risks. ‘‘The Regulations are not prescriptive; they avoid setting standards. Emphasis is placed on identifying hazards and the assessment of risk w6x.’’ The CDM Regulations require designers to play a role in the identification of risks, with limited guidance on how this assessment is to be made. ‘‘Many designers currently lack skills in designing to avoid or reduce health and safety risk and they feel uncomfortable and threatened by the wRxegulations w7x.’’ ‘‘The challenge facing designers is the ability to seek out and discover or develop other techniques or construction methods to produce the same or similar results than a more inherently high risk option w6x.’’ ‘‘It is suggested then that the designer develops a methodical approach to recording the design considerations with reasoned outcomes w6x.’’
Complimenting the British effort, this research takes that next step in addressing construction worker safety. In an effort to provide designers with the required knowledge and tools, design suggestions have been accumulated which provide designers practical examples of how to design for construction worker safety. A workable software package has been developed which can effectively and efficiently address project-specific hazards on all types and sizes of construction projects. The design tool will be useful not only for improving safety in the construction phase of a project, but also during the startup, maintenance, and de-commissioning phases.