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Automation in Construction 34 (2013) 1624

Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect

Automation in Construction
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/autcon

VP-based safety management in large-scale construction projects:

A conceptual framework
H.L. Guo a,, Heng Li b, Vera Li c
a
b
c

Department of Construction Management, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China

Department of Building and Real Estate, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong
School of Accountancy and Finance, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Accepted 16 October 2012
Available online 21 December 2012
Keywords:
The construction industry
Large-scale construction projects
Safety management
Safety performance
Virtual prototyping

a b s t r a c t
Construction safety is a serious problem in the construction industry worldwide, especially in large-scale construction projects. In order to improve the safety management performance, through the identication of the key factors
that cause accidents, this research develops a conceptual framework of adopting virtual prototyping (VP) technology
to aid in construction safety management. It consists of three components: modelling and simulation, the identication of unsafe factors, and safety training. A real-life case study is presented to demonstrate how to implement
the VP-based safety management platform and evaluate its feasibility and validity. It is shown that the VP-based
safety management platform can effectively aid in safety management and improve the safety performance of construction projects.
2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
In large-scale construction projects, due to the involvement of many
workers, many large and heavy plants, a great amount of materials,
complex construction operation, multi-interface, and complex management activities, the accident rate is higher than that of common construction projects. The accidents include those that result from falling
from height, collision, collapse and electric shock, amongst which falling
from height and collisions are the most prevalent [13]. In recent years,
more and more large-scale projects are being or have been built worldwide [47], e.g. Beijing National Stadium (the Bird's Nest), Taipei 101
Tower, Hong KongZhuhaiMacao Bridge, Dubai Tower (Burj Khalifa),
etc. Therefore, it is very necessary and important to improve the safety
management in large-scale construction projects.

1.1. Identication of causes for accident

The identication of causes of accident occurrence is the prerequisite
of the improvement of safety management. The main causes have been
identied and classied into two categories, i.e. objective factors and
subjective factors. The objective factors refer to unsafe site environment,
i.e. infeasible site layout [8], multi-interface [5], large plant operation
[912], the incorrect setting of safety screen and scaffolding [13,14], infeasible construction sequences [15,16], and inadequate or lack of safety

Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 10 62796507; fax: +86 10 6277 3661.

E-mail address: hlguo@tsinghua.edu.cn (H.L. Guo).
0926-5805/$ see front matter 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2012.10.013

training [1719]; whilst the subjective factors consist of human unsafe

behaviour [11], and inadequate or lack of safety awareness [11,20,21].
1) Infeasible site layout would result in a disordered site, which not
only affects construction works, but leads to a high accident rate.
For example, unreasonable route layout affects material transportation and therefore inuences construction progress. At the same
time, this possibly leads to trafc accidents in the site. However,
the feasibility of the layout cannot effectively be analyzed using
the conventional site layout method [8] and moreover unsafe
areas identied.
2) Multi-interface, which is the characteristic of large-scale construction
projects, leads to the high accident rate in the interface. This is because
it is difcult to coordinate the works of different builders in the working interfaces by only using the traditional master programme.
3) Multi-large plant operation is difcultly controlled in coordination,
and therefore easily causes accident. For example, two close tower
cranes easily collide during their operation. The main reason for
this is that the operators cannot be effectively trained in advance
[11,22] and the operation processes cannot be rehearsed before
construction commences [11].
4) The incorrect setting of safety screen and scaffolding is an important
factor that leads to falling from height. However, it is difcult for
project managers to test the feasibility of the design and placement
of safety screen and scaffolding.
5) Infeasible construction sequences cause the incoordination or mismatch amongst different construction activities, e.g. the conict of
work space or equipment allocation [15], which could cause accidents.
However, due to the uniqueness (unrepeatability) of construction
processes of each project, it is impossible for project managers to

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H.L. Guo et al. / Automation in Construction 34 (2013) 1624

test the feasibility of construction sequences using conventional construction scheduling methods [15,23]. In addition, due to lack of effective training methods, it is difcult to make site workers know the
construction sequences well.
6) Inadequate or lack of safety training makes workers lack cognition of
safety knowledge and safety awareness, and therefore accidents
occur. But current safety training methods cannot provide an effective training for site workers [11].
7) Human unsafe behaviour (e.g. incorrect operation, free of safety
belt, etc.) often results in accident. This is due to lack of safety
training or safety awareness.
1.2. Review of solutions to improve safety management
Aiming at these above factors, a lot of research has been conducted
to improve the safety management performance. Most of the research
focusses on plant operation, safety screen and scaffolding, construction
sequences, unsafe behaviour and safety training.
1) Plant operation. In this aspect, relevant research places an emphasis
on the lift planning for crane lifts using information technologies.
For example, Varghese et al. initially developed a lift planning system for crane lifts, which is mainly based on the layers of geometry and manual operations [24]; Sivakumar et al. tried to use the
heuristic search methods to make path planning automatic on
the basis of the simplication of lift objectives, activities and
search parameters [25]; similarly, Ali et al. investigated the application of Genetic Algorithm (GA) to the automated path planning of
crane lifts [26]. These researches, in theory, investigate the lift planning methods for cranes based on the computing technology.
Although some trials are conducted, due to the lack of effective
integration of detailed information related to crane lifts, it is difcult
for plant operators to really use these methods to aid in their operations. In order to improve this, 3D modelling and simulation technologies are introduced to lift planning. For instance, Chadalavada
and Varghese proposed a parameterized 3D (three-dimensional)
modelling-lift planning system, which integrates more information
(e.g. construction sites) than before [27]. Even so, the main objective of the research is still to improve the efciency of lift planning and make lift plans more workable, relevant safety
problems are seldom taken into account. Additionally, the platforms employed by these researches have the limitations to support the identication and removal of potential safety problems.
Especially for the main factor inadequate training to operators,
it still lacks effective solutions. Thus as a trial, the simulation
technology and game technology have been used to improve
the performance of safety training of construction plants [11].
This research further investigates these issues.
2) Safety screen and scaffolding. Relevant research focusses on accident
patterns or factors for falling from height [28], and the unsafe behaviours of workers [29,30], thereby some measures for accident
prevention are provided. Although these measures are known
well, relevant accidents continue to occur on site. This is because
it lacks the effective methods to identify the problems concerned
with the setup of safety measures in advance.
3) Construction sequences. In order to improve the safety planning related to construction sequences, advanced information technologies have been employed in previous research. For example, 3D,
4D (four-dimensional), and BIM (Building Information Modelling)
technologies are adopted to aid in the structural safety analysis
and control in construction sites [3133]; 4D and GIS technologies
are used to assist in construction safety planning [34,35]. These
researches emphasize either the structural analysis or the simulation of construction scheduling, and seldom considers the analysis
of resources. Therefore, Virtual Prototyping (VP) technology has
been applied to the simulation of construction processes, in

17

which all facilities are taken into account, and by which the identication of construction safety problems are initially tried, but not
detailed [8,15]. This research continues to probe into the VP-aided
safety management during construction.
4) Unsafe behaviour and safety training. In order to reduce the unsafe
behaviours of on-site workers, relevant research [29,30,36], on
the one hand, classies the unsafe behaviours of workers, identies
the main factors resulting in such behaviours, and then presents
relevant safety measures. On the other hand, concerned research
proposes effective safety training methods to improve the safety
awareness of workers. Advanced information technologies are
often advocated to provide support for safety training, such as
the computer-based safety training methods [37,38], and a Webbased safety and health monitoring system [39]. These improve
the measures of traditional training, but still lack intuition. It has
been proposed to adopt VP technology [15] and game technology
[11] to aid in safety training. Based this, this research further studies
the extent, to which VP technology can be used to support the safety
training.
In summary, to some extent, previous research improves the safety
management of construction projects. However, these only cover some
of the above factors that cause accidents and lack a systematic and effective solution. Otherwise, these have their limitations to support safety
management. As a result, unsafe factors cannot be efciently predicted
and construction accidents not yet effectively prevented.
The aim of this research is to develop a conceptual framework of
employing VP technology to aid in the safety management of construction projects. The above-mentioned unsafe factors are fully taken into
consideration. The research methods adopted in this research are rst
discussed. The conceptual framework of VP-based Safety Management
(VP-SM), then, is presented and its functions described. In the end, a
case study is presented to demonstrate how to use the VP-SM platform
in large-scale construction projects and furthermore to analyze its
validity.
2. Research methods
2.1. Literature review
Literature review was adopted in this research to identify the main
causes for accidents occurring in large-scale construction projects, and
then to review previous research related to how to solve current safety
problems in the construction industry. This provides an important support for the further study of improving the safety management of construction projects.
2.2. VP technology
VP technology is the critical tool to develop the VP-based safety
management platform. VP is a computer-aided design and manufacturing process concerned with the construction of digital product models
(virtual prototypes) and realistic graphical simulations that address
the broad issues of physical layout, operational concept, functional
specications, and dynamic analysis under various operating environments [40,41]. VP is not only extensively used in the manufacturing
industry [42], but has been applied in the construction industry,
e.g. design analysis [43,44], site planning [8,44], construction project
management in general [45,46], construction process simulation and
optimization [8,15], etc. The VP technology extends current technologies, for example 4D, which just represents construction progress, by
providing the capacity to simulate not only the three physical dimensions and time, but other important dimensions of a construction project such as resources. Therefore, VP technology can provide a virtual
experimentation platform for the identication of safety problems of
construction processes.

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2.3. Case study

It is important and necessary to demonstrate the feasibility and
validity of VP-based safety management conceptual framework proposed
by this research. The most effective measure is to test the implementation
of the new conceptual framework in a real-world environment. This also
provides a convenient vehicle for explaining how the system works.
Therefore, a real-life case (i.e. TKO sports ground) was adopted in the
research.

plants (e.g. tower cranes), and workers. Then these 3D models are
combined into a virtual construction site. Based on the virtual site,
the construction processes are visually simulated through integrating
the 3D models with construction schedule. Fig. 3 shows the process of
creating such a simulation. Following the time line, the building element
models are loaded and operated (or located) one by one by using relevant
resource models in the virtual environment. This is totally the same as the
real process. Thereby, the vivid construction animations can be achieved.
3.2. Identication of unsafe factors

2.4. Interview
In order to further evaluate the performance of using VP technology
to aid in safety management of construction projects, it is necessary to
collect the data or responses from relevant projects. Interview is an
appropriate and effective method for this. In this research, the project
manager, the safety manager and the general foreman involved in the
case project were selected for the interview.
3. Conceptual framework of VP-SM
The conceptual framework of VP-SM platform is generally divided
into three components: VP-based modelling and simulation, VP-based
identication of unsafe factors, and VP-based safety training (see Fig. 1).
Visual modelling and simulation are the prerequisites of the implementation of VP-based safety management. It provides visual models
and construction processes in the virtual environment. It has been proved
that VP technology can be used to build the 3D models of buildings and
simulate the construction processes [8,16]. Based on the 3D models and
process simulation, relevant potential unsafe factors are easily identied
by the project manager. In the end, aiming at the unsafe factors, a series
of safety trainings can be provided for site workers before construction
commences so as to prevent accident from occurring.
3.1. Modelling and simulation
The 2D drawings, rst, are transferred to the 3D models using VP
technology. Fig. 2 briey shows the process of constructing these 3D
models. The drawings consist of those of buildings (i.e. architectural,
structural, and building services (BS)), site layout, temporary facilities
(e.g. site ofces, temporary supports), construction equipment and

The identication of unsafe factors in the VP-SM platform mainly

focusses on the above-mentioned factors that cause accidents, i.e. site
layout, multi-interface, safety screen and scaffolding, plant operation, and
construction operation. The identication processes are based on project
(or safety) managers' experience or automatically conducted by the platform, which integrates the safety rules. The platform provides a virtual
trial site for project managers or safety managers. By walking through
the virtual site and inspecting the simulation processes, the managers
can identify the potential hazard factors by themselves. Meanwhile,
some unsafe factors can be automatically detected and displayed in the
virtual environment based on the safety rules integrated. Note that the
safety training is discussed in the next section.
3.2.1. Site layout and multi-interface
The virtual construction site provides the accurate location and spatial information of site layout (e.g. route layout), buildings, temporary
facilities, and construction equipment and plants, and demonstrates
the vivid construction processes. Based on this, the project manager
can efciently identify the potential safety problems resulting from the
site layout, e.g. the unfeasible route layout, the layout of plant location,
in advance. Fig. 4 shows that the unsafe spaces related to tower cranes
can be easily and automatically identied by using their projection or
proles. This can be used to further analyze if these hazard spaces
have unavoidable inuences on other construction activities so as to adjust the original site layout. As a result, the feasibility of the site layout
can be tested ahead, unsafe spaces clearly displayed, and the site layout
improved.
At the same time, the layout of working interfaces can be analyzed
and relevant safety problems identied, i.e. the conict of working
space. For example, the working area of the construction plant is across

2D
drawings

3D
models

Process
simulation

VP-based
modeling and
simulation

Construction
schedule

Site layout and

multi-interfaces:
identification of
unsafe spaces

Safety screen
and scaffolding:
identification of
unsafe spaces

Plant operation:
identification of
unsafe
operations

Construction:
identification of
unsafe
operations

VP-based hazard
identification

Site layout
safety training

Safety screen
and scaffolding
safety training

Construction
plant operation
safety training

Construction
operation safety
training

VP-based
safety training

Fig. 1. The conceptual framework of the VP-SM platform.

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Architectural
drawings

Modelers
VP

3D architectural
models

Structural
drawings

Modelers
VP

3D structural
models

BS drawings

Modelers
VP

3D BS models

19

Modelers
3D main
model
(Virtual site)
Modelers

Other
drawings

Modelers
VP

3D architectural
models

Unsafe spaces

Fig. 2. The process of from 2D drawings (reality) to virtual 3D models.

Fig. 4. Identication of unsafe spaces between two tower cranes.

a working interface, and the relevant unsafe space and construction sequences can be identied (see Fig. 5). The identication of such problems
helps all builders to coordinate their construction programme before real
construction commences and therefore avoid the possible collisions in
the unsafe space during real construction.
3.2.2. Safety screen and scaffolding
The 3D models of buildings, resources and temporary facilities are
combined, and special attention is given to safety screen and scaffolding.
During the combination of the 3D models of the safety screen and scaffolding, some of relevant problems, e.g. the incorrect design (see Fig. 6),
can be easily found by the modellers. On the other hand, relevant safety
rules are integrated into the virtual construction site. Through the implementation of the safety rules, the inappropriate design can be detected
automatically. For example, if some openings in a oor lack safety screen,
the warning messages will be prompted. In addition, workers' models
(digital workers) are used to implement walking rehearsal on the scaffolding or a oor in the virtual construction site. Due to the free walking,
the digital workers can get everywhere. When a digital worker gets to a
location, where the safety screen or scaffolding is incorrectly set up or
missing, a warning message automatically prompts; sometimes, it falls
from the scaffolding or the oor. This is very useful for testing the feasibility of the design and placement of safety screen and scaffolding in
large-scale construction projects, and therewith, it can be improved in
advance.
3.2.3. Plant operation and construction operation
Construction process simulation involves construction plant operation
and construction sequences. During the simulation of plant operation,
e.g. erecting, lifting, conveying, and dismantling, the whole processes
of operating plants are vividly demonstrated, and therefore relevant
safety problems (e.g. collisions, incorrect operation) easily identied
by project managers or foremen. Sometimes, the identication can be
automatically processed. For instance, once two or more plants collide,

a warning message box would pop-up promptly (see Fig. 7). Thereby,
the safety problems related to plant operation can be efciently improved or avoided.
The simulation of construction sequences clearly displays each
construction activities, and thus project managers or foremen can
easily nd the potential safety problems, which are closely related to
the construction sequences. For example, after a large-span beam is
installed, some necessary temporary supports are not offered. Therefore, such kind of problems can be found in advance and avoided during
construction.
3.3. Safety training
Based on the identication of unsafe factors and the improvement
of design and operation, relevant training materials are prepared and
offered to site workers. Due to the visual and vivid training materials,
the workers can easily understand and pay attention to these unsafe
factors during real construction, and also practice and master complex plant operations and construction sequences in the virtual environment. Moreover, the visual materials can instruct the workers to
implement real construction processes. Therefore, the workers' safety
awareness and safety behaviours can be improved effectively and efciently, and the safety performance also improved.
It can be seen that the conceptual framework of the VP-SM platform
covers all the above-mentioned factors that cause accidents. In theory, it
could aid in identifying and preventing these unsafe factors and therefore improving safety performance.

3D models of
building elements

Construction
schedule

Working
interface

Construction
simulation

3D models of
resources
Fig. 3. The process of creating construction process simulation.

Unsafe space
Fig. 5. Identication of unsafe space across a working interface.

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H.L. Guo et al. / Automation in Construction 34 (2013) 1624

technology were adopted, the modelling efciency was improved and

this also made it easy to modify the 3D models.

Incorrect design

4.1.2. Simulation of installation of roof trusses

The process of installing roof trusses was simulated by integrating
these 3D models with construction scheduling using VP technology.
Due to the large-span roof trusses, some of them had to be cut into several
parts, which were installed one by one. Fig. 9 shows that a part of the roof
truss is being installed in the virtual environment. Likewise, all activities
were vividly simulated in advance and this seems like a real construction.

4.2. Identication of safety problems

Scaffolding
Safety screen

Fig. 6. Identication of problems related to safety screen.

4. Case study
Hong Kong TKO Sports Ground, which adopted VP technology, is
used to demonstrate how to implement the VP-based safety management platform and furthermore evaluate its performance. The focus of
this case study is only on the installation of roof trusses in the spectator
stand of the sports ground.

4.1. Modelling and simulation of the spectator stand

4.1.1. 3D modelling
The 3D models involve the spectator stand, tower cranes, mobile
cranes, the site, scaffolding, and temporary supports which provide
basic support for roof trusses (see Fig. 8). These 3D models were built
based on relevant 2D drawings using VP technology, that is, modellers
transferred the 2D drawings into the 3D models. Therewith, the virtual
construction site was constructed by combining these 3D models and
all facilities clearly displayed in this virtual site. Note that since VP technology is not yet widely applied in the construction industry, modelling
needs to be implemented by professional modellers; in addition, due to
the fact that the parameterized modelling techniques provided by VP

Collision!

Fig. 7. Collision between a tower crane and a mobile crane.

Aiming at the installation of roof trusses, the relevant safety problems were identied in advance, including those related to plant operations, and those concerned with installation sequences, based on the
simulation of installation processes.

4.2.1. Safety problems related to plant operations

Plant operation during installing roof trusses involved two tower
cranes and one mobile crane. The mobile crane was used to lift the
roof trusses, whilst the tower cranes were adopted to lift the steel
members, the temporary supports, and the mobile working platform.
1) Since the designed height of the roof is up to 30 m, when some
parts of roof trusses were installed in the virtual environment, it
was found that the jib of the mobile crane collided with the working platform under the roof trusses. Fig. 10 shows a collision between the jib and the working platform during installation.
2) When the mobile crane was operated near the two tower cranes,
some collisions between the mobile crane and the tower cranes
also took place. Fig. 11 shows one of the collisions.
3) When the working platform was not enough to support the works,
for example welding the joints of two parts of a roof truss, a mobile
working platform was used. This platform was lifted and held at a certain height point to support the work by a tower crane (see Fig. 12). It
was found that it was highly dangerous to collaborate between the
mobile crane and the tower crane. The collisions between the mobile
platform and roof trusses often happened (see Fig. 12).
Thus such kinds of safety problems (or unsafe factors) were identied in advance and relevant safety measures made, e.g. the adjustment of plant operations, safety training, etc., to prevent accidents.

4.2.2. Safety problems concerned with installation sequences

The safety problems identied were mainly caused by the installation
of steel members, some of which were temporary supports. In order to
ensure the structural stability of the roof truss system, over 600 steel
members were installed. The installation sequence of the steel members
directly inuences the stability of the roof truss system. Based on the
installation process simulation, it was found that the installation sequences of over 15 steel members were inappropriate. Potential collisions amongst these steel members were also identied. Then these
sequences were adjusted until the appropriate sequences were found
and therefore safety problems solved.
Additionally, the installation of the steel members had an important
inuence on welders' safety. These steel members were lifted to the design location by the tower cranes and then xed and welded by the
welders. Due to the complex design of the roof truss system, it was
very dangerous of the welders to install so many steel members in
such small working spaces. Based on the simulation, relevant hazard
areas or operations were identied, then improved and used to aid in
safety training.

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H.L. Guo et al. / Automation in Construction 34 (2013) 1624

Roof trusses
Working platform
Mobile crane

Fig. 8. The 3D models related to the spectator stand.

Working platform
Roof trusses

Fig. 9. Simulation of the installation of roof trusses.

Fig. 10. Collision between the mobile crane and the working platform.

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H.L. Guo et al. / Automation in Construction 34 (2013) 1624

Fig. 11. Collision between the mobile crane and the tower crane.

4.3. Safety training

For these potential safety problems identied, relevant training
materials had been provided for the site workers by using the visual
simulation before real construction commenced.
1) The visual plant operation materials were offered to the operators
every day. They could easily understand these potential safety problems, and practise their skills in operating construction plants in the
virtual environment. Thus the safety problems were avoided during
real construction.
2) Similar to plant operation, the visual training materials related to the
installation sequence were also prepared and provided for the site
workers. These materials vividly demonstrated the whole installation
process step by step. Therefore, the workers had a good understanding of the potential safety problems and the appropriate installation
sequences. At the same time, these materials had been used to instruct the workers' operations (see Fig. 13). As a result, the safety
problems were reduced to the utmost extent during real installation.
4.4. Evaluation of safety performance
In order to evaluate the performance of the VP-SM conceptual framework in this project, an interview with the project manager, the safety

manager and the foreman was conducted. According to their responses,

through the application of VP technology in the safety management of
TKO Sports Ground, the safety management performance was remarkably improved and summarized as follows.
1) No fatal or serious accidents occurred in this project.
2) Safety management cost was reduced by approximately 30%. Especially, two posts for assistant safety manager were reduced to one,
since potential safety problems were identied and prevented in
advance.
5. Conclusions
This research identies the key factors causing construction accidents, i.e. site layout, multi-interface, safety screen and scaffolding, multiplant operation, construction operation, and lack of safety training, and
thereby proposes a conceptual framework of employing VP technology
to aid in construction safety management. It covers all these factors
and consists of three components: 1) modelling and simulation, 2) identication of unsafe factors, and 3) safety training. The main feature of the
VP-SM conceptual framework is to provide a visual trial platform for project managers, safety managers, and site workers.
A real-life case study is presented to demonstrate the procedure of
implementation of the VP-based safety management platform and

Fig. 12. Collision between the mobile platform and the roof truss.

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H.L. Guo et al. / Automation in Construction 34 (2013) 1624

a) Lift and install the first part of roof truss

b) Install the second part of roof truss

c) Install the first steel member

d) Install the sub-frame

23

Fig. 13. The 3D instruction of roof truss installation.

evaluate its feasibility and validity. It is shown that VP technology has

the potential to aid in safety management and improve the safety
performance of construction projects.
This research, on the other hand, generally presents the conceptual
framework of the VP-SM platform. In order to efciently and effectively
implement this framework, the functions of this platform need to be
further developed and VP technology extended to each unsafe factors
in more detail in the future study.
Acknowledgement
We would like to thank the National Natural Science Foundation of
China (Grant No. 51208282) for supporting this research. We also give
the thanks to China State Construction (Hong Kong) for providing the
real-life case for this research.
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