The process of construction is a “risky” business – WOBO was pleased to receive details of the work carried out by the Fire Safety Engineering Group, University of Greenwich, sponsored by the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (iosh) in respect of “Construction Site Evacuation Safety evacuation strategies for tall construction sites”
IOSH, the Chartered body for health and safety professionals, is committed to evidence-based practice in workplace health and safety.
We maintain a Research and Development Fund to support research and inspire innovation as part of our work as a thought-leader in health and safety.
This study reviews for the very first time the actual performance and behaviour of construction workers during emergency large-scale evacuations in high-rise building constructions. This project has quantified the response behaviour of construction workers including evacuation response times, worker walking speeds on different types of surfaces, such as concrete, decking and decking with rebar, and worker ascent and descent speeds. It has also produced suggested improvements to construction site evacuation processes to be followed by businesses and OSH practitioners. The scale and complexities of these projects and the number of workers exposed to these demanding construction environments makes evacuation and evacuation trials a challenging process.
https://iosh.com/constructionevacuation
In London alone there are an estimated 250 high-rise building projects planned over the next few years which will contribute a significant proportion of the projected £21 billion per year construction spend. A typical project, such as the £400 million ‘100 Bishopsgate’ building will have a peak workforce of some 1500 workers onsite with a total number of workers onsite through the life of the project estimated to be 12,000. Based on these figures it is estimated that the total number of workers expected to be exposed to construction sites in London during the lifetime of construction for these 250 projects can easily exceed 1 million people.
A significant risk to the health and safety (HS) of workers on construction sites is emergency evacuation associated with fire or some other on-site emergency. Evacuation during the construction phase of a building is one of the most challenging evacuation scenarios particularly given the ever changing nature of the construction site. Nevertheless, over the past 50 years around the world, very little research has focused on this topic. Clearly, during construction the evacuation plans and procedures for the completed building are not applicable. The layout of the building and even its interconnectivity may be changing on a daily basis requiring that evacuation plans are adapted and conveyed to the construction workers on a regular basis.
While construction sites may undertake regular evacuation drills as part of HS practice, these are seldom unannounced evacuation drills. Thus workers are usually aware that a drill will take place on a given day and in some cases at a given time. Thus workers can prepare for the drill and may pre-empt the evacuation. This inadvertently reduces the realism of the drill and it fails to test construction site workers’ knowledge of the evacuation process, the effectiveness of the procedures in place and the effectiveness of the training processes employed.
https://fseg.gre.ac.uk/fire/construction
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Prof Ed Galea presents results from a research project investigating how construction workers behave during #evacuation. The work was presented at the Tall Buildings Fire Safety conference on 14/10/20.
The analysis of this data has produced a unique evidence base characterising, for the first time, the actual performance and behaviour of construction workers during emergency evacuation. The evidence base consists of, response times, walking speeds on different types of surfaces and ascent and descent speeds on temporary scaffold stairs and ladders.
The project was named the ‘Best Research Project for 2019’ by the SFPE UK Chapter.