Measuring the impacts of human and organizational factors on human errors in the Dutch construction industry using structured expert judgement

This study focuses on measuring the influence of critical Human and Organizational Factors (HOFs) on human error occurrence in structural design and construction tasks within the context of the Dutch construction industry. The primary research question addressed in this paper concerns the extent of HOFs’ contribution to human error occurrence...

Assessment of consequence class two (CC2) buildings: Exploration to an effective and efficient assessment method for existing consequence class two buildings

Numerous structural failure incidents have occurred in the past years. It was found that current methods, such as NEN 2767, fall short in guaranteeing the structural safety of existing buildings. Although structural failure incidents infrequently result in casualties, there are also social and economic consequences that impact both building user...

Multi-risk assessment for bridges: The application of the Italian Guidelines

Bridges are essential elements in the built environment since they underpin the functioning of transportation systems. Nevertheless, they are vulnerable due to aggressive environment, demand beyond the design level, and other contingencies such as extreme events. The management of bridges represents a significant challenge for improving...

Approach to assessment of existing structures in the fib Model Code 2020

Existing structures often no longer meet the demands formulated in contemporary design codes with respect to structural safety and serviceability. This occurs, for instance, if the loads on existing structures, like traffic loads on bridges, are larger than assumed in the original design. A second potential reason is that structures are...

Assessment of existing structures in fib modelcode 2020: Solutions and examples

For the assessment of concrete structures in the new fib Model Code 2020 (fib MC 2020), three categories are distinguished: (1) the residual capacity of existing structures without damage, (2) the residual capacity of structures suffering deterioration, and (3) the residual capacity of structures with noncompliant details. In the accompanying...

Human and organizational factors influencing structural safety: A review

A broad review of the existing literature concerning Human and Organizational Factors (HOFs) and human errors influencing structural safety is presented in this study. Publications on this research topic were collected from the Scopus database. Two research focal points of this topic, namely modelling and evaluating the human error effects on...

Reuse of concrete structural elements in practice: Design of a tool which stimulates structural engineers to reuse concrete structural elements by giving insight in structural safety, environmental impact, and economic impact

Due to global warming, in the construction sector there is aimed for a transition towards the circular economy. The past years, many utility buildings were demolished, consisting of a concrete structure. This results in concrete rubble which is often down- or recycled. For new construction projects, new concrete elements will be produced....

Measures for structural safety - Modelling the human error influence on temporary falsework during the design and construction

Within the Netherlands, the building industry is startled every couple of years by an impactful structure collapse. Even though over the years, a large amount of structural failure investigation reports and studies have provided abundant lessons, regulations, and good practices, structural failures still occur occasionally. The question arises...

Identifying Structural Hazards in Building Construction Projects: A research into structural failure databases and risk assessments

Building failure incidents are occurring within the Netherlands and these incidents can be a valuable source of technical data regarding improvements in structural safety. This research has attempted to utilize this information gained to develop a tool to aid the building construction sector in identifying hazards during building construction...

Study for a Quantitative Risk Assessment on Accidental Actions

Lately structural safety is an often discussed subject in The Netherlands. Recent collapses have made people question if our buildings are actually safe enough. Research shows that the individual probability of death due to structural failure is below the limit of 10-5 per year. However, it is unknown if every single building is safe enough as...

Towards Cost Benefit Analysis of Measures to Improve Structural Safety

Building construction is a complex industry. A wide range of requirement should be achieved within the limited resources by a multidisciplinary team. Hence, errors are likely to occur, and the accumulation of individual mistakes might lead to building failure.<br/>Even though construction is tightly regulated, failure of the modern date...

Stochastic renewal process models for estimation of damage cost over the life-cycle of a structure

In the life-cycle cost analysis of a structure, the total cost of damage caused by external hazards like earthquakes, wind storms and flood is an important but highly uncertain component. In the literature, the expected damage cost is typically analyzed under the assumption of either the homogeneous Poisson process or the renewal process in...

Numerical and experimental assessment of the load bearing capacity of an existing prefabricated culvert from 1971

The main question of this thesis is the result of a survey by ‘provincie Zuid-Holland’ (PZH), that has developed a ‘uniform model’ for the assessment of the structural safety of existing prefabricated culverts. PZH is considering the possibility of using generic parameters to decide on the strength of existing culverts in the area. The province...

Structural safety during construction

Structural safety during construction is a main concern for the building industry. Collapses of temporary structures or incomplete permanent structures are a threat for the safety of persons. Based on data from Dutch Labour Inspectorate this study concluded that approximately 20% of the fatalities during construction are related to structural...

Quick assessment tool for assurance of structural safety in the building process

From forensic investigation it is known that many structural failures can be attributed to human errors and organizational factors. To provide project leaders with information on the current state of factors in the building process influencing structural safety, we developed a quick assessment tool. Logistic regression was used, based on data of...

Structural safety: Study into critical factors in the design and construction process

Failure investigations show that 80-85% of the structural failures are caused by inadequacies in the design and construction process, related to human and organizational factors. This study showed that safety culture, allocation of responsibilities control, communication and collaboration and knowledge infrastructure need improvement in the...

Learning from safety in other industries

The Dutch building industry has been shocked by some major structural accidents during the last 10 years with buildings during construction as well as with delivered buildings. Several initiatives were started to improve the safety. In other industries the safety awareness seemed to be more developed. In this article the Dutch building sector is...