Barrier Management in Construction Projects

The construction industry is one of the most accident-prone industries in Norway, both in terms of occupational injuries and fatalities. As all accidents can be explained as the transfer of energy to a victim, accident prevention must focus on controlling the energy that can cause harm. There are several factors that influence the extent of an injury: the amount of energy, the way the energy is transferred, and the robustness of the victim. Barrier management involves systematically and continuously ensuring that necessary barriers are identified and implemented to prevent unwanted incidents with high damage potential. Hence, we argue that barrier management must be risk-based to identify prioritized high-energy events. This paper presents a guide and a tool for barrier management in construction projects, supporting construction clients, designers and contractors in identifying, evaluating and following-up barriers in a structured manner. The work has been carried out in close collaboration with industry stakeholders.

Keywords: Barrier management, barrier analysis, barrier follow-up, barrier function, human barrier element, technical barrier element, organizational barrier element, construction industry.