Study of Safety Auditors' Views on the Use of BIM for Safety in Hong Kong

Traditionally site safety is a concern for the Architectural, Engineering & Construction (AEC) industry. In view of government of Hong Kong initiating a number of large scale AEC projects and a relative high number of serious accidents continue to occur, site safety will remain an issue for the local AEC. Recently, Building Information Modeling (BIM) or digital simulation and data management software have been attracting much attention both in Hong Kong and in the international sector. It is a notable question to ask “Is it possible to use BIM to improve site safety in Hong Kong?” For over ten years now, the concept of Safety Management System (SMS) has been adopted in Hong Kong as the strategy for site safety management systems. It is commonly accepted in Hong Kong the drive to establish, implement and monitor SMS comes from registered safety officer (RSO) and registered safety auditor (RSA). Thus, in theory views of safety auditors on the use of BIM for safety can reflect whether or not BIM is effective tool to improve site safety. In this paper, the SMS regulation in Hong Kong will be briefly outlined and then results of a survey of members of the Society of Accredited Safety Auditor (SASA) in Hong Kong will be presented. It is concluded that 78% of the respondents to this study believe there is benefit for using BIM for SMS and commonly respondents refer to using BIM for visualization of construction sequences and planning of hazard controls. This study provides the background to a wider investigation of the linkage between BIM and Health and Safety Management. Study of Safety Auditors’ Views on the Use of BIM for Safety in Hong Kong