Evaluation of Occupational Safety Risk Factors in Building Construction Projects

Abstract

The inability of construction operatives' to recognize and respond to hazards in rapidly changing and unpredictable environments hath led to the occurrence of high injury rates on construction site. The aim of the study is to evaluate the risk level of safety rsk factors in building construction activities. Purposive sampling technique was used to distribute the questionnaire to construction professionals in Abuja. Risk prioritization number was used to analyze the risk level of hazard in building work items, result revealed that installation of electrical work, roof work, and installation of lift had the highest risk level with average risk scores of 11.48,11.01,and 10.74 respectively. Evaluation of safety risk factors was conducted for the top three riskiest work items, result revealed that fall from high level, electrocution/contact with electricity and collapse of building structure were the most common accident type with average risk score of 11.23, 10.23and 8.46respectively. It was concluded that different work operations have different magnitude of hazards and the levels of risk associated with them. It was recommended that different approaches should be applied in controlling health and safety risks across building work items and accident prevention measure should be provided for worker in order to control the tolerable risk on site. The study will serve as a guide for experts who want to carry out risk assessment on their site and will help construction practitioners in identifying the hazards in a specific construction work item on site.