Search results

The extensive use of mini‐excavators in construction presents a significant health and safety risk from their tendency to become unstable, or in the extreme to roll‐over, under certain working conditions. No standard exists to specifically assess excavator stability, so the purpose of this paper is to document the development and trial of a series of practical field tests designed to achieve this.

Tests were designed in collaboration with a group of plant experts and competent operators. The tests were subsequently trialled by applying them to four mini‐excavators, the aim being to see if these plant items could be reliably assessed in terms of their stability characteristics. Results of the study were presented to H&S experts for comment.

The tests were able to assess mini‐excavator stability. For each machine, five “stability criteria” were scored thereby producing an overall score, by which mini‐excavator stability could be conveniently represented.

No previous field test research has been identified in this area. The results produced here may go some way towards developing an international standard for on‐site stability tests.

The tests are easy to apply at the work site so long as performed by competent persons under appropriately risk‐assessed and risk controlled conditions; and if disseminated to industry, could act as a means of standardising mini‐excavator stability tests until such time an International Standard becomes available.

Research in this area is entirely novel.

This paper aims to present examples of historical British antecedents of innovative construction procurement, project organisation and social structures, through an historical case study and highlight how contemporary innovative “newness” can sometimes be preceded by historical antecedents.

This paper used informal analysis of extant literature and historical archives, to synthesise those antecedents presented and reflect on these in light of contemporary construction practice and innovation.

The case study project, capturing the period c.1894-1904, demonstrates numerous historical but significant innovations relating to project organisation and social structures. The extent of these may result from more lax regulation and workplace controls of the time. The case also epitomises how a publicly accountable authority, can realise a high-quality, constructed product in good time, using direct labour and without recourse to competitive procurement.

The blending of historical construction research with contemporary construction innovation (CI) thinking may open new academic opportunities in both fields.

The findings suggest that a less regulatory-constrained environment appears conducive to incremental and process-oriented CI activity.

There is a dearth of construction history research; its application to CI is unique.

Construction plant and equipment harbour significant health and safety hazards. One particular item, the mini‐excavator, presents a hazard from its inherent instability and tendency to overturn during use. The purpose of this paper is to investigate turnover incidents to observe prominent factors and contribute to development of best practice guidance for improving health and safety relating to mini‐excavator use.

Comprehensive documentary data from eight case study incidents, along with anecdotal data from a further three, were qualitatively analysed in terms of: machine weight, machine activity, ground type/topography, operator competence, type of overturn, damage to property, and injury to person(s). Results were presented to experts in the field for comment and conclusions/recommendations accordingly developed.

Observed prominent casual factors include: inadequate assessment of risk and non‐adherence to safe working practice, working on poor ground, and working on inclined surfaces. The use of sealed operator cabs and proprietary seat restraint mechanisms seem to mitigate risk of personal injury to operators during overturn incidents. A need for cyclic training to reiterate good operator and banksman practice is emphasised, while construction managers should also be aware of the risks, and help implement risk controls.

Findings will inform construction plant management research generally, and the subject of mechanised workplace transport stability specifically.

Best practice protocol will inform health and safety management of mini‐excavators at the workplace.

Academic research into mini‐excavator stability is embryonic; this paper furthers evolving knowledge in the field.

Construction management research (CMR) surveys frequently use questionnaires that employ “Likert-type” items, Likert-items, and Likert scales to capture respondents ' self-reported attitudes. This Editorial builds substantially on earlier observations by Holt regarding the significance of appropriate questionnaire response scale design and, use of the relative importance index (RII) method to analyse those data such scales yield. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Several RII models are examined by their application to a data set. Objectives include to contrast their practicality in use, compare outputs, highlight limitations of some models and discuss methods of RII data analysis, interrogation and interpretation.

Principal messages are: all components of response scales should be carefully designed; alternative RII models can produce similar results of analysis; “simple percentage” RII models may not yield “real” percentages; the minimum rating scale integer should accurately reflect its descriptor; only rating scales offering a “0” response, or an “adjusted percentage” RII model can achieve unity; and RII outputs should be interpreted cautiously.

Uncertain application of the RII has been observed within CMR literature, so implications of the Editorial will be of direct relevance to this research community (and beyond).

Aside from that cited above, no additional literature has been identified that specifically links RII usage to CMR.

Construction business performance measurement (BPM) is myopic, most often being project‐specific, profit‐orientated, and neglecting broader “stakeholder” issues. If construction organizations are to remain competitive in the longer term, they need to develop and better understand their relations with their customers, suppliers, employees, lenders and the wider community. Hence, performance measurement must embrace these broader business characteristics. The need for a shift in “orthodox” (BPM) beliefs from “basic” performance measurement, to an alternative “stakeholder perspective measurement” (SPM), is underlined. SPM will adequately consider relations with customers, suppliers, employees, financiers, and the wider community; all being critical for a business’s long‐term viability. The paper goes on to advocate that construction organizations should reject this myopic strategic thinking, and better consider the interests of their stakeholders, both economically and morally. The latter calls for development of a serious stakeholder perspective to business performance measurement, so that construction organizations can be monitored and judged in a socially acceptable manner.

Societal needs produce infrastructural demands that often, require innovative industrial solutions to optimally satisfy them. One such need is fresh clean water and this has been met in part, by a global infrastructure of dams and reservoirs. Dams have borne witness to their innovative construction design, technology and management (CDTM) over the years and the purpose of this paper is to examine an example of this, relating to Claerwen dam in Great Britain.

The study used historical case study method based on Busha and Harter's (1980) model, to accommodate synthesis of extant, historical and archive data. Subsequent archival data analysis is founded predominately on document synthesis and embraces a longitudinal character.

Benefiting incontrovertibly from industrial innovations, Claerwen was constructed in markedly different ways from its “sister” phase 1 Elan Valley dams built 50 years earlier, to uniquely combine vernacular aesthetic with contemporary CDTM of the time and create a reservoir with capacity almost equal to that of the entire phase 1 dams combined.

Findings offset a dearth of historical construction research more generally; and that relating to dam infrastructure, more specifically.

Minimal literature exists regarding innovations in British dam building so the study is especially original in that respect.