COVID-19 infection risk management during construction activities: An approach based on Fault Tree Analysis (FTA)

Tarik Bakeli; Adil Alaoui Hafidi, PhD

doi:10.5055/jem.0539

Authors

Tarik Bakeli https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6892-116X
Adil Alaoui Hafidi, PhD

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5055/jem.0539

Keywords:

construction, COVID-19, health and safety, risk, Fault Tree Analysis

Abstract

The coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic is the worst health crisis of our time and the greatest challenge we are facing since World War II. It has caused a negative impact on engineering and construction industry, and huge uncertainty about the ability to anticipate a planned recovery for the industry. Waiting for an effective recovery that may take a long time, science has to provide solutions to coexist with this virus and resume the work on construction sites. In fact, it is not the first time that health and safety science deals with such a risk of infection, as many guidelines treat the manner to reduce the risk of infection to at-risk employees in construction, renovation, installation, and maintenance activities. This article aims to perform an infection risk analysis, taking into consideration COVID- 19 particularities, and to identify control measures to ensure COVID-19 infection prevention and management on site. The study will be based on a probabilistic approach using the Fault Tree Analysis method.

Author Biographies

Tarik Bakeli

PhD Student, Mechanics and Civil Engineering’s Laboratory, Faculty of Sciences and Techniques, Abdelmalek Essaadi University, Tangier, Morocco

Adil Alaoui Hafidi, PhD

Mechanics and Civil Engineering’s Laboratory, Faculty of Sciences and Techniques, Abdelmalek Essaadi University, Tangier, Morocco

References

Spinney L: When will a coronavirus vaccine be ready? The Guardian. 2020. Available at https://www.theguardian.com/ world/2020/apr/06/when-will-coronavirus-vaccine-be-ready. Accessed April 15, 2020.

Canadien Construction Association: COVID-19—standardized protocols for all Canadian construction sites. 2020. Available at www.cca-acc.com>wp-content>uploads>2020/04. Accessed April 15, 2020.

OSHA: Guidance on preparing workplaces for COVID-19. 2020. Available at https://www.osha.gov/Publications/OSHA3990.pdf. Accessed April 15, 2020.

Safe Work Australia: Building and construction: Minimising the risk from COVID-19|Safe Work Australia. 2020. Available at https://www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/covid-19-information-work places/industry-information/building-and-construction-minimising-risk. Accessed April 23, 2020.

Ministry of Labour, Ontario: Construction site health and safety during COVID-19|Ontario.ca. 2020. Available at https:// www.ontario.ca/page/construction-site-health-and-safety-during-covid-19. Accessed April 23, 2020.

Tuite AR, Fisman DN: Reporting, epidemic growth, and reproduction numbers for the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) epidemic. Ann Intern Med. 2020; 172(8): 567-568. DOI: 10.7326/M20-0358.

Hallowell MR, Gambatese JA: Construction safety risk mitiga-tion. J Constr Eng Manag. 2009; 135(12): 1316-1323. DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)CO.1943-7862.0000107.

Sousa V, Almeida NM, Dias LA: Risk-based management of occupational safety and health in the construction industry—Part 1: Background knowledge. Saf Sci. 2014; 66: 75-86. DOI: 10.1016/j. ssci.2014.02.008.

Sousa V, Almeida NM, Dias LA: Risk-based management of occupational safety and health in the construction industry—Part 2: Quantitative model. Saf Sci. 2015; 74: 184-194. DOI: 10.1016/j. ssci.2015.01.003.

Bakeli T, Alaoui Hafidi A: Occupational health and safety in the Moroccan construction sites: Preliminary diagnosis. Int J Metrol Qual Eng. 2018; 9: 6. DOI: 10.1051/ijmqe/2018005.

ISO. International Standard: Occupational health and safety management systems. 2018.

Haslam RA, Hide SA, Gibb AGF, et al.: Contributing factors in construction accidents. Appl Ergon. 2005; 36(4): 401-415. DOI: 10.1016/j.apergo.2004.12.002.

Wilson J, Koehn E: Safety management: Problems encountered and recommended solutions. J Constr Eng Manag. 2000; 126(1): 77-79. 14. Tatum CB, Korman T: Coordinating building systems: Process and knowledge. J Archit Manag. 2000; 6(4): 116-121.

Alashwal A, Fong P: Empirical study to determine fragmenta-tion of construction projects. J Constr Eng Manag. 2015; 141(7): 04015016. DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)CO.1943-7862.0000986.

Gambatese JA: Design for Construction Safety: Moving Safety Decisions Upstream. Corporate Partner’s Program. Corvallis, OR: Oregon State University, 2006.

Saunders LW, Kleiner BM, McCoy AP, et al.: Developing an inter-organizational safety climate instrument for the construction industry. Saf Sci. 2017; 98: 17-24. DOI: 10.1016/j.ssci.2017.04.003.

Love PED, Holt GD, Shen LY, et al.: Using systems dynamics to better understand change and rework in construction project management systems. Int J Proj Manag. 2002; 20(6): 425-436. DOI: 10.1016/S0263-7863(01)00039-4.

Humphrey SE, Moon H, Conlon DE, et al.: Decision-making and behavior fluidity: How focus on completion and emphasis on safety changes over the course of projects. Organ Behav Hum Decis Process. 2004; 93(1): 14-27. DOI: 10.1016/j.obhdp.2003.08.003.

Jensen JM, Conlon DE, Humphrey SE, et al.: The consequences of completion: How level of completion influences information concealment by decision makers. J Appl Soc Psychol. 2011; 41(2): 401-428. DOI: 10.1111/j.1559-1816.2010.00719.x.

Huang Y-H, Leamon TB, Courtney TK, et al.: Corporate financial decision-makers’ perceptions of workplace safety. Accid Anal Prev. 2007; 39(4): 767-775. DOI: 10.1016/j.aap.2006.11.007.

Hinze JW: Construction Safety. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1997. 23. Hinze J, Wilson G: Moving toward a zero injury objective. J Constr Eng Manag. 2000; 126(5): 399-403. 24. Carter G, Smith Simon D: Safety hazard identification on construction projects. J Constr Eng Manag. 2006; 132(2): 197-205. DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9364(2006)132:2(197).

Yi K, Langford D: Scheduling-based risk estimation and safety planning for construction projects. J Constr Eng Manag. 2006; 132(6): 626-635.

Schwatka NV, Hecker S, Goldenhar LM: Defining and measuring safety climate: A review of the construction industry literature. Ann Occup Hyg. 2016; 60(5): 537-550. DOI: 10.1093/annhyg/mew020.

Andersen LP, Nordam L, Joensson T, et al.: Social identity, safety climate and self-reported accidents among construction workers. Constr Manag Econ. 2018; 36(1): 22-31. DOI: 10.1080/01446193.2017.1339360.

Misiurek K, Misiurek B: Methodology of improving occupational safety in the construction industry on the basis of the TWI pro-gram. Saf Sci. 2017; 92: 225-231. DOI: 10.1016/j.ssci.2016.10.017.

Keegan A, Hartog DD: Doing it for themselves? Performance appraisal in project-based organisations, the role of employees, and challenges to theory. Hum Resour Manag J. 2019; 29(2): 217-237. DOI: 10.1111/1748-8583.12216.

Nielsen KJ: Improving safety culture through the health and safety organization: A case study. J Safety Res. 2014; 48: 7-17. DOI: 10.1016/j.jsr.2013.10.003.

Newaz MT, Davis P, Jefferies M, et al.: The psychological con-tract: A missing link between safety climate and safety behaviour on construction sites. Saf Sci. 2019; 112: 9-17. DOI: 10.1016/j. ssci.2018.10.002.

Perlman A, Sacks R, Barak R: Hazard recognition and risk perception in construction. Saf Sci. 2014; 64: 22-31. DOI: 10.1016/j. ssci.2013.11.019.

HSE: Understanding human failure. Leadership and worker involvement toolkit. 2012. Available at www.hse.gov.uk/construction/lwit/. Accessed April 15, 2020.

Epidemiology Working Group for NCIP Epidemic Response, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention: The epidemiological characteristics of an outbreak of 2019 novel coronavirus diseases (COVID-19) in China. Zhonghua Liu Xing Bing Xue Za Zhi 2020; 41(2): 145-151. DOI: 10.3760/CMA.j.issn.0254-6450.2020.02.003.

Rothan HA, Byrareddy SN: The epidemiology and pathogenesis of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak. J Autoimmun. 2020; 109: 102433. DOI: 10.1016/j.jaut.2020.102433.

Wu Z, McGoogan JM: Characteristics of and important lessons from the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak in China: Summary of a report of 72 314 cases from the Chinese center for disease control and prevention. JAMA. 2020; 323(13): 1239. DOI: 10.1001/JAMA.2020.2648.

Tang B, Bragazzi NL, Li Q, et al.: An updated estimation of the risk of transmission of the novel coronavirus (2019-nCov). Infect Dis Model. 2020; 5: 248-255. DOI: 10.1016/j.idm.2020.02.001.

Razzini K, Castrica M, Menchetti L, et al.: SARS-CoV-2 RNA detection in the air and on surfaces in the COVID-19 ward of a hospital in Milan, Italy. Sci Total Environ. 2020; 742: 140540. DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.140540.

Baccarini D: The concept of project complexity—A review. Int J Proj Manag. 1996; 14(4): 201-204. DOI: 10.1016/0263-7863(95) 00093-3.

Vidal L-A, Marle F: Understanding project complexity: Implications on project management. Kybernetes. 2008; 37(8): 1094- 1110. DOI: 10.1108/03684920810884928.

Qureshi SM, Kang C: Analysing the organizational factors of project complexity using structural equation modelling. Int J Proj Manag. 2015; 33(1): 165-176. DOI: 10.1016/j.ijproman.2014.04.006.

Bakhshi J, Ireland V, Gorod A: Clarifying the project complexity construct: Past, present and future. Int J Proj Manag. 2016; 34(7): 1199-1213. DOI: 10.1016/j.ijproman.2016.06.002.

Lee WS, Grosh DL, Tillman FA, et al.: Fault tree analysis, methods, and applications 2013: A review. IEEE Trans Reliab. 1985; R-34(3): 194-203. DOI: 10.1109/TR.1985.5222114.

Berk J: Systems Failure Analysis. Cleveland, OH: ASM International, 2009.

Tanaka H, Fan LT, Lai FS, et al.: Fault-tree analysis by fuzzy probability. IEEE Trans Reliab. 1983; R-32(5): 453-457. DOI: 10.1109/TR.1983.5221727.

Clement E, Rauzy AB: ARBRE ANALYSTE: A Fault Tree assessment software fully compliant with OPEN-PSA and using XFTA Fault Tree engine. 2014. Available at https://www.arbre-ana-lyste.fr/documents/lm19_com_7D-5_080_E_Clement.pdf. Accessed May 10, 2020.

PSA: Open-PSA model exchange format. Available at https://open-psa.github.io/mef/_downloads/opsa_mef.pdf. Accessed May 10, 2020.

Bakeli T, Alaoui Hafidi A: A Fault Tree Analysis (FTA) based approach for construction projects safety risk management. Proceedings C 5th NA Detroit 2020. IEOM; 2020. Available at http://ieomsociety.org/detroit2020/proceedings/. Accessed February 20, 2021.

Karimi R: Qualitative and Quantitative Reliability Analysis of Safety Systems. Cambridge, MA: MIT Energy Laboratory, 1980. Available at https://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/35139. Accessed April 20, 2020.

Witteman C, Renooij S: Evaluation of a verbal–numerical probability scale. Int J Approx Reason. 2003; 33(2): 117-131. DOI: 10.1016/S0888-613X(02)00151-2.

ODNI: Intelligence Community Directives-203. Available at https://www.dni.gov/index.php/what-we-do/ic-related-menus/ic-related-links/intelligence-community-directives. Accessed May 10, 2020.

Lewis D: Is the coronavirus airborne? Experts can’t agree. Nature. 2020; 580(7802): 175. DOI: 10.1038/d41586-020-00974-w.

Afkhamiaghda M, Elwakil E: Preliminary modeling of coronavirus (COVID-19) spread in construction industry. J Emerg Manag. 2020; 18(7): 9-17. DOI: 10.5055/jem.2020.0481.

Gamio L: The workers who face the greatest coronavirus risk. The New York Times. 2020. Available at https://www.nytimes.com/ interactive/2020/03/15/business/economy/coronavirus-worker-risk. html. Accessed December 6, 2020.

Wang B, Liu Y, Qian J, et al.: Achieving effective remote working during the COVID-19 pandemic: A work design perspective. Appl Psychol. 2020. DOI: 10.1111/apps.12290.