DEVELOPING FRAMEWORK FOR SAFETY ANALYSIS AND RISK ASSESSMENT IN CONSTRUCTION SITE ENVIRONMENT IN JORDAN

Construction projects involve many types of health and injury risks across life of project. A safety plan needs to be designed based on different stages of construction and requires specific needs for each risk type. The core to the successful safety plan is having comprehensive assessment of risk sources and mitigation actions. A great majority of construction SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises) are not familiar with risk assessment concepts and methods. Many small and medium construction businesses have difficulty in finding qualified personnel or time to design a safety plan. The goal of this study is to demonstrate a case of designing a safety plan for a real construction project in Jordan. We show detailed application of conducting a work safety plan and a detailed risk assessment. The studied case presents a robust application of risk assessment in a construction project that can guide small and medium scale construction projects in building sound safety plan. Tables are prepared containing the activities and their hazards and determining the probability and severity of the risk in order to determine the level of risk, which is average (6-12), the precautionary measures and methods of control are then developed and the risk assessment is carried out again until the level of risk reaches a low and acceptable value (2-4). The discussed method is found to be user friendly, and the SMEs found it easy to update their risk strategies during various construction stages in their projects. We conclude that the hazard rate degree is 27% low, 65% medium, and 8% high. The activities have a level risk that varies from medium to high, so it is mandatory to follow the safety instructions and the monitoring and continuous inspection to reduce accidents and work injuries.