Safety Management in the Jordanian Construction Industry

The Jordanian society and economy have suffered human and financial losses as a result of the poor safety record in the construction industry. The purpose of this study is to examine safety management in the Jordanian construction industry. The study collects data from 70 general contractors, who are involved in all types of construction. Collected data include information regarding organizational safety policy, safety training, safety meetings, safety equipment, safety inspections, safety incentives and penalties, workers’ attitude towards safety, labor turnover rates and compliance with safety legislation. The study reveals several factors of poor safety management. Among these are lack of safety training, occasional safety meetings, occasional safety inspections, unavailability of safety protection measures, hesitance of workers to use safety equipment, high labor turnover rates and non-compliance with safety legislation. The paper concludes by providing a set of recommendations to contractors and governmental bodies to improve safety performance

Framework for Managing the Traffic Impacts of Building Construction Projects

Major building construction projects are important to the economic development of urban areas. However, such projects have negative impacts on their surroundings, particularly on traffic. This paper presents a framework for mitigating the traffic impacts of building construction projects in urban areas. The proposed framework consists of two stages: identification of the logistical construction requirements and development of an impact mitigation plan to control the negative effects of construction traffic on the road network and the surrounding community. The adopted methodology includes (1) a review of the available construction traffic management plans for twenty large building projects worldwide, (2) site visits to seven large building construction projects in urban areas and (3) multidisciplinary focus group sessions to extract knowledge and synthesise the proposed framework for managing the traffic impacts of building construction projects. The suggested framework provides systematic guidance for construction planners and site managers in developing a traffic management and impact mitigation plan for building construction projects. This framework could also help construction planners and site managers to better plan and manage construction activities to minimise the impact on the surrounding roads and minimise unnecessary delays by organising timely movement of resources to and from the construction site

Performance trends in the construction industry worldwide:an overview of the turn of the century

This paper presents an exploratory study to assess the efficiency level of construction companies worldwide, exploring in particular the effect of location and activity in the efficiency levels. This paper also provides insights concerning the convergence in efficiency across regions. The companies are divided in three regions (Europe, Asia and North America), and in the three main construction activities (Buildings, Heavy Civil and Specialty Trade). We analyze a sample of 118 companies worldwide between 1995 and 2003. Data envelopment analysis is used to estimate efficiency, and the Malmquist index is applied for the evaluation of productivity change. Both methods were complemented by bootstrapping to refine the estimates obtained. A panel data truncated regression with categorical regressors is used to explore the impact of location and activity in the efficiency levels. The results reveal that the efficiency of North American companies is higher than the European and Asian counterparts. Other important conclusion points to a convergence in efficiency levels across regions as in North America productivity remains stable, whereas in Asia and Europe productivity improves