By Jack Rubinger, freelance writer
Looking at 2022, we are seeing several trends impacting the construction industry as COVID continues to have a massive impact on safety, training, and innovation.
“Like almost every company in every sector over the past two years, we’ve pivoted, expanded and quickly adapted with an ever-present sense of immediacy,” said Tim Johnson, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Skanska USA Building, Oregon and Southwest Washington.
COVID has walloped the construction industry in terms of decreased availability and increased costs of building materials due to supply chain issues.
Industry Training and Investment
The good news, according to Jim Barnes, CEO, Global OSHA:
- Employment in construction is up about 2% and wages are up about 4% from this time last year.
- Recent figures show that construction fatalities are down approx. 11% from previous year.
Construction still leads all industry sectors in the number and rate of fatal work injuries, but COVID has resulted in more construction safety training being conducted online and via webinar, and the acknowledgement of its effectiveness.
Joe Mullens, Safety Northwest LLC. Safety and Health Consultant, said that he’s finding that a lot of small to medium sized contractors are scrambling to get in compliance with all of the OSHA rules. “There was and still is a fear that the OSHA inspector will visit soon using COVID and social distancing rules as an excuse. I guess some businesses just needed a nudge like this to get into compliance,” he said.
According to research from the Clearinghouse for Labor Evaluation and Research, there is some evidence that OSHA inspections reduce injury rates, on average.
Health Concerns
On the COVID front, the construction industry is still lagging in terms of responsiveness and self-care, according to Barnes.
- Construction workers have one of the lowest rates of workers willing to get vaccinated.
- Survey results show that 46% of unvaccinated construction workers plan to stay that way.
The Center for Construction Research and Training (CPWR) reported that suicide rates in the industry were about three times the national average. Construction workers die by opioid overdose at a rate seven times greater than workers in other professions. These issues have become front and center in the past two years.
“Initiatives to support employee health and wellness have expanded, particularly among large contractors, and I expect they will become more mainstream and effective going forward,” said Chris Trahan Cain, CIH, Executive Director, CPWR.
CPWR researchers are also contributing to the broader effort to examine hazards that have received only limited attention. One team is developing and sharing knowledge about nanomaterials: investigating exposures, controls, and effective safety training. Another group is looking at the health effects of reactive chemical systems, such as those used for spray polyurethane foam systems and metal coating systems.
Training
There has been a trend toward construction workers pursuing certifications such as the Construction Health and Safety Technician (CHST) offered through the Board of Certified Safety Professionals (BCSP) and the new Construction Hazard Awareness Certification, a VR-based assessment offered through the National Safety Council.
Sydne Jacques, PE, CSP, Jacques & Associates believes that
one positive result of COVID is that it seems to have disrupted the general public’s view that to be successful every student must go to college.
“As a result of the COVID reset, people are more open-minded to jobs in the trades and the multitude of options available at the local technical colleges,” said Jacques.
“We need to change the perception that construction isn’t just a flagger stopping traffic,” she said. “It is intelligent men and women utilizing high levels of technology to build roads, bridges, buildings and water systems. Over eighty percent of construction companies are looking to hire new employees. Technology is a vital key to creating interest with the younger generations.”
Future Trends
In occupational safety and health, there’s a continued commitment to addressing persistent hazards – often through new methods – and responses to new concerns. For example, CPWR is supporting a research project with exoskeletons to see if they can reduce one of the biggest problems in construction, musculoskeletal disorders, while also investigating potential unintended hazards by their use, such as interfering with normal motions while climbing ladders.
Technology
Jeff Stachowiak, President at Stach Safety Consulting Services, LLC, says that we’re going to be seeing more electric construction equipment, including backhoes, lifts, and more. Advantages of electric heavy machinery include lower carbon emissions, less noise pollution, and lower project costs.
Based on CPWR’s research with Dodge Data and Analytics, the top technologies that contractors believe will improve worker safety and health are wearable sensors, virtual reality (VR) for training, predictive analytics, remotely controlled equipment, and visual monitoring with AI.
Larger companies (those with 100 or more workers) are more likely to deploy these technologies than smaller ones. The industry needs to consider how to close this gap and help small to midsize contractors increase their use.
Skanska is currently developing an autonomous site housekeeping analysis to monitor the health and safety of a jobsite on a weekly basis. This new process will use a machine learning model to identify opportunities to increase site efficiency and maintain a safe workplace. This application may also help identify additional automation opportunities to increase worker safety and efficiency onsite.
Conclusion
Big changes are happening in safety, technology, training and health in 2022. The big question remains: Who can predict the long-term impact of the pandemic?
