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In recent decades, the frequency and severity of building fires have increased with rapid urbanization, particularly in high-rise buildings and high-building-density areas. Although proactive building fire risk management (PBFRM) can address this issue, significant research gaps exist. This research aims to propose a conceptual framework for understanding the existing condition of integrating proactive building fire risk management in the building construction sector, and the effect on improving building fire safety. It has been performed through a comprehensive review of the relevant literature. This framework identifies five components by answering the following questions: what? (building fire safety), of what? (buildings), to what? (integrate PBFRM in the building construction sector), for what? (ensuring resilience, sustainability and smartness), and how? (through building construction sector governance). According to the proposed conceptual framework, building fire safety can be achieved by integrating the PBFRM measures in different building attributes throughout the building life cycle. At the same time, resilience, sustainability and smartness must be ensured. These can be achieved through governance in the building construction sector. The proposed conceptual framework will contribute to policy and practice by facilitating policymakers and stakeholders in assessing the existing conditions and the efficacy of building fire safety measures, and thereby in devising strategies to further reinforce them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The objective of this study is to investigate the concept of "earthquake resistance" in high-rise buildings and assess the current level of structural strength in the areas where these structures are situated. The study aims to identify and implement necessary measures to enhance resilience in these areas. A comprehensive literature review was conducted to develop a conceptual framework focusing on earthquake resistance's meanings, stages and physical elements to achieve these goals. Design/methodology/approach: This study focuses on Istanbul, a city known for its high earthquake risk, specifically targeting the Atasehir district. The research utilizes the DEMATEL (Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory) method to evaluate urban resilience parameters. Additionally, the Fuzzy TOPSIS (Preference Ranking Technique by Similarity) method is employed to analyze the location of five buildings in Atasehir, using criterion weights derived from this methodology. Findings: The findings indicate that resilience varies depending on the distance of the buffers. Moreover, the amount and quality of urban equipment in the study areas have a significant impact on the earthquake resistance level of the surrounding areas where high-rise buildings are situated. Building upon this analysis, the study suggests the implementation of measures aimed at augmenting the quantity and quality of urban facilities in the study areas, consequently enhancing urban resilience. Originality/value: The originality and value of this study lie in its examination of seismic resilience within the context of high-rise buildings and the identification of necessary measures to increase resilience in areas where these structures are prevalent. By focusing on Istanbul, a city with a high earthquake risk, and specifically selecting the Atasehir district as the study area, this research provides a comprehensive conceptual framework for understanding urban resilience and its physical components. Moreover, the study offers a fresh perspective on urban resilience by highlighting the influence of tall buildings on the surrounding areas. Ultimately, it provides practical recommendations for architects, urban planners and other stakeholders to improve regional earthquake resilience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

COVID-19 has had unprecedented effects on construction markets globally due to supply chain disruptions and workforce restrictions, etc. However, construction industries in developing countries are more vulnerable to the obstacles associated with the pandemic. As such, the goal of this paper is to capture the impact of COVID-19 on construction projects' performance in developing countries by taking the Pakistani construction sector into perspective. A multistep project-based research methodology was adopted, including a literature analysis and questionnaire survey with 20 construction professionals to assess factors affected by COVID-19; formulation of open-ended questions against each factor; collecting data using semi structured interviews; and presenting challenges and adopted mitigation strategies to examine the perceived impact. Results showed that the pandemic has caused a total of 13 factors to impact the project performance, which are grouped under four construction groups, including material and equipment, human resource, occupational health and safety, and financial and contracts. The factors impacted the most by the pandemic are cash flow management, supply chain disruptions, increased overheads, construction safety measures, material shortage, contractual issues, and construction workforce. This research contributes to the body of knowledge by providing a foundation for researchers to enhance investigating the impact of the COVID-19 in developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the use of vibration measurements for the purpose of cost-effective performance evaluation for the safety management and maintenance of Japan's social infrastructure like bridges. Since modal properties are often used to diagnose damage of structures by analysing their changes, various modal identification methods have been developed in the past few decades. Among these, the FDD method has still attractive attention because of its simplicity and practicality. It is also highly applicable to simultaneous observation at multiple points and even complex modes can be identified instantly. On the other hand, the applicability of this method to impact tests applied to evaluate the condition of structures has not been sufficiently discussed to date. In this study, we will clarify the applicability to impact tests by reconstructing the theoretical background of the FDD method. Furthermore, we will show from theory that when there is a correlation between inputs, higher-order singular values, which should be noted when applied to impact tests, will be affected. The conclusions obtained from the reconstruction of the theoretical background will be verified based on numerical experiments and actual observation records. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses updates in the statutes in Florida covering the construction industry in a bid to bolster building safety, ensure prompt payment of construction services, and reduce insurance claims. Also cited are some fatal accidents that inspired said statutes like the Fidenae ampitheater collapse in A.D. 27, and the exemptions in areas like licensing, coding, and permitting.

Fire statistics mirror the outcome of fire prevention. Most fire statistics in Germany deal with the loss of life, value, and fire department actions (number of interventions, nozzles used, or alarm category like a false alarm). However, these results also represent the safety level the legislator has set through the prescriptive building regulations. The current statistics cannot evaluate the level of fire safety and the fulfillment or necessity of fire safety precautions. Today, expert judgment from firefighters is necessary to fill this gap. Here, we show the first evaluation of fire prevention and hazard protection measures by evaluating 900 potentially harming fires throughout Germany. In contrast to minor fires, these fires have advanced to the extent that they could potentially violate the protection objectives outlined in building regulations. The fire department association developed a questionnaire to evaluate the fire safety level and possibly reduce unnecessary fire safety regulations. One hundred twenty-three fire departments carried out the questionnaire, which are responsible for 25% of the German population. Fire prevention officers of the fire departments went to the scene after the fire was extinguished, and the fire safety concept of the building could be evaluated. We found a high rate of injuries, smoke spread, need for rescue by firefighters, and higher than expected firefighter response times after arrival at the scene. Surprisingly, smoke spread rates correlated with building height and not with building age. It was even possible to assess the risk of multiple casualties. Overall, the questionnaire results give insight into the current level of fire safety in existing buildings. Ways and rates for smoke and fire spread prove the importance of second escape routes and the influence of human misconduct. According to these results, current building code regulations are sufficient to prevent fire spread. On the other hand, smoke spreading is a severe threat to people's safety. For example, the data shown can be applied in Bayes nets or other risk calculations to optimize individual building designs or even governmental building codes concerning fire safety engineering. Based on our observations, science, and building codes, authorities could in the future establish a performance-based building code instead of the current prescriptive code. This paper presents the first approach in Germany to quantify the expert judgment of fire departments and use it as a source of knowledge for fire prevention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the lack of awareness and practice of safety measures among construction workers in Kottayam, Kerala. The study found that many workers were unaware of the occupational hazards associated with their work, and their utilization of safety measures was moderate. The article emphasizes the need for health promotion and campaigns to educate workers about the health risks and proper use of personal protective equipment. The study also found a significant association between total work experience and awareness of occupational hazards. The authors highlight the importance of occupational health and safety training for construction workers to improve their well-being. [Extracted from the article]

In the construction of urban rail transit projects, the disturbance of equipment, sudden failure, rainstorms, and other emergencies may bring serious safety risks. Resilience theory emphasizes the ability of the system to resist, adapt, absorb, and learn from risks in the whole process before, during, and after the occurrence of risks. It is introduced into the safety management of construction organization of urban rail transit projects to describe the ability of urban rail transit projects to cope with risks in the whole process of dealing with construction risks. This study defines the connotation of the resilience of the project construction organization and uses the literature frequency statistics method to determine the resilience evaluation indexes. The game theory combination weighting method is used to determine the index weights, and the cloud matter element model is used to establish the evaluation model of construction organization resilience of urban rail transit projects. Taking Nanchang West Station of Phase 1 Project of Nanchang Line 2 as an example, the validity and accuracy of the model are verified. The results show that the resilience grade of the construction organization of the project is "higher resilience," which is consistent with the actual survey situation, and the evaluation model is reasonable. In addition, in the evaluation results, the key indexes and risk indexes of the project are determined, and the safety management measures of the construction organization of the project are put forward according to the key indexes and risk indexes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A total-factor framework is developed for measuring safety performance. • A global DEA model is established. • The construction safety performance in Australia has been promoted by pure technical elements. • The scale factor is not an important force driving safety performance. • The safety performance improvement model is developed. Introduction: Safety is one of the critical and persistent challenges in the construction industry. Measuring safety performance could allow decision-makers to check safety production processes and enhance the health and safety environment. Method: This study developed a total-factor framework based on the global Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) method to measure safety performance. The performance trend and influencing factors of pure technical efficiency and scale efficiency were separately investigated. The safety performance of construction employees in Australia was measured as a case study. Results: The results demonstrate that the safety performance in the Australian construction industry has been evidently enhanced, which is mainly promoted by the progress of pure technical elements. The scale factors did not play a positive and important role in driving the performance. Conclusions: The increasing regional differences in safety performance could be reduced by learning the practices from the benchmark construction industry, such as a young worker program, small business safety program, workplace mental health program, and advanced construction technologies. Practical Applications: The method can be utilized to measure safety performance and investigate the pathways to enhance performance without influencing production inputs and outcomes. The model and experiences of how to promote safety performance on the policymakers and employers were recognized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents research on the risk management of the Self-Help Home Stimulant Assistance Program in Southeast Maluku Regency. The study identifies and categorizes 19 risk variables and proposes control strategies to mitigate these risks. The research findings emphasize the need for targeted measures to address the identified risks and improve the program's implementation and sustainability. The article provides valuable insights for enhancing community welfare in the region. [Extracted from the article]

In order to obtain the change rule of surrounding rock structure displacement and supporting structure internal force with time during the construction of the low mountain ridge tunnel, this paper relies on the Xishan Tunnel Project as the background. During tunneling, the displacement around the tunnel, the subsidence of the surface, the internal force of the steel arch and the pressure between the two layers of support are monitored dynamically. According to the above monitoring and measurement data, and the monitoring data analysis and nonlinear regression fitting, the predicted trend curve is obtained, the displacement change rules and characteristics of various surrounding rocks of the tunnel are obtained, to ensure the construction safety and stability requirements of supporting structure, and to provide a reasonable opportunity for the construction of secondary lining. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the advancement of society, ensuring the safety of personnel involved in municipal construction projects, particularly in the context of pandemic control measures, has become a matter of utmost importance. This paper introduces a security measure for municipal engineering, combining deep learning with object detection technology. It proposes a lightweight artificial intelligence (AI) detection method capable of simultaneously identifying individuals wearing masks and safety helmets. The method primarily incorporates the ShuffleNetv2 feature extraction mechanism within the framework of the YOLOv5s network to reduce computational overhead. Additionally, it employs the ECA attention mechanism and optimized loss functions to generate feature maps with more comprehensive information, thereby enhancing the precision of target detection. Experimental results indicate that this algorithm improves the mean average precision (mAP) value by 4.3%. Furthermore, it reduces parameter and computational loads by 54.8% and 53.8%, respectively, effectively striking a balance between lightweight operation and precision. This study serves as a valuable reference for research pertaining to lightweight target detection in the realm of municipal construction safety measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Probabilistic analysis based on random field (RF) has been widely adopted in the safety assessment of shield tunnels. However, its practical applicability has been limited by the intricacy involved with integrating geotechnical data and tunneling information. This paper addresses the following research question: How can the RF-based probabilistic safety assessment be carried out efficiently? In addressing this research question, we suggested an RF-based tunneling information modeling (TIM) framework to realize the probabilistic safety assessment of shield tunnels. In the proposed framework, the modeling of tunnel structure and geological conditions is initially introduced. The numerical safety assessment model is then created via an automated procedure using the RF-based TIM. A case study is conducted to verify the suggested framework, and results demonstrate that the framework can offer an automated design-to-analysis solution to improving the safety assessment of shield tunnels by comprehensively considering the uncertainties of geological conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Southeast University (English Edition) is the property of Journal of Southeast University Editorial Office and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In the construction of modern bridges, tower cranes are used for vertical transportation and hoisting. In erecting and removing tower cranes, a high degree of risk occurs. Thus, we evaluated the risk of using tower cranes in construction and proposed preventive measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Safety management is important throughout the world specifically on building projects, which are prone to accidents due to their unique operations, dynamic and ever-changing nature. In every country, contractors implement safety management systems (SMSs) to avoid accidents and comply with applicable laws, regulations and to provide safe work environments for their workers. Nonetheless, accidents still happen on many building projects in the country. The objective of this work is to measure safety management as perceived on building projects by employing a proactive approach in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to improve site safety. A survey instrument is utilized to gather data from building projects. Another questionnaire is used to conduct interviews with the key managers on the same projects. Analysis of the questionnaire survey is performed after entering the data into SPSS software by applying factor analysis and multiple linear regression. Factor analysis extracted two significant factors, including "management commitment, employee involvement, and safety training"—factor 1, and "project safety plan, safety committee, and safe use of equipment"—factor 2, which proactively measure the implementation of safety management on the building projects. The safety model obtained by multiple regression analysis identifies two significant contributors to the performance of the SMS. Analysis of the interviews complemented and validated the results of the questionnaire survey. The findings provide in-depth understanding of proactively measuring safety management on building projects for the construction industry practitioners to make project sites safer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The statistics pertaining to accidents occurring at construction sites underscore the pressing requirement for a substantial and timely reevaluation of safety measures within the construction sector. Accidents do not occur randomly; rather, they arise from the presence of unsafe actions, hazardous conditions, or a combination of both. The majority of accidents stem from a combination of contributing causes, including unsafe acts and conditions. To enhance safety performance on a broader scale, this study undertakes an extensive analysis to identify these causes, evaluate their importance, and determine the countries that are most and least impacted by them. Ten African countries were selected as potential alternatives based on the frequency of infrastructure construction projects. A thorough review of existing literature was conducted to establish a three-level criteria framework. The framework was further refined through the Modified Delphi method to gather expert opinions. The weights assigned to the criteria were determined using the interval-valued Fermatean fuzzy analytical hierarchy process methodology. The Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution method under the same fuzzy environment was then employed to rank the alternative countries. A sensitivity analysis was carried out to assess the robustness of the proposed methodology. The analysis revealed that the main cause of accidents was attributed to poor management, as it included ineffective project supervision, inadequate safety policies, poor organizational structure, and inappropriate scheduling/planning as the main underlying sub-factors. Additionally, it was observed that the sixth alternative country exhibited the highest susceptibility to accidents occurring at construction sites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The proliferation of unsafe behavior in underground-construction sites has been widespread, which leads to accidents in underground construction from time to time. Accidents are not only a threat to the personal safety of construction workers but also cause property losses. Intervention on how to prevent the propagation of unsafe behavior among underground-construction workers in a timely manner, further improvement in the safety-management level of construction enterprises, and ensuring smooth implementation of projects are urgent measures to solve this problem. In this study, an SCIMR (Susceptible-Contacted-Infective-Removed) model was developed to study the spread of unsafe behavior among underground-construction workers. Increase in the improvement, control, and awareness rates could provide a preventive effect on the spread of unsafe behavior among underground-construction workers, whereas increase in the adoption and forgetfulness rates could facilitate increase in unsafe behavior. This work combined the SIR (Susceptible-Infective-Removed) theory with the underground-construction context to enrich the theory of underground-construction safety personnel management, which provides a reference solution and suggestions for construction companies to intervene and predict the proliferation of unsafe behavior and a novel method of planning and direction for safety management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this research, a groundbreaking intelligent model named the GWO-RF model is introduced for the prediction of water inflow (WI) during tunnel construction. WI is a prevalent and intricate occurrence that significantly jeopardizes the safety of workers and equipment. The proposed model aims to address this issue by leveraging the capabilities of Grey Wolf Optimization (GWO) combined with the Random Forest (RF) algorithm. Through this innovative approach, the study strives to enhance the accuracy and effectiveness of WI prediction, ultimately contributing to improved safety measures in tunnel construction projects. The GWO-RF model utilizes 600 sets of data comprising tunnel depth (H), groundwater level (h), rock quality designation (RQD), and water yield property (W) as input independent variables. To evaluate the predictive performance of the GWO-RF model, seven ensemble regression models, namely RF, Bagging, AdaBoost, HistGradientBoosting (HGBoosting), GradientBoostingRegressorTree (GBRT), Voting, and Stacking are compared. Four prediction accuracy criteria were used to evaluate the performance of the developed models. The significance of variables and their contribution to WI prediction are analyzed using the Shapley Additive Explanations (SHAP) approach. The evaluation results demonstrate the superior accuracy of the proposed GWO-RF model over other conventional ensemble models in both the training and testing phases. With R2 values of 0.9483 and 0.9289, MAE values of 4.6042 and 8.3862, MSE values of 68.5806 and 144.1149, and RMSE values of 8.2813 and 12.0047, respectively, the GWO-RF model outperforms the others. As a result, the proposed GWO-RF model proves highly effective in predicting WI and determining the corresponding pumping requirements, making it invaluable for tunneling projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Construction sites are considered high-risk working environments. Safety risk analysis of construction sites is one of the important aspects of construction safety management. However, existing construction safety risk analysis methods typically face overreliance on subjective experience and cannot reflect the real-time risk level of construction projects. Crucial information about construction accidents implies a complex semantic network that can obtain objective quantitative data and then serve the quantitative analysis of construction safety risk. Therefore, a knowledge-graph-improved dynamic risk analysis method for behavior-based safety (BBS) management on construction sites is proposed. Specifically, this study quantifies the risks and consequences of unsafe behaviors in construction by conducting graph topology analysis based on historical accident data, improves the grey clustering model, and calculates the construction site risk. Thus, the proposed method combines expert experience and objective historical data to give more objective and realistic results. The results of the application of this method on one project show that the improved dynamic analysis method can utilize the historical accident data to achieve a more reasonable overall risk grading for BBS on construction sites; at the same time, the method can determine real-time key BBS indicators; further, the construction safety management measures for key BBS indicators can effectively reduce current BBS risks of a construction project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The affordable housing crisis and the lack of housing for low-income individuals is a significant problem in major metropolitan areas in the United States and specifically in California. This article introduces the affordable housing crisis, how building codes impact the affordable housing crisis, and how private citizens are responding to the crisis with private solutions in the form of "illegal housing." Illegal housing is housing that is built in violation of state and local building and safety codes and includes any informal housing such as illegally converted garage apartments, warehouses, accessory dwelling units, or tiny houses. This article argues that state and local governments should relax building and zoning codes to allow for some informal housing. This would encourage government oversight of currently existing illegal housing, allowing the government to ensure the proper health and safety of these alternate housing situations, while simultaneously ameliorating the housing crisis by allowing for informal housing solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Columnar jointed rock mass (CJRM) formed by intact rock divided by special symmetrical columnar joints is a special type of rock with poor mechanical properties, strong anisotropy, and weak self-supporting ability, severely affecting the excavation safety and stability of underground tunnels. In this study, taking the Baihetan hydropower station as the engineering background, CJRM geological numerical models with different dip angles that combined well with the natural CJRM were generated based on the geological statistical parameters of the engineering site and were verified to have high rationality and accuracy. Tunnel excavation and overloading tests were carried out on these numerical models, and the results showed that the stress and displacement distributions after excavation exhibited strong anisotropic characteristics under different dip angles, and the positions where engineering safety problems are most likely to occur are the side walls, which are prone to stress-structure-controlled failure mode. The self-supporting ability at different dip angles after excavation from weak to strong are 45°, 60°, 75°, 90°, 30°, 0°, and 15°. The safety factors assessed by overloading for CJRM with dip angles of 0–90° degrees were 2.5, 2.6, 2.6, 1.8, 2.1, and 2.2, respectively, providing a valuable reference for the construction safety and support measures of CJRM excavation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Construction Projects are a work sector that has a high level of work accident risk. This is due to the lack of awareness of the importance of implementing a good Construction Safety Management System (SMKK) following applicable laws and regulations, often the application of the Construction Safety Management System on a project is considered only as a costly expense, not as an investment to prevent work accidents but only is considered to provide a level of loss from the project itself. But, in the construction of the Main Market of City X, there was a work accident; an analysis was carried out using the Failure Mode And analysis method, several works with a high-risk level, namely formwork demolition work, installation work and WF steel assembly work with each value of 48 risk priority numbers with a risk map value of 19, ceiling frame assembly work with a value of 36 risk priority number with a risk map value of 17, Pile head bore work, ceiling material transportation work from storage, test commissioning work with each value of 32 risk priority numbers with a risk map value of 19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes the impact of the 2013 Rana Plaza building collapse on garment lead firms' labor standards policies in the light of new governance approaches, particularly the pathbreaking Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh. Based on a sample of 20 Australian and German garment firms, the authors find that firms with low prior baseline standards revised their supply chain and sourcing policies and signed the Accord. Firms with medium and high baseline standards responded variously, from making no changes to revising their policies and signing the Accord. Firm response variation can be explained by stakeholder pressure occurring in different national industrial and institutional contexts following the Rana Plaza incident, which served as a focusing event. Results suggest the wider applicability of the focusing event framework for industrial relations scholarship and highlight some of the mechanisms driving changes in industrial relations institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the value of open access research in the context of opinion-based decision-making. It highlights the benefits of making research findings available to decision-makers and the public to inform their actions and democratic processes. The article also mentions various challenges faced by the construction industry worldwide, such as trust and transparency issues, health and safety concerns, and the need for digital and technological advancements. It presents several research papers that address these challenges and propose solutions, emphasizing the importance of collaboration, innovation, and ethical standards. The article concludes by expressing gratitude to the academic community for their contributions to research-based decision-making. [Extracted from the article]

In the construction industry, safety issues are considered major concerns. Despite recent attempts to improve safety in the construction sector, this sector is considered dangerous and unsafe. Construction safety management in Iraq is plagued by a high incidence of construction accidents, resulting in a higher number of injuries and fatalities. Creating a safety program is one strategy to alleviate this problem by making safety an intrinsic part of construction projects. Defining which factors are the most significant and have the greatest effect on safety performance is crucial to building a complete safety program. It ensures that construction companies are not wasting money on inadequate safety programs. As a result, this article aims to identify the critical safety factors that influence safety performance in Iraqi construction projects and assign a relative weight to them based on their importance. First, relevant literature was reviewed to identify the safety performance factors. Second, the Pivot Pairwise Relative Criteria Importance Assessment (PIPRECIA), a recently proposed technique for calculating criteria weights, was employed to determine the relative weight of factors. In this paper, a list of 21 sub-factors classified into 8 categories of main factors was identified. Finally, the findings of PIPRECIA show that the "Management Practices" factor has the top rank with a weight of 0.4221 among the other main safety factors. The results also showed that among the 21 sub-factors, the three with the highest weights, 0.0686, 0.0665, and 0.0619, belonged to "Personal protective equipment (PPE)", "First aid and medical care" and "Housekeeping program", which were under the "Management Practices" factor. Further, the "Regular safety inspections" and "Contractor safety rewards and punishment programs" sub-factors were identified as the least important sub-factors with weights of 0.0350 and 0.0333, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The research was carried out to statistically evaluate the relationship between the safety measures at the construction sites and the actual and perceived knowledge levels of the employees about these measures. Design/methodology/approach: Face-to-face surveys were conducted with the workers. The survey included some perception-based questions about preventive measures at the construction site, as well as determining the level of awareness of employees on occupational health and safety (OHS) practices. The data were analyzed with descriptive statistical methods and bivariate correlation analysis. Findings: The actual knowledge levels of workers on OHS measures in the workplace is significantly lower than their perceived knowledge levels. However, there is a positive, linear and strong relationship between the actual knowledge levels of the employees about some OHS rules applied in the workplace and the general level of knowledge they perceive about themselves. Some protective measures such as occupational safety expert, OHS board, employee representatives, training and information activities at construction sites positively affect the safety awareness of employees. However, low-frequency and documentation-intensive activities such as risk assessment, emergency activities and periodic controls have no or weak correlations. Originality/value: Perception-based opinions of construction site workers on occupational safety issues are transformed into numerical data and analyzed with a quantitative method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The shortest distance from the deep foundation pit envelope of the project to the subway station building is only 7.7 meters, and the deepest excavation depth of the foundation pit is about 24 meters. The surrounding environment of the foundation pit is complex, involving many buildings, the construction is difficult, and there is a great risk of construction safety. The effective control of the structural deformation of the existing subway station is the key to selecting the underground enclosure structure and construction process of the surrounding post-construction projects. Combined with the actual situation of the project, the three-dimensional numerical analysis method is used to analyze the impact of the construction of the foundation pit of the building on its adjacent structures in detail, and the relevant treatment measures are proposed. The research shows that the unloading effect caused by the large-scale excavation causes the soil outside the pit to move towards the inside of the pit. Under the influence of the soil deformation transfer effect, the Beiguan Station of the R1 line subway produces certain rebound, settlement and horizontal displacement, but the values of each deformation index are within the deformation control standard, the numerical analysis considering the influence of small soil strain can better reflect the influence of foundation pit excavation on the displacement, deformation and internal force of the existing structure. It can better match the actual engineering experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Construction Safety Planning is an element in the CSMS (Construction Safety Management System), which needs to be developed by the Contractor. Irrespective of this condition, the guidelines for preparing a safety program have not been appropriately disseminated by the project owner. This shows that many contractors are yet to appropriately implement the construction safety program. Therefore, this study aims to develop a safety program for Indonesian flat projects, especially architectural work. A qualitative method and secofndary data were used and obtained from a literature review, respectively. This was to determine the breakdown structure of architecture, which was then identified by hazards and operational risks. These processes led to the acquisition of the risk control used in preparing safety program targets, regarding resource analysis. The results showed that the resources needed in this architectural program included safety signs, PPE, warehouse construction, and transportation carts, which should be completed before work inception. In this case, an individual needs to be responsible for all the operational processes, namely the Safety Inspector/Supervisory Officer. These results are expected to be used as a guideline for contractors and project owners, to prepare a safety program and monitor the implementation of CS (construction safety). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impacts of COVID-19 pandemic on construction project management are not documented and not well understood, which leaves project stakeholders with no guiding information to respond to such threats and no lessons learned to speed up the recovery of the industry in the wake of the pandemic. Although researchers have studied the impacts of pandemics in other industries in various settings, there is little-to-no research specific to the construction industry and especially in the Middle East region. To address this knowledge gap, 202 construction professionals in the Middle East region were surveyed using a questionnaire survey to provide their perceptions of COVID-19 pandemic impact on project finance, construction materials and equipment, labor, contracts, and rental properties. Statistical analysis of the collected data reveals that labor and contracts are the principal classes impacted due to the complex procedures of hiring labor from East Asia, the tightening of health and safety precautionary measures on construction sites, and the expected contract revisions to Force Majeure, Change, and Claim clauses to address pandemic issues. The respondents indicated that many tasks can be safely accomplished by remote work. They also indicated that pandemic-related slowdown can be detrimental to the construction industry; governments need to inject stimulus funding to help keep construction activity momentum; and prolonged COVID-19 pandemic impact would be harsher than oil price collapse. As such, this study contributes to the body of knowledge in construction management by studying the impacts of COVID-19 pandemic and providing construction industry stakeholders with lessons learned and recommendations to response strategies that can alleviate pandemic risks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the continuous emergence of concrete construction projects such as long-span bridges, high-rise buildings, nuclear power plants, and offshore platforms, researchers at home and abroad have made great progress in construction quality and safety measures in recent years. Construction quality is the main factor affecting the appearance and function of the building. Compared with traditional building construction materials, it has indeed made great improvements in organization and performance. For example, for nonlinear matrix ferroelectric composites, this functional material can better solve the problem of poor compatibility between general composites and concrete structural materials. It is not sensitive to humidity and can work in a concrete environment for a long time. These materials are indeed popular in building construction, various materials complement each other in performance and produce a synergistic effect so that the comprehensive performance of composite materials is better than the original composition materials and meets various high-quality requirements. But some properties are still not very clear. Therefore, this study mainly studies the influence laws of viscoelasticity, elastic viscoplasticity, and macro mechanical behavior of nonlinear matrix ferroelectric composites. Through theoretical analysis and experiments, it is concluded that the change of effective stress relaxation stiffness of nonlinear matrix ferroelectric composites tends to be stable with the increase of time, and the effective stress relaxation stiffness of composites increases with the increase of age volume fraction at t = 0 s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to study the ground disturbance and the influence relationship between the two tunnels during the construction of the new shield tunnel undercrossing the existing high-speed railway tunnel, the centrifuge test was used to simulate the construction of the parallel shield tunnel undercrossing the high-speed railway tunnel, and the variation law of the internal force, segment deformation and surface settlement of the existing high-speed railway tunnel undercrossing the shield was studied. It is found that the adverse effects caused by the later tunnel are less than those caused by the first tunnel excavation. For the existing tunnels without settlement joints, the longitudinal settlement of the inverted arch and the vault is U-shaped and anti-U-shaped respectively. The settlement value of the ground surface and the existing tunnel is increased by more than 100%. When the shield passes through the high-speed railway tunnel, the transverse bending strain is larger than the longitudinal, and special attention should be paid at the corner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The mechanical state of broken surrounding rock during the construction of ultra-shallow buried high-speed railway tunnel is very complicated, seriously affecting the construction safety. Taking Huying Xishan tunnel on Beijing-Shenyang Line as engineering background, MADIS/GTS NX numerical simulation and field test methods are used to analyze the characteristics of stress field, overall displacement, horizontal convergence of tunnel sidewalls and vault settlement during construction. The main mechanical characteristics of ultra-shallow buried high-speed railway tunnel with broken surrounding rock include: (1) After the stress redistribution, the stress concentration occurs at the boundary of the tunnel sidewall and surrounding rock, and the vertical displacement of tunnel vault and bottom appears obviously. (2) The horizontal displacement on both sides of the initial lining is obvious, while the horizontal displacement on the upper and lower support is small. The maximum lateral displacement of the initial lining is 1.71 cm, while the maximum vault settlement of the lower invert is 9.3 cm. (3) Both the horizontal convergence and the vault settlement increase with time. The growth rate is large in the early stage and tends to be stable in the later stage. (4) Compared with exponential and hyperbolic functions, the logarithmic function is most suitable for regression analysis of horizontal convergence and measured vault settlement data, and its fitting accuracy is higher than 90%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The duality of Chinese management style called guanxi might have a potential difference between Chinese and African ideologies, and may give rise to injustice in some overseas contracting projects leading to conflicts, fights and safety issues. Therefore, effective action is needed in improving Chinese contractors-local workers relationships on project sites. Hence, assessing the extent to which Chinese managers practice guanxi on African workers, and how guanxi is affecting conflict and safety standards shows the extent of hope in mitigating risks and improving management. Specifically, this case study attempted to sort out and rank all difficulties Chinese managers encounter while undertaking hydropower projects in Cameroon, to find out whether or not there is a supervisorworker guanxi relationship on dam construction sites and whether or not guanxi is implicated in Sino-Cameroonian workers conflict and safety. METHODS: SWARA method was used to analyze and rank difficulties, qualitative and quantitative assessments were undertaken for theories studies. After a workshop and semi-interview with Decision Makers a first survey was designed to gather scores of difficulties that ended to a ranking from most to least important using SWARA method. Then two questionnaires were structured and sent to local workers and Chinese project engineers, to gather all information about guanxi, conflicts and safety score. After a consistency study on 526 local workers and 40 Chinese manager's responses selected from three different hydropower projects, the overall Cronbach's alpha was 0.93 for supervisors and 0.88 for workers. FINDINGS: The results of SWARA ranking showed that the problem areas giving rise challenges to Chinese contractors are mainly related to the language barrier (W=47.7%) and interpersonal issues (w=13.35%). The findings of hypotheses testing suggest that guanxi is not applied on local workers by Chinese managers with statistics X=4.36<26 and X=2.3514 respectively, thus, hypotheses H21 and H22 were both supported; yet workers do have conflict relationship and do not feel safe working with Chinese managers stated with statistics 27.4 and 24.9 respectively. However, the application of guanxi may play an important role in positively affecting the conflicts and safety management in Chinese oversea megaprojects. Using these results, recommendations were thrown on project, conflict, and safety management. CONCLUSION: As the number of Chinese investments in infrastructures in Africa keeps increasing, the findings in this research may provide all parties with crucial information for better understanding of local workers they might hire for their numerous projects. This study has shown that Chinese managers do not practice guanxi on the local workers, yet it may help in improving safety and conflict management. Therefore, there is need for practical language and safety training leading to improve behaviors, reduce risks, and increase effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]