Managing Health & Safety On Site Is Made Easier With BIM

Communicating ‘health and safety’ issues to design and construction personnel can be difficult at times – especially if they have to imagine a hazard which only exists during the construction process.

Building Information Modelling /Management (BIM) can help clarify these issues by utilising a mix of the virtual world and the real world.Here are four areas where current digital technology and BIM can be applied at a practical level to health and safety in construction projects:

Designing With Health And Safety In Mind

Clearance zones which may be required around equipment for maintenance purposes or health and safety reasons can be included within the BIM model using standardised library objects.This can increase the designer’s awareness of these zones when space planning a plant room for example. The clearances are also visible for future ‘consumers’ of the model, such as site personnel.

Health And Safety Planning

Most tender drawings show the final ‘as built’ situation, and it can be difficult to fully visualise a building project partially complete -yet many health and safety issues only arise during construction,such as temporary guarding at the edge of a floor prior to the construction of the perimeter walls.Model ‘consumer’ software can simulate the construction sequence in advance, especially if the designer has constructed building elements in the model as they would be constructed on site.Viewing these construction sequences can make life easier for the person preparing the Construction Phase Health and Safety Plan. A hazardous item can easily be selected within the model and highlighted with colour before saving the relevant view and incorporating it into a document or sharing it in the‘Common Data Environment’. Videos of hazardous items can also be exported from animations created in the model,and incorporating real time footage mixed with virtual animation can help greatly when trying to communicate health and safety issues.Method Statements, Approved Codes of Practice or useful health and safety training information can also be linked to the model, which can be accessed using tablets prior to site personnel beginning the task.

Site Management

Site management plans can be created as a 3D model incorporating elements such as the site office,welfare facilities, waste storage, and security fences. Site access and egress can also be considered in three dimensions using a ‘Google Earth’ aerial view to set the model in context. Main buildings can be modelled quickly to sit on the aerial perspective and identify traffic flows.Standard library parts can show delivery vehicles and cranes in the model, helping to simulate the site environment for the delivery drivers prior to arriving on site. Escape routes can be identified clearly on BIM models and adjusted as work progresses on site to show changes to route layouts. Crossover points between traffic and pedestrian flows can also be identified to highlight key areas for safety management.Underground service cables can be identified above ground in the model to increase awareness during excavations and general site works.

Recording Accidents
And Near Misses

Circumstances surrounding accidents or near misses can be recorded in three dimensions by linking photographs to a model.Videos could also be linked, which means the model can show a record of the construction on site at the time of the event, putting the photographs and videos in context.

The Southern Regional College will be running a one day ‘hands on’ training course in May showing
how BIM relates to Health and Safety. Anyone interested in attending this course should contact
Peter Monaghan by telephoning 028 302 59664 or e-mailing monaghanp@src.ac.uk