Centers for Construction Safety and Health

Center For Construction Res And Training, Silver Spring MD

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

Despite the facts that Designing for Construction Safety (DfCS) was recently identified as one of the top ten research priorities at the NIOSH NORA Construction Sector Council meeting and the DfCS workgroup within the OSHA Construction Alliance Roundtable identified the owners and developers as the group that may play the biggest role in facilitating the diffusion of DfCS, there has been no research on the owners' role in DfCS. The aims of this research are to increase our understanding of owners' attitudes regarding DfCS and to create documents that will facilitate owners' use of DfCS on their projects. Specific objectives relating to owners' attitudes include: 1) To identify the approximate percentage of owners who are already aware of the design for construction safety concept. 2) To identify now promising owners who are or become aware of the DfCS concept feel DfCS is as an intervention for improving safety on their projects. That is, to identify the percentage of owners who perceive the DfCS concept to be an important process for reducing construction injuries and improving the health of construction workers. 3) To identify the extent to which owners feel they can insist that the architect/engineers (AEs) they contract with for design services perform DfCS on their projects. 4) To identify the perceived and actual barriers that might prevent owners from implementing DfCS on their projects. 5) To identify the range of premiums, either in designer fees or construction cost, that owners will accept for implementing DfCS. 6) To identify how owners' opinions and acceptance of DfCS vary with organizational characteristics. These objectives will be achieved through three sets of empirical research: pilot interviews of approximately a dozen owner firms, an email or telephone survey of 120 firms who are members of one or more of six identified national groups of owners and developers, and real-time case studies of 3-4 owners going through design and construction processes that offer opportunities for implementing DfCS. The findings from this empirical research will be used to create the documents needed to facilitate the adoption of DfCS by owners: a How to Guide for owners for implementing DfCS on their projects that will be made available on a webpage and include model Request for Proposal text and model contract text, a white paper and journal articles targeted at owners that will present the business case for DfCS.