Sathyanarayanan Rajendran, and John A. Gambatese (2009) in their research on the “Development and Initial Validation of Sustainable construction Safety and Health Rating System,” seek to validate the sustainable construction safety and health (SCSH) rating system. The main focus of the authors was to establish a rating system on the degree of implementation of safety and health elements in construction. The main target audiences are the health professional from various sectors of the construction industry, the contractor, and construction regulation agencies. The authors used the Delphi research methodology to develop the SCSH. A Delphi survey was used in the research with different aspects being considered using professionals from various sectors in the construction sector.
The results showed that the most important aspect in construction safety include a clear project safety authority, accountability, and responsibility. The others are empowerment of employee to stop work, and the selection of contractors with consideration of safety. In addition, the contractors ought not to play the sole role on safety, but all stakeholders in construction ought to be involved. The authors assert that for sustainable safety, the safety of the projects must be considered at the planning and designing stages of a project. In General, the SCSH rating systems gives an accurate representation of safety performance. However, the results may have some personal biases since the opinions of the healthy professionals play a critical in in the Delphi survey.
The main questions include whether the safety of the projects can be determined by the contractors alone. In addition, the role of the safety professionals in the life cycle of the building is also questions. Recommendations are made on the aspects that must be included in the determination of the safety of projects. In particular, I have learned that the involvement of safety and health professionals is important to maintain safety of the projects. Lastly, the safety of the project ought to be considered right from planning and designing stage.
References
Rajendran, S., & Gambatese, J. A. (2009). Development and Initial Validation of Sustainable Construction Safety and Health Rating System. Journal Of Construction Engineering & Management, Retrieved from http://eds.a.ebscohost.com/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=d6300fd6-a884-4411-8710- 928bd5a436f8%40sessionmgr4004&vid=2&hid=4108 135(10), 1067-1075. doi:10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9364(2009)135:10(1067)
