With the emergence of digital engineering in the construction context, significant opportunities have arisen for safer project execution. Several studies in recent years have described various applications of digital engineering to improve safety performance. However, what is missing is a systematic review that shows the direct links between the potential of these approaches and how they address the causes of construction accidents. This study is an attempt to fill this gap by conducting a realist systematic review of the literature published since 2012. The study draws from the Loughborough Construction Accident Causation (ConAC) model to create a comprehensive list of accident causes and relates these causes to the identified digital engineering potential, as reflected in the literature. This approach identifies the research gaps and neglected research domains, particularly six endemic problems, within the current digital engineering literature pertaining to safety, while introducing future areas associated with the identified gaps. This study provides useful insights to investigators who gain direction towards the top priorities for future research. In practical terms, the study collates and presents various areas of potential within digital engineering to address the causes of accidents on construction sites, providing a concise source of knowledge for practitioners.

With rapid developments in 3D imaging technology, as well as the evolving need in Architecture/Engineering/Construction/Facility Management (AEC/FM) industry to understand various field aspects from a 3D perspective, several technologies, such as laser scanning, camera and RGBD camera, are becoming important components of civil engineers’ and architects’ toolbox. With improvements in efficiency and reduction in operational cost, new avenues are opening in leveraging 3D imaging sensors for construction and infrastructure management. In the light of this, there is a need to assess the achievements to date, especially with respect to unique challenging use case scenarios and requirements that construction and infrastructure management domains provide, and consequently identify potential research challenges that still need to be tackled. This paper targets doing such an assessment around several challenges faced when using 3D imaging to support construction and infrastructure management. It specifically discusses to what extent these challenges have been addressed and several approaches that are used in addressing them. It also presents current 3D imaging development trends and discusses briefly some challenges that are emerging due to increased application of 3D imaging techniques to highlight future research needs in this domain.

While industrial plant projects are becoming bigger, and global attention to the plant as a construct is increasing, space arrangement in plant projects is inefficient because of the complex structure of required facilities (e.g., complex MEP (mechanical, electrical, and plumbing) installations, specialized tools, etc.,). Furthermore, problems during installation, operation, and maintenance stages caused by inconsistencies between floor plans and actual layout are on the rise. Although some of these conflicts can be addressed through clash detection using BIM (building information modeling), quality BIM models are scarce, especially for existing industrial plants. This study proposes a way to address the complexities caused by changes during plant construction and securing space for the installation of equipment during the construction and lifecycle of built facilities. 3D cloud point data of space and equipment were collected using 3D laser scanning to conduct space matching. In processing the space matching, data were simplified by applying the 3D grid and by comparing the data, easier identification of the space for target equipment was accomplished. This study also proposed a pre-processing method based on sub-sampling that optimizes the point cloud data and verifies the processing speed and accuracy. Lastly, it finds free space for various equipment layouts required in industrial plant projects by space analysis, proposed algorithms, and processes for obtaining the coordinates of valid space for equipment arrangement. The proposed method of this study is expected to help solve the problems derived from arrangement and installation of new equipment in a complex plant site.

The quality of construction projects is related to the safety of people's lives and property, and also has a greater impact on the stability of the entire society; factory structure is one of the m...

The purpose of this paper is to summarize the current applications of BIM, the integration of related technologies and the tendencies and challenges systematically.,Using quantitative and qualitative bibliometric statistical methods, the current mode of interaction between BIM and other related technologies is summarized.,This paper identified 24 different BIM applications in the life cycle. From two perspectives, the implementation status of BIM applications and integrated technologies are respectively studied. The future industry development framework is drawn comprehensively. We summarized the challenges of BIM applications from the perspectives of management, technology and promotion, and confirmed that most of the challenges come from the two driving factors of promotion and management.,The technical challenges reviewed in this paper are from the collected literature we have extracted, which is only a part of the practical challenges and not comprehensive enough.,We summarized the current mode of interactive use of BIM and sorted out the challenges faced by BIM applications to provide reference for the risks and challenges faced by the future industry.,There is little literature to integrate BIM applications and to establish BIM related challenges and risk frameworks. In this paper, we provide a review of the current implementation level of BIM and the risks and challenges of stakeholders through three aspects of management, technology and promotion.

The complex and dynamic nature of construction projects, due to intricate design and involvement of several direct and indirect stakeholders, exposes them to various risks. These risks may cause co...

The adoption of innovative technologies in the construction industry is necessary for the industry development. Such technologies can help in reducing the time needed to accomplish tasks, increase work quality, improve safety standards, and lower expenses. Unmanned aerial systems (UAS) have various applications on construction sites. They provide a bird’s eye view for supervising construction site personnel as well as providing live feedback on actions taking place on-site. Given the high potential of UAS use in the construction industry and their recent wide usage, this study and literature review aims to summarize the current applications of UAS on construction sites. Furthermore, it will also identify the issues resulting from UAS use in the construction industry. The findings will enhance understanding of the implementation of UAS in the construction industry.

The Russian state began the gradual introduction of building information modelling (BIM) technologies in construction in December 2014. BIM is difficult to implement in a short time, as it requires a complete re-equipment of the company, retraining of the employees and accumulation of experience and knowledge. The main difficulties in collision with new technologies are the degree of correspondence and adequacy of the obtained results to reality. The solution is the comparison of the calculation methods by new technologies and the traditional approach application for the building and structure analysis. This is the fundamental method of solving the problem in this article. The real project of autocenter has been analyzed. The analysis of individual load-bearing structures of the object is performed: manually, using SCAD Office and Robot Structural Analysis software. The difference between three methods of not more than 4% was obtained. It is good for BIM implementation.

Temporary safety facilities (TSFs) are an essential support system providing necessary protection to workers during construction activities, which are targeted towards preventing the occurrence of incidents and accidents at the construction site; however, the schedule and location of installation and demolition of TSFs continue to rely on labor experience, and are often omitted from formal drawings or documents. This results in thousands of accidents in the construction industry, especially in construction small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) because of their several limiting factors; therefore, this study proposes automatic workspace planning for TSFs based on construction activities, which is a systematized approach for construction SMEs to practice occupational health and safety (OHS). By using building information modeling (BIM) and add-in algorithm, safety facilities can be simulated and visualized to integrate into the designated workspace. The developed system was implemented utilizing 4D-BIM for TSFs installation and validated with a case study on a residential building project. The result revealed that the visualized TSF produces a better understanding of safety measures with regard to project schedule. Additionally, TSFs workspace planning provides an affordable approach that motivates safety practices among the SMEs; consequently, the effectiveness of construction safety measures and their management is enhanced appreciably.

Soil excavation is a fundamental step of building and infrastructure development. Despite strong enforcement of construction best practices and regulations, accidents in construction industry are comparatively higher than other industries. Likewise, significant increase in injuries and fatalities are recently reported on geotechnical activities such as excavation pits and trenches. Academic researchers and industry professionals have currently devoted vital attention to acquire construction safety in preconstruction phase of the project. They have developed various algorithms to enhance safety in preconstruction phase such as automated generation of scaffolding and its potential risk analysis, checking BIM model for fall risks, and limited access zone allocation in wall masonry. However, safety in geotechnical works at preconstruction phase is yet unexplored. This paper proposed automatic safety rule compliance approach for excavation works leveraging algorithmic modeling tools and BIM technologies. The focused approach comprises of the following three modules: information extraction and logic design (IELD), information conversion and process integration (ICPI), and automodeling and safety plan generation (ASPG). Specifically, the scope of the paper is limited to major risks such as cave-ins, fall, safety egress, and prohibited zones risks. A set of rules-based algorithms was developed in commercially available software using visual programming language (VPL) that automatically generates geometric conditions in BIM and visualizes the potential risks and safety resources installation along with their quantity take-off and optimized locations. A case study has been presented to validate the proof of concept; automated modeling tool for excavation safety planning generated the required results successfully. It is anticipated that the proposed approach has potential to help the designers through automated modeling and assist decision makers in developing productive and practical safety plans compared to the conventional 2D plans for excavation works at the preconstruction phase. Moreover, it is realized that the same approach can be extended to other rule-dependent subjects in construction.

Safety inspection on construction site is an important method to prevent hazards around the site and unsafe behaviors of the workers. The traditional safety inspection system has several drawbacks. This paper developed an innovated safety inspection system on construction site based on mobile phone application. The new safety inspection system can greatly reduce the demand of experienced safety inspectors on construction site and integrate the safety inspection work of multi-projects at the company level, which increase the value of labor power of experienced safety manager. The composite incremental cost of the safety inspection system can be negative, considering both the instrument and human cost. Meanwhile, the new safety inspection system can reserve the detail of safety inspection for the safety management department of construction companies to make targeted management decisions.

Recently, construction safety management (CSM) practices and systems have become important topics for stakeholders to take care of human resources. However, few studies have attempted to map the global research on CSM. A comprehensive bibliometric review was conducted in this study based on multiple methods. In total, 1172 CSM-related papers from the Web of Science Core Collection database were examined. The analyses focused on publication year, country–institute, publication source, author and research topics. The results indicated that the USA, China, Australia and the UK took leading positions in CSM research. Two branches of journals were identified, namely the branch of engineering science and that of safety science and social science. Additionally, seven themes together with 28 specific topics were detected to allow researchers to track the main structure and temporal evolution of CSM research. Finally, the main research trends and potential research directions were discussed to guide the future research.

Recent years have seen a great concern on the construction safety of the deep foundation pit with complicated geological conditions due to an increasing number of accidents. However, there are not, currently, sufficient research studies on the safety analysis of the deep foundation pit in water-rich soft soils. As a result, dynamic predictions of the safety risk during the whole construction process are inadequate due to the lack of research studies. Therefore, this paper presents an approach for the construction safety of the deep foundation pit in water-rich soft soils, which combines the building information modeling (BIM), the finite element analysis (FEA), and the finite difference method (FDM). By using BIM technology, the author attempts to establish a 3D information model and a bracing structure model. Based on the application programming interface and the C# language, the data conversion from BIM-ANSYS-FLAC3D is realized. The author then attempts to analyze the ground surface settlement and horizontal displacement during the excavation of the deep foundation pit through FLAC3D, and the purpose of which is to identify potential safety hazards so that reasonable control measures can be taken. The approach presented in this article has been validated in the Project of Qinhuai River Ship Lock. Since the excavation and the after-construction stages of this project have been completed smoothly, this approach has been proved valid and applicable.

Rapid advancement of technology continues to leverage change and innovation in the construction industry. Continued digitization of the industry offers the opportunity to totally reinvent contemporary construction design and delivery practice for future development. Building Information Modelling (BIM) within the context of Architecture, Engineering & Construction (AEC) has been developing since the early 2000s and is considered to be a key technology. Despite major technical advancements in BIM, it has not been fully adopted and its definitive benefits have not been fully capitalized upon by industry stakeholders. The lack of widespread uptake of BIM appears to be linked to the risks and challenges that are potentially impeding its effectiveness. This paper aims to discuss the reality of BIM, its widespread benefits and current level of uptake. The risks and challenges associated with the adoption of BIM, as well as recommendations regarding how future BIM adoption could be developed are also highlighted.

Pile driving accidents that occurred between the years 1984-2018 were selected from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration database with 84 cases. To evaluate the causes of accidents, pile driving stages were presented and the potential hazards were discussed. Two models were necessary to link the accidents with workers' behavior. Accident type model and workers' behavior model were developed. While accident type model was related to physical factors leading to accidents, workers' behavior model figured out the occupational behavior under the act of the incident, respectively. Among fatal accidents, unsafe site conditions had the highest frequency of 26.9%. Among nonfatal accidents, both poor attitudes towards safety, and unsafe methods had the highest frequency of 28.1%. Furthermore, a map that gave work specific accident frequencies in pile driving operations was created. Consequently, project-specific countermeasures should be taken regarding the root causes of accidents, leading to vigorous strategies to develop safety measures.

Introduction. A variety of approaches exist to achieve better construction safety performance, but only a few consider a combination of building information modeling (BIM) and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Method. This article presents a four-dimensional (4D) BIM/UAV-enabled safety management model based on IDEF0 language. In the first step, potential hazards are identified with the help of safety specialists’ experiences and BIM software used in the design of the structure. Then, a UAV monitors the location of the potential hazards. The third step involves the integration of the 4D BIM-based model and the information obtained from the UAV. Finally, the combined data are analyzed and interpreted, and site safety staff are notified about measures to be put in place to prevent accidents. Results. This model shows a strong relationship between the design and construction phases by using BIM in the design phase and UAVs in the construction phase. The proposed safety model was evaluated by construction safety specialists in a two-pronged approach. Conclusion. The number of fatal, non-fatal and property damage-causing accidents may be significantly lower when the proposed system was used. Practical application. This model allows safety specialists to identify hazards and develop suitable mitigation strategies.

Incorporating safety risk into the design process is one of the most effective design sciences to enhance the safety of metro station construction. In such a case, the concept of Design for Safety (DFS) has attracted much attention. However, most of the current research overlooks the risk-prediction process in the application of DFS. Therefore, this paper proposes a hybrid risk-prediction framework to enhance the effectiveness of DFS in practice. Firstly, 12 influencing factors related to the safety risk of metro construction are identified by adopting the literature review method and code of construction safety management analysis. Then, a structured interview is used to collect safety risk cases of metro construction projects. Next, a developed support vector machine (SVM) model based on particle swarm optimization (PSO) is presented to predict the safety risk in metro construction, in which the multi-class SVM prediction model with an improved binary tree is designed. The results show that the average accuracy of the test sets is 85.26%, and the PSO–SVM model has a high predictive accuracy for non-linear relationship and small samples. The results show that the average accuracy of the test sets is 85.26%, and the PSO–SVM model has a high predictive accuracy for non-linear relationship and small samples. Finally, the proposed framework is applied to a case study of metro station construction. The prediction results show the PSO–SVM model is applicable and reasonable for safety risk prediction. This research also identifies the most important influencing factors to reduce the safety risk of metro station construction, which provides a guideline for the safety risk prediction of metro construction for design process.

In this article, we advance the question of how creativity is emerging in new virtual work configurations. We take two steps: first we draw on theoretical perspectives from phenomenological anthropology to engage an understanding of creativity as emerging through a relationship between the processual concepts of improvisation and knowing; second, we develop a focus on the digital materiality of virtual labour. To examine and draw together these themes we focus on a novel example of the use of digital technologies for improving worker safety and health in the construction industry by recognising how safety is constituted through worker creativity. We argue, on the basis of this, for a view of creativity as constituted through improvisation and knowing, and that invokes the possibility of thinking about virtual elements of work as part of the ongoing processes of work.

In recent years, the use of new technologies is rapidly transforming the way working activities are managed and carried out. In the construction industry, in particular, the use of Building Information Modelling (BIM) is ever increasing as a means to improve the performances of numerous activities. In such a context, several studies have proposed BIM as a key process to augment occupational safety effectively, considering that the construction industry still remains one of the most hazardous working sectors. The purpose of the present study is to investigate the recent research addressing the use of BIM to improve construction safety. A systematic review was performed considering journal papers that appeared in literature in the last decade. The results showed that the most viable and promising research directions concern knowledge-based solutions, design for safety improvement through BIM solutions, transversal applications of BIM, and dynamic visualization and feedback. The findings of this study also indicated that more practical BIM applications are needed, especially focusing on safety training and education, the use of BIM to augment safety climate and resilience, and the development of quantitative risk analysis to better support safety management. Overall, the study provided a comprehensive research synthesis augmenting knowledge on the role of BIM-based tools in construction safety, which can be considered a reference framework to enhance workers’ safety by means of these new technologies.

In most construction and Infrastructure management projects, it is important to ensure and maintain the performance, safety as well as quality in the work to execute the construction in expected period , for monitoring the above parameters i.e. Performance, Safety, Quality and as well as Security, requires data to analyze, determine and test the algorithms, due to eternal increase amount of captured data thorough modern improvements in technology i.e. devices, camera equipped vehicles, Sensors, etc. accommodates an innovative scope to capture present status of construction sites at a less cost analogized to more alternative techniques such as laser scanning technique. Vast endeavours on documenting as-built status, nevertheless, stay at retrieving the visual data and updating Building Information Model (BIM). Hundreds of images and videos are captured but most of the data becomes scrap without proper localize with plan document and time. To take full benefits of visual data for construction status analytics where performance analytics is also included in it, three aspects (reliable, relevance and speed) of capturing, analysing and reporting visual data are captious and tracking development in construction sites needs two direction communication between field crew and management so that performances and changes issues related to task management, completion and outlook can be convey effectively. This paper deals with the investigation of current techniques for influence with help of arising BIM and big data in performance monitoring at construction from reliable, relevance and speed.