Job Safety Analysis during Tunnel Construction

Abstract

Purpose: There are many tunnels under construction in Nepal as its mountainous country. Road, water supply, hydropower, and irrigation projects are under construction in Nepal through the tunnel. “Safety First” should be one of the main objectives of any construction projects mainly tunnel and shall be given high priority throughout the construction period. A single person alone cannot do it alone. A team including safety professionals to concentrate on health, safety, and environmental concerns shall be involved to ensure that safety environment will be maintained in the construction site. OSH is the relation between man and man, man and machine and man and environment. The paper aims to analyze the job safety of major selected construction activities during tunneling.

Design/Methodology/Approach:  Site Observation, Key Informant Interview (KII), and Study of Methods of Statement were done as main data collection tools. Job safety analysis and identification of activity with high risk level involved should be determined so that proper prevention and control mechanism could be determined and implemented. Drilling, excavation, blasting, mocking, scaling and shotcerting were major activities whose hazards, prevention mechanism and the responsible party were identified.

Findings/Result: The study reveals that the main occupational hazards were mechanical and chemical hazards. Rockfall and landslide were noted as the major mechanical hazard whereas toxic gas and cement dust were the main chemical hazards. Similarly, noise and vibration were the main physical hazards and untimely payment of wages and leave were psychological hazards. It was reported that the major accident occurred at sites where the leg struck on steps of boomer while pulling a worker to save him from falling of boomer, penetration by fine grinding wheel material into the eye while carrying out grind cutting of drum and faint due to oxygen deficiency inside the tunnel. Some minor accidents were road traffic accidents, cut by sharp tools, fall/hit to/hit by objects, splashing of acids, burning caught by fire, etc. and the fatal accidents was one of the mechanics blown away by the erupted boomer tyres while filling up air into the same and one of the workers lost his life due to truck accident inside the work premise. The families of the demised had been compensated by the company. For safe construction requires the teamwork of sincere and coordinated effort of all stakeholders. Lack of regular inspection and monitoring at the site was the main cause of improper implementation of prevailing health and safety regulations.

Originality/Value:  The study is highly significant for working engineers to perform the task without any misfortune inside the tunnel.

Paper Type: Project Management Action Research.