The current study reanalyzed 250 electrical fatalities in the construction industry from 1996 to 2002 into seven patterns based on source of electricity (power line, energized equipment, improperly installed or damaged equipment), direct contact or indirect contact through some source of injury (boom vehicle, metal bar or pipe, and other conductive material). Each fatality was coded in terms of...

As the largest energy consumer and carbon emitter, China has made substantial efforts to improve energy efficiency to save energy, while the energy rebound effect mitigates its effectiveness. This paper is based on the logical relationship among capital input, technical change, economic growth, and energy consumption, adapting an alternative estimation model to estimate the energy rebound effec...

The goal of componentware is to carry the old dream of building software systems by assembling pre-fabricated components to undreamt brilliancy. Although there is a variety of technical concepts and tools for componentoriented software engineering, the successful model from the building industry could not be transferred fully to software development yet. In our opinion, this is mostly due to th...

The Latham Report (1995) identified a need for greater teamwork within the UK construction industry. The Egan Report (1998) took this principle further and in particular posed a series of challenging targets for the UK house building industry. These targets were focused around greater use of innovative techniques derived from manufacturing, and included the increased use of standardisation, pre...

Typical construction materials and practices have a large ecological footprint. Many materials are energyintensive to produce, and construction and demolition debris constitutes a large percentage of U.S. landfill volume. Biocomposites are structural materials made from renewable resources that biodegrade in an anaerobic environment after their useful service life to produce a fuel or feedstock...

The present paper focuses on the topics of “Collaborative Working Environments”, “eBusiness-Future forms of organisations, Technology and Applications” and “Semantic and Knowledge based systems”. It is based mainly on the Collective project Know Construct (COLL-CT-2004-500276) starting in March 2005. The main objective of the project is to develop a common internet-based platform for SMEs and o...

The construction industry ranks high in the rates of severe and fatal occupational injuries due to complexity and unpredictable nature of the tasks. Decades long efforts to combat occupational accidents by using various safety improvement approaches have reached a plateau. Figures published by Bureau of Labor Statistics show an improvement in the safety of the construction industry, yet a close...

The paper focuses on new ways of organising product development projects in the construction industry. We discuss two such projects, one in Denmark and one in Finland where different forms of ‘network organisation’ have been tried out. The paper looks at how the existing structure in the construction industry affects the product development projects ‘organised-as-networks’. INTRODUCTION AND PUR...

The nature of most accidents at the construction sites shows that the construction industry is unique. Factor involved include human behaviour, different construction sites, the difficulties of works, unsafe safety culture, dangerous machinery and equipment being used, and non-compliance to the various set procedures. Study shows that an accident and injury at the worksite is often the result o...