Barriers to achieving satisfactory dropped objects safety performance in the UK construction sector

In 1980 a deadly explosion occurred at a nuclear missile base precipitated by a dropped object. The potential for major catastrophe, an industry call to action and a research gap forms the rationale for this research into dropped objects. The aim of the research was to devise guidance to assist United Kingdom (UK) based construction sector companies to reduce the frequency of dropped object incidents. A mixed research approach that includes literature review, semi-structured interviews and case studies were used to achieve the purpose of this research. The trend data revealed that dropped object incident rates have remained flat in recent years. The quantitative incident reports and qualitative feedback from interviews concluded that design is a contributory factor in a significant number of incidents and possibly in many cases but more research with a larger quantitative research sample is required. The interviews and literature review revealed several useful recommendations to sector bodies, construction sector companies and for further academic research. Recommendations to Individual Construction Sector Companies are grouped into different themes including manage, eliminate and control. The main recommendations to regulators included ensuring that tool tethering and containers are marked and inspected in line with other lifting equipment. Industry bodies could consider liaising with the energy industry to develop a suitable general construction exclusion zone calculator. Initiatives to improve the design of Mast Climbing Work Platforms to provide integral storage and enclosure solutions could be initiated with the vendors of this equipment. Practitioners and companies could consider offsite construction as a strategic means to reduce the number of dropped objects and consider work scopes that could be executed at ground level rather than at height. Consideration could be given to the more commonly deployed off-site fabrication options such as façade panels and bathroom pods. During detailed design, companies could have a high focus on the mechanism of reducing fixings in facades using Building Information Modelling. There are a number of areas which can be investigated further such as the implications of offsite construction on dropped objects accidents when compared with traditional methods. The research findings hint that Business Information Modelling might be a useful tool to reduce dropped objects on construction sites especially related to facades. While there were several limitations of the research including a limited amount of quantitative data and availability of the specific interview group, the findings of the research will still be useful for the construction sector in the UK and overseas to improve safety performance in construction.