Assessment of the Cost Impact of Health and Safety Practices on Construction Projects in Abuja

Abstract

Forecasting the cost of construction project usually fails to include the cost of health and safety of the construction workers, and the construction process itself contain a series of crafty activities which requires time and cost for smooth execution. Thus, the research aimed at assessing the cost impact of health and safety practices on construction projects. The study adopted quantitative technique. The research population constituted the professionals on the construction industry who are directly involved on construction site. A total 181structured questionnaires were administered to the sampled participants (23 project managers, 43 consultants, 48 contractors and 67 safety officers) within Abuja, using the stratified random sampling method, for which a total 170 was retrieved, representing 93.9% response rate. The collected data were analyzed by using descriptive method (Relative Importance Index, frequencies, percentages and ranking method). The research found that struck by falling object; slip, trip and falling from heights, collapse of cranes death and respiratory information, are the major health and safety risk that have major effects on project cost. The research also found that the provision of health and safety programs on construction site contributes between 3-5% of the project cost. It was also revealed that the percentage cost of accidents to the overall cost of construction projects is less that 1% with an average percentage contribution of 0.218%. Based on these findings, it can be concluded that the costs of health and safety programs and practices are significant in increasing the cost of building projects. It was recommended that health and safety practices and programs should always be given priority at the initial project estimating stage of a project, as they constitute a reasonable percent of project cost.