Integration of BIM and Simulation for optimizing productivity and construction Safety

Construction safety is a predominant hindrance in in-situ workflow and considered an unresolved issue. Current methods used for safety optimization and prediction, with limited exceptions, are paper-based, thus error prone, as well as time and cost ineffective. In an attempt to exploit the potential of BIM for safety, the objective of the proposed methodology is to automatically predict hazardous on-site conditions related to the route that the dozers follow during the different phases of the project. For that purpose, safety routes used by construction equipment from an origin to multiple destinations are computed using video cameras and their cycle times are calculated. The cycle times and factors; including weather and light conditions, are considered to be independent and identically distributed random variables (iid); and simulated using the Arena software. The simulation clock is set to 100 to observe the minor changes occurring due to external parameters. The validation of this technology explores the capabilities of BIM combined with simulation for enhancing productivity and improving safety conditions a-priori. Preliminary results of 262 measurements indicate that the proposed methodology has the potential to predict with 87% the location of exclusion zones. Also, the cycle time is estimated with an accuracy of 89%.