Abstract
The construction industry has had a disproportionately high rate of accidents, for its size. Although improvements in construction worker safety have been achieved, the construction industry continues to lag behind most other industries with regard to safety. This study, which is one of several studies on accident prevention in the construction industry, identifies the effect of accidents and intends to increase employer and worker awareness of potential hazards in the workplace. In order to measure the effect of accidents, this study adopted a quantitative approach to measuring productivity loss from an accident in terms of a delay in utility trenching operations. The research finding indicates that the increasing rate of productivity loss following accidents is decreasing, although the probability of the occurrence of accidents is consistently increasing, which means that productivity is not lowered as much as the probability of the occurrence of an accident is increased. It is also notable that the backfill activity, which is one of three major activities comprising utility trenching operations, is most vulnerable to productive loss due both to the variations in the probability of the occurrence of accidents and to the extra durations, whereas the pipe installation activity is more sustainable than the other activities. Efforts to identify the effect of accidents on productivity, such as potential productivity loss, may help superintendents make more appropriate decisions regarding safety on-site, thereby balancing accident prevention with productivity.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Abraham, D.M. and Halpin, D.W. (1999). Safety and Productivity Issues in Utility Trenching.Implementation of Safety and Health on Construction Sites. Balkema Rotterdam, pp. 651–658.
Budleigh, J. K. (1989).Trench Excavation and Support. Thomas Telford Ltd., London, U. K.
Bureau of Industrial Safety and Health (2002).Industrial Fatality Statistics. Safety Policy Division, Ministry of Labor, Korea.
Bureau of Labor Statistics (2001).Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries Summary. U. S. Department of Labor, August 17.
Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries Staff (1997).Perils in the Workplace Compensation and Working Conditions. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Washington, D. C., USA.
Halpin, D.W. (1992). Micro CYCLONE, Construction Operations, Version 2.5.Learning System, Inc. Purdue University, Indiana, USA.
Halpin, D.W. and Riggs, L.S. (1992).Planning and Analysis of Construction Operations. Wiley Interscience, New York, N. Y., USA.
Hinze, J. (1997).Construction Safety. Prentice Hall, Inc., New Jersey, USA.
Lee, S. and Halpin, D. W. (2002). Simulation Modeling by Enterprise Resource Planning Implementation in a Medium-sized Corporation,First International Conference on Construction in the 21 st Century. 25–26 April 2002, Miami, Florida, USA, pp. 695702.
Moran, M. M. (1996).Construction Safety Handbook. Government Institutes, Inc., Rockville, Maryland, USA.
Teicholz, P. (1963).A Simulation Approach to the Selection of Construction Equipment. Construction Institute, Stanford University, Palo Alto, California, Technical Report 26, USA.
Yokel, F.Y., Tucker R.L., and Reese, L.C. (1980).Soil Classification for Construction Practice in Shallow Trenching. National Bureau of Standard Building Science Series 121, U. S. Government Printing Office, Washington, USA.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
The manuscript for this paper was submitted for review on December 7, 2002.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Lee, SY. Simulation analysis of accident delays in utility trenching operations. KSCE J Civ Eng 7, 107–113 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02841970
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02841970