Improve construction sites, save lives

New method developed at Concordia University keeps workers safe  and production on schedule

Montreal, July 4, 2013 – What’s summer vacation without traffic snarled to a standstill with blinding orange signs festooning roadsides as crews update crumbling infrastructure?. It’s a necessary evil but new research may soon lead to “smarter” and safer construction sites for both passers-by and the workers therein.

According to Amin Hammad, professor with the Concordia Institute for Information Systems Engineering (CIISE), construction sites can be made not only more efficient and productive, but also safer.

“We can improve the productivity and safety of heavy construction projects by integrating near real-time simulation and accurate tracking technologies into the management and operations of heavy construction sites,” says Hammad.

Hammad recently teamed up with graduate students in the Department of Building, Civil and Environmental Engineering and the CIISE to re-examine the concept of the “Smart Construction Site.” That’s a site where workers, equipment and materials are continuously tracked. The collected information is processed in near real time to continually provide navigation guidance and safety warnings in case of potential collisions.

Hammad’s new approach analyzes this continuous stream of updates in order to determine the current operational status of different pieces of equipment. If the situation on the construction site is different from the simulation predictions -- for example, if a truck is arriving later than expected -- this information can be fed back into the simulation in order to plan the next move – hence making the Smart Construction Site even smarter.

“By integrating new tracking technologies like GPS and other geo-positioning technologies into the Smart Construction Site, we can improve productivity and safety by enabling on-site data capturing and decision making,” says Hammad. He also adds that by incorporating 3D design models and Automated Machine Control (AMC), operators can eliminate the need for manual measurements that can lead to miscalculations.

“AMC can improve the quality and efficiency of construction projects, while making it easier for agencies and contractors to deliver projects safer, faster and cheaper,” he enthuses.

Hammad’s approach is still in the conceptual phase but he can already predict practical applications for it, such as evading crane collisions, avoiding underground utilities, and minimizing scheduling spatiotemporal conflicts.

About the research: These findings have been presented in several journal papers published by the American Society of Civil Engineers. The most recent paper was presented at the Winter Simulation Conference, the premier international forum for disseminating recent advances in the field of dynamic systems modeling and simulation, and subsequently published in the conference proceedings.

Related links:

• Concordia’s Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science 
• Concordia Institute for Information Systems Engineering 
• Amin Hammad on Research @ Concordia