Safety has been defined as freedom from unacceptable risks, personal harms or the elimination of the danger where the danger represent the balance between the chance for an accident and the consequences of it.
Concepts of Safety Engineering includes providing intrinsically develop safe equipment, systems, processes and facilities for Engineers and other staff.
At the commencement of the bridge construction projects safety engineers should evaluate and analysis of the safety design of bridge construction and safe equipment. Safety design will ensure safe design for people and safe operational concepts. It will lead in to ability to handle industrial and nonindustrial hazards and reduction of the adverse effects. Fail safe process equipment, fault tolerant equipment, fire safety features and enclosed hazardous systems that prevent both workers and environment are included in Safety Engineering. It also the main fact for eliminating hazards as well as that would controlled by either administrative controls or use of personal protective equipment as a barrier between a hazard and a worker. Machine guards, selection of less hazardous equipment, development of maintenance schedules to ensure equipment safety, audit and frequent inspection procedures, selection of safer tools, safety review of new equipment, employee maintenance training, safe design of the flow of material and people through a facility and risk analysis for man- made and natural incidents are well known Engineering safe guards. Safety engineers recognise that accidents are dynamic events involving a combination of causative factors. Safe engineering also include environmental aspects of the workplace such as lighting, noise levels atmospheric contaminants, ambient and localised temperature extremes, slip resistance of flooring materials, emergency escape routes and fire suppression.
127 our experts are availableright now
Principles of safety engineering includes identification contain a potential to cause injury to people or damage the property. Identification of hazards in man- machine system, this may be regarding people and machines, equipment, products or a facilities.
There is a concept called system life cycle. This means when we consider industry, every system, that may be a product, machine or facility has a life cycle. This system life cycle consists of different stages. First stage is concept or definition , second stage is system design and development of the industry, third stage is production of the industry, fourth stage is system distribution, fifth stage is system operation and final stage is system termination, recycle or disposal stage. Safety engineers should have been considered the condition of the systems in all those stages and has to be found out exsisting errors in the system. Effective Safety engineering should be encountered to prevent or control an accident which may results personal injury or system damage.
Hazard identification is the most important point in the safe engineering in bridge construction project. Well – known hazard of bridges are natural hazards or incorrect construction procedures or design procedures of bridge will cause damage to the bridge. When consider common natural hazards are flood , strome or excessive wind and earthquakes. Other hazards are due to man- made inappropriate decesoins or actions , errors of machinery system may leads to collapse or fracture of the bridge, personal injury as well as machine or equipment damage .Bridge construction industry need special expertise to design and continuous detailed analysis of construction procedures continuously.
Risk management in safety engineering in bridge construction is fundamental and essential. When we consider bridge management , hazards may occur to workers who engaged in bridge construction or hazards in bridge construction procedures which will result failure of bridge construction. Then safety engineers should manage both aspects accordingly. Regarding hazards of human, Importance and the aim of the risk management is prevention of accidents for the working staff and environment by identifying causative factors and make arrangements to prevent the possibility of occurring those hazards at the commencement the bridge construction project will ensure the wellbeing of the workers and the working environment. When we consider bridge management one of the commonest hazard to workers is fall from a height while working. In risk management of accidental fall from the height safety engineers design barriers to prevent fall from the height, for example make elevated platforms, make fabricated platforms, using fixed ladders or man cages and wearing safety belts while working for workers.
Regarding the risk management to prevent hazards in bridge construction , safety engineers have an important role in designing suitable type and the strength of the bridge for that particular place to over come natural hazards as well as damage to the bridge, as an example, fracture or collapse of the bridge due to inappropriate actions of man- machine system. Therefore risk assessment should be carried out before the commencement of the bridge construction to choose necessary type of the bridge by safety engineers. Fracture or collapse of a bridge will occur due to natural hazards like earthquake, excessive wind and flood or due to accidental impact of vehicles may results due to lack of strength of concrete mixtures , inadequate welding procedures in steel bridges or weak foundations. Then safety engineers can abolish this type of hazards by proper analysis and risk assessment at the design level and regular supervisions at construction sites and need early interventions. After the bridge construction is completed safety engineers displace weight limits to prevent the damage to the bridge due the over load.
Therefore risk management of construction bridges very important procedures and also it should be carried out well experienced safety engineers.
In bridge construction appropriate solutions to manage hazards are giving awareness to all working staff regarding the construction procedures and how to identify a relevant adverse reactions in different stages of the bridge construction as early as possible and safety engineers will make intervention and can correct or minimise the adverse reactions. Due to safety management increase the knowledge of personal and environmental injuries among bridge construction workers, would may occur while working in bridge construction like fall from the height and instruct them to wearing a protective belt or using a platform to prevent a hazard like death or disability of the workers , identify a fault of machinery system and importance of giving that information to relevant officers in construction procedure and using a correct concrete mixtures and other materials , prevent construction failure and keep the optimum quality of the constrction.
References
- OSHA – Official website of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, providing information on safety standards and regulations.
- American Society of Safety Engineers – Professional association for safety engineers, offering resources and networking opportunities.
- National Fire Protection Association – Organization focused on fire safety, providing codes and standards for safe design and operation of buildings.
- American Industrial Hygiene Association – Professional association for industrial hygiene and safety professionals, offering resources and education.
- NIOSH – National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, providing research and recommendations on workplace safety.
- OSHA News – Publication by the American Society of Safety Engineers, featuring updates on OSHA regulations and compliance.
