Quantifying Safety in Off-site Construction

Abstract

The construction industry has been identified as one of the most dangerous when examining safety performance and outcomes. The concept of leveraging off-site construction as a safer alternative to execute construction works has been presented by researchers and industry, but support for this premise with quantifiable data is lacking. To investigate differences in off-site construction versus conventional on-site methods, the research has developed a safety evaluation methodology to quantify safety performance and allow for comparisons of construction methods. The methodology is developed in partnership with a jurisdictional occupational health and safety authority and leverages historical safety data to provide inputs for a risk-based process-analysis of construction methods. The methodology is partially validated in collaboration with the project team (owner, general contractor, module manufacturer) and applied to a case study of a mid-rise modular hotel construction project that employed a mix of conventional and off-site construction processes. The evaluation methodology takes a construction product-focused approach (in this a case a hotel room module) with emphasis on defining a complete material supply chain. As such, the approach takes a unique approach to industry level comparison, establishing an evaluation methodology for future comparisons.