Safety concerns in the construction industry have once again hit the headlines, with the latest Health and Safety Executive (HSE) statistics showing that industry fatalities rose by an enormous 55% in the past year.
The statistics continue the trend observed in 2021/22, with falls from height recorded as the biggest cause of death.
While the construction sector has to adhere to both a legal framework, in terms of health and safety, and the Building Regulations, it is accepted that the risks associated with onsite construction work are not always effectively mitigated.
Modern methods of construction, such as modular building, offer a solution to this critical health and safety situation. The greater control modular provides over the health and safety of workers and the supply chain contributes to its low accident frequency rate (AFR) per 100,000 hours, which is far less than the typical 1.3 rate of the wider construction industry.
With safety risks in construction once more under the spotlight, modular's embrace of the health and safety of workers is the way forward.
Controlled conditions
Manufacturing a building's components offsite in a quality-controlled factory environment makes for a far safer construction process compared to traditional practices. This is because the amount of time spent onsite is reduced, which naturally limits exposure to potential risks such as inclement weather, mobile plant activity, working at height or depth and more.
The lower risk profile of a factory build supports this because compliance with health and safety regulations is easier to achieve. In factory surroundings, health, safety and environmental management are more controlled, through the adoption and application of management systems, embedded organisational management, training, and development structures. This efficiency contributes to the fast installation of modular builds which occur in a matter of days or weeks: significantly lower than the months or even years it can take to complete a project using traditional construction methods.
Modular building methods are also designed to maximise the safety of the building itself. Using precision manufacturing to create components minimises the risk of human error and provides a meticulous finish, at speed, for a tightly sealed building envelope. This is particularly important for specialised buildings, such as hospitals and schools, where patient and student safety and the delivery of complex care or specific educational services are the highest priorities.
Traditional construction sites do not just pose risk to the people that work on them; they also often have a detrimental impact on local communities and the environment too. Excavations, obstructed access, hazardous waste and moving vehicles can all combine to put members of the public at risk of harm, particularly when construction works are conducted on a densely populated live site such as a university campus.
The offsite construction, and relatively rapid installation of modular buildings, significantly decreases the exposure the public has with construction activities, prioritising their safety as much as the contractors' whilst also minimising the impact to the wider environment.
Dodging dust and mitigating height risks
Another benefit of manufacturing buildings in a factory is the increased control over dust. In this environment, it is far easier to implement the use of on-tool extraction and ensure that work areas, such as cutting stations, are connected to local exhaust ventilation. This is a huge benefit because it can mitigate the onset of severe respiratory issues among workers. Inside the factory of modular construction specialist, Premier Modular, industrial squeegees and a wet and dry ride-on vacuum with a dampening facility are used to reduce the distribution of dust further.
The modular construction sector has equally adopted a safer approach to managing the risks of working at height. Aircraft ladders and specifically designed 'rigs' are widely used to provide a secure, stable platform for personnel working several metres up within the factory.
For additional safety, Premier Modular procures, as standard, mobile elevating work platforms (MEWP) with secondary guarding devices that can be fitted to the platforms. This is in addition to the primary guarding systems and is intended to further reduce the risk of entrapment and provide an alert when an entrapment situation has occurred. Harness systems are also being trialed for use onsite to ensure that operatives can only operate the mobile platform when their harness is anchored to the designated point within that platform. Devices like secondary guarding have been around for over a decade but are still infrequently used by traditional builders.
Whilst the risks of live construction sites may seem almost impossible to overcome, the growing adoption of modular construction methods and the improved use of materials indicates toward a safer future for construction workers.
Long burdened by health and safety issues, the industry is finally undergoing rapid change thanks to the accuracy, speed and efficiency of modern methods. By adopting modular construction, and other forms of offsite construction, it is possible not only to reduce the risk of death or serious injury to site workers, but also minimise the impact that the work will have on a site's inhabitants and local communities.
To find out more about modular solutions, visit the Premier Modular website
Image: David Harris is the CEO of Premier Modular
Source: Health, safety and construction: how modular is reducing risk in the industry | New Civil Engineer
