An Investigation of Safety Practices in the Saudi Arabia Construction Research Paper - 1

An Investigation of Safety Practices in the Saudi Arabia Construction Industry - Research Paper Example accidents 17 2.6.2 Continuous safety practices by top management 19 2.6.3 Continuous safety practices by safety professionals 20 2.7 Measurement of safety performance 20 3. Project Plan, Methods and Techniques 24 3.1 Project Plan 24 3.2. Methods and Techniques 24 3.2.1. Sampling 24 3.2.2. Data Collection 25 3.2.3. Data Analysis 25 3.3. Skills and Experience 26 3.4. Time Scale 26 List of References 27 1. Introduction 1.1 Background Saudi Arabia has experienced rapid growth over the last few decades. In 2011, the GDP growth rate was 3.8% (TradingEconomics, 2011). This is roughly an average for the 21st century with lows having occurred during 2002-2003 and 2010 and highs during the mid 2000s. Exports at present are over 200,000 million SAR and over 90% of these are oil exports, which account for 75% of government revenue. The rapid growth is therefore mainly due to increases in the kingdom’s oil revenues. ... The construction industry engages in designing, constructing and maintaining unique buildings. In Saudi Arabia, its growth in recent years has been remarkable, especially due to increased foreign investment from international companies seeking to expand their businesses. According to Saudi Arabia’s Infrastructure Report for the second quarter of 2011, Saudi’s construction industry is set to grow by 4% in 2011, and it will continue to grow at this rate for the next four years (Roberts, 2011). In particular, during the period 2011 to 2015, Saudi Arabia’s residential building construction is set to grow at a rate of 7.2% (Saudi Entrepreneurship, 2011). The Saudi construction sector is the largest and fastest growing in the Gulf region. The government is completing the establishment of six economic cities; it has invested almost SR513.8 billion during the period October 2008 to April 2009, and it is expected to spend around SR1.5 trillion over the next half decade (U S-SA Business Council, 2010). However, the construction industry is also one of the most highly hazardous industries. Its unique nature, difficult work-site conditions, human behaviour, and poor safety management are the main causes of accidents (Koehn and Chih-Shing 1995, 261). Unfortunately, despite the construction evolution in Saudi Arabia, the work methods, equipment and procedures are still unsafe. As an example, in a recent incident in Riyadh in January 2011, it was reported that three workers were killed and eleven were left injured when scaffolding collapsed (Abbas, 2011). Several other highly publicised accidents at construction sites have also taken place in Saudi Arabia in recent years. Regulations do exist but many