ecchelmet BIM presents a fresh look at Safety
Not only is the construction industry highly prone to risk, but due to the need to multitask to meet extremely demanding delivery schedules, construction activities are exposed to multiple risks at the same time. Often, it is humanly impossible to identify and manage all these risks that lead to injuries, unfortunate safety incidents, and loss of time and productivity. With 3D visualizations of the entire construction plan, BIM (Building Information Modelling) is the ideal platform to plan project logistics, ensure compliance with safety standards and company policies, improve site communications, and dramatically reduce the likelihood of onsite injuries or accidents. “BIM helps site leadership and managers take a fresh look at safety at site; in essence, it helps simplify the construction process, for prevention is always better than cure,” elaborates Ms Haima Haldar, Head — Digital Engineering, L&T Construction, who is driving BIM strategy across the organization.
BIM helps site leadership and managers take a fresh look at safety at site; in essence, it helps simplify the construction process, for prevention is always better than cure.
Ms Haima Haldar
Head – Digital Engineering, L&T Construction
BIM for Safety in action
Risk has many faces
A construction site is filled with risks and hazards, each with the potential to have serious health and safety consequences like fire, unsafe working at heights, unguarded machinery, unsafe lifting operations, unsafe access or egress, open shafts, unprotected edges, getting struck by a foreign body, falling objects, unsafe scaffolds, cantilever loading and working platforms, overloaded vehicles and forklifts, unstable mobile cranes, unstable or unsafe structural members, unsafe electrical equipment and connections, unsafe excavations — the list is almost endless.
BIM is the answer to cover them all. BIM is all about information or data that is identified, used, and shared through the BIM platform and model to all project stakeholders. BIM for Safety is no different. PAS 1192- 6:2018 specifies collaborative sharing and use of structured health & safety information using BIM throughout the lifecycle of a project or asset, aiming to:
- Provide a safer & healthier environment for the end-users
- Mitigate inherent hazards and risks
- Improve health & safety performance, resulting in fewer incidents and associated impact
- Reduce construction & operational costs
The risk information cycle involves identifying the risks involved, which are then used in different ways, shared with all stakeholders, and finally generalized as good practices.
Advanced safety modelling features can alert building architects and designers of potential safety issues that may arise during construction through digital constructability reviews. For example, a BIM model can help to visualise and detect if material is stacked too close to fire hydrants or structures. If the site is close to a street or on an occupied lot, the BIM model can be used to visualise potential threats to pedestrians in adjacent public areas.
Risk information cycle
Combating the Fatal Four
Falls, electrocution, being struck by objects and getting caught in or between hazards are dubbed the ‘Fatal Four’ that are responsible for most safety incidents at sites. BIM plays a critical role in reducing incidence of injuries from falls that are most common due to a variety of reasons enumerated earlier. BIM for Safety can flag off such hazards as early as in the “Identify” stage of the risk information life cycle and initiate action in the “Use” stage to avoid risk, such as installing temporary handrails at the edge of slabs, around staircases, openings in slabs, and such like which are added to the model in the “Share” stage and then institutionalized as best practices. The safety tracker in the BIM model — in this case, the fall protection tracker — lists critical information for the Safety Manager, like the number of floors and floor levels, number of lift shafts available, number of lift shaft openings available, number of lift shaft openings fixed with temporary gates as per SOP, percentage of compliance and more.
While BIM has seen widespread adoption in the design process across the organization, the real advantage lies in adopting it at the execution stage and that is where we need to see more and immediate traction.
Ms Haima Haldar
Head – Digital Engineering, L&T Construction
Traditional workflow
BIM360 workflow
L&T embraces BIM for Safety
“While BIM has seen widespread adoption in the design process across the organization, the real advantage lies in adopting it at the execution stage,” Haima points out, “and that is where we need to see more and immediate traction.” B&F IC has implemented BIM in many projects for 3D visualizations, logistics planning, site progress, and design coordination, while introducing BIM for Safety at the Apollo OMR project in the form of daily progress & safe to start reports, hot work permits, SOPs, checklists, and the like. For Kishor Kumar Dasam, Sr. Manager BIM — B&F IC, and Mure Jayadeep Reddy, Digital Officer — B&F, life is easier as “BIM streamlines the communication process between the various project teams and eliminates duplicity of information.”
Disaster Risk Management in action
Tackling high risk at the High Speed Rail project
BIM for Safety and Disaster Risk Management are being implemented at the Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail (MAHSR) project’s C‑4 package, driven by Digital Officer S Mohanbabu. “After defining the objectives and goal of the project, we have prepared detailed workflows that are now being implemented,” he informs.
The EHS risk / impact register / assessment maintained by the EHS team is being saved and made available through the Common Data Environment to the team as per their roles and responsibilities. Safety information is available in both graphical and non-graphical forms (information parameters).
BIM for Safety – planning, training, and control
The shape of BIM to come
New cloud-based features and internet connectivity are likely to be the key for the future of BIM platforms. With cloud connectivity, it will be possible for devices to feed real-time information from the site to a BIM platform to enable supervisors and workmen to monitor job progress, share information, and coordinate effectively, regardless of location, with real-time updates and data sharing. “While client mandates are increasing the usage of BIM for Safety, it is when project teams demand BIM adoption that we can say that we have arrived,” says Haima. Like the C‑4 package of the MAHSR project, which has adopted BIM for Safety, the BIM team looks forward to more such projects following suit.