BIM’s role in improving the management and delivery of occupational safety and health and saving lives in construction

Abstract

Despite improvements and modernizations in construction processes, accidents are still persistent and have considerable financial and logistical impacts on projects. The UK HSE recently revealed that there were 145 work-related deaths in 2022/23 with the highest number of 45 occurring in construction. Research has shown that the lack of digital OHS information is a significant factor contributing to the poor performance of OHS management in construction. BIM applied to OSH management has not yet yielded the same benefits as other BIM applications, such as in architectural or structural design, or project management. However, scientific literature indicates that BIM has the potential to optimize OSH management and that the construction industry, especially major projects and larger general contractors, are starting to adopt these kinds of technologies for use in OSH management. BIM has a great potential for the planning of OSH and its use at the early stages of the project has been linked to an improvement in safety conditions. Standardization of BIM for OSH is rapidly progressing. Digital4OSH is preparing a novel solution in the form of a BIM4OSH Observatory designed to enable the observation and monitoring of implementation, trends and dynamics of BIM implementation for OSH and to enable the exchange of lessons learned about BIM for OSH. The adoption of BIM paves the way for a paradigm shift in OSH management, providing stronger links between production and safety. Therefore, any initiative that improves the take up of BIM for OSH in order to reduce accidents and deaths will be very important and considered welcomed by the wider construction community.