Using 4D BIM to assess construction risks during the design phase

Abstract

Purpose The prevention through design (PtD) concept has been widely recognized as one of the most effective approaches to eliminate or reduce construction site hazards. It encourages engineers and architects to consider occupational safety and health during the planning and design phases. Nevertheless, the implementation of PtD is often inhibited because designers lack adequate knowledge about construction safety and the construction process, and limited design-for-safety tools and procedures are available for designers to use. The purpose of this paper is to provide designers a tool for assessing construction risks during early phases of multistory building projects at an activity level and on a daily basis in a 4D environment. By using the tool, proactive measures could be taken in the design and planning phase to reduce site hazards. Design/methodology/approach The proposed method consists of four steps including risk quantification at a design element level, 4D model integration with risk values, risk assessment, and design alternative selection and model acceptance. A case study was carried out to test and verify the proposed method. Findings The proposed tool has the capability to assess the safety risk for an entire multistory project and visualize safety risk in a particular time period, work space and task prior to construction. It benefits designers in conducting risk assessments and selecting design alternatives concerning safety. Contractors could also utilize the visualization and simulation results of the 4D model for site safety planning so that a range of risk mitigation strategies could be implemented during construction. Originality/value The study provides an innovative PtD tool targeting designers as primary end-users. The proposed tool helps designers assess construction risks and has potential to incorporate the top levels of the hierarchy of risk controls.

Key attributes of designers' competency for prevention through design (PtD) practices in construction: a review

“…The lack of prevention-based education at the tertiary level often leads to inadequacy in embracing the knowledge of the concept (Popov et al, 2013;L opez-Arquillos et al, 2015;Abueisheh et al, 2020). On the other hand, limited availability of PtD-related tools, guidelines and techniques has hindered the designers to enhance their skills to practice this concept during design (Jin et al, 2019). Furthermore, the lack of codification and regulation for PtD in several countries often contributes to the inability of designers to enhance their PtD skills.…”

Building lifecycle management based on 4D modelling as the main workspace for building risk assessment

“…Monitoring of the work of the main bearing structures of the facility, organizational and technological processes of construction is provided. The projects include technogenic, fire-safe and anti-terrorist factors [7][8][9]. When forming a generalized criterion, it is necessary to solve two problems [13][14][15][16][17][18]:…”

Analysis of the Current State of Automation of Hazard Detection Processes in BIM in Slovakia

“…An electronic questionnaire was prepared from acquired theoretical knowledge of hazard detection in BIM [15,17,[20][21][22][23][24][42][43][44][45][46]51,52], and practical knowledge with BIM management based on experience in the construction industry in Slovakia. It was composed of 33 questions connected by logical links, so that it was possible to exclude inappropriate respondents (e.g., if they did not perform preparation and control of HS on their projects or did not use BIM on any project).…”