The relationship between integrated design and construction and safety on construction projects

Andrew Atkinson and Rebecca Westall

Construction Management and Economics, 2010, vol. 28, issue 9, 1007-1017

Abstract: The occurrence of accidents and injuries continues to be a major problem in construction worldwide. Even though accident statistics have been improving in most markets there are significant areas requiring further attention. The extent of integrated working between designers and constructors may be an instrumental factor. A comparison is undertaken of the accident performance of 55 large construction projects in the UK, with varying levels of design/construction integration as represented by procurement path. Although a statistical relationship between high levels of integration and low levels of accidents was weak, a follow-up interview study provided strong support, suggesting that a lack of significance was related to the unreliability of the statistics available. The interview study also indicated reasons for this link. A key element in improved safety was seen to be better communications and a more positive relationship between designers and constructors. Further research into designing for safety for all procurement paths is recommended.

Keywords: Safety; accidents; integrated working; architectural design (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01446193.2010.504214 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:conmgt:v:28:y:2010:i:9:p:1007-1017

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/RCME20

DOI: 10.1080/01446193.2010.504214

Access Statistics for this article

Construction Management and Economics is currently edited by Will Hughes

More articles in Construction Management and Economics from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().