Safety in Construction program presented

It must be out with accidents, collapses and unsafe construction work, believe (also) Koninklijke Bouwend Nederland, Client Forum in Construction, Governance Code Safety in Construction, VNconstructeurs and Koninklijke NLingenieurs. That is why the five organizations have set up the joint program Safety in Construction. The program was presented on Wednesday, Jan. 25, at the TU Delft Campus, in the presence of some 140 designers, contractors and other representatives of the construction industry.

Safety in Construction should provide for the structural and integral improvement of safety in all phases of construction projects, from programming and design through execution, completion, management and maintenance to eventual demolition and reuse. The focus is not only on the safety of the structure itself, but also on that of the immediate surroundings.

Concrete improvement actions have been developed for three themes: Directing Safety, Ensuring Constructive Safety and Strengthening Learning Capacity. The five initiators obtained advice and suggestions from representatives of the various disciplines involved in the Dutch construction industry. This gives the program the desired broad support among all relevant sections within the sector. It also stimulates individual companies and organizations to take responsibility and action themselves for safety in the construction industry.

To properly coordinate the various activities and actually implement improvements integrally, however, central direction is necessary. For example, the improvement of structural safety and its assurance should rest with a coordinating structural engineer. This "new style" structural engineer ensures that the building as a whole meets the requirements of structural safety, both during construction and in the use phase.

The coordinating structural engineer becomes responsible for the cohesion between design and detailing of main load-bearing structures, structural parts such as façade and roof structures and auxiliary structures deployed during execution. From his or her central reviewing role, the coordinating structural engineer is responsible for the structural intermediate and final results and the person who is first called to account for structural safety. In addition, the coordinating structural engineer is authorized to select or possibly replace sub-assemblers. In order to do so, the coordinating structural engineer must have a great deal of expertise and capabilities, even outside his or her own field. Whether and to what extent this is the case is tested by means of codes of conduct and the requirements that apply to participants in the Constructeursregister (Registered Designer and Registered Structural Engineer) or the Charted Engineer register (KIVI). Of course, all disciplines within a construction project remain responsible for the quality of their own work. The owner of the structure, often also the permit holder, remains publicly responsible for the safety of the structure.

In any case, the aspirations and intended approach of Safety in Construction received a warm welcome from the more than 140 attendees at the public launch on the TU Delft campus. Among others, the Knowledge Portal Constructive Safety and the Register of Constructors confirmed their support on the spot with their signatures on the Manifesto Structurally Safer. Through this declaration, the participants share their collective principles, responsibilities and tasks for safety in the national construction sector.

In addition to being an exemplary initiative in its own right, the Safety in Construction program primarily serves as a response to the critical observations and urgent recommendations of the Dutch Safety Board following investigations into several construction-related incidents, including the collapse of a parking garage in Eindhoven (2018) and the collapse of a grandstand roof of the AZ Stadium in Alkmaar (2021).

For more information on the Construction Safety Program, see www.veiligheidindebouw.nu/programma.