Design for Construction Safety

Construction workers are exposed to many safety and health hazards on construction sites. In many instances, the hazards are present as a result of the design of the facility and may create hazards during construction as well as during future operations, maintenance, and recommissioning/decommissioning.

By addressing safety in the facility's front end planning and design phases, hazards can be eliminated or reduced during construction, thereby improving construction site safety and health performance. Designing out the hazard is the first choice, although in some cases, the complexity of design and construction can make it difficult to eliminate safety hazards through the design.

This course explains the design for safety motivations, barriers, and enablers; design for Safety concept as it applies to construction; how to address safety in the design; resources and tools available to design for safety.