Abstract
The entire construction safety is significantly influenced by proper uses of temporary structures. However, in current practices, temporary structures are used without sufficient planning and analysis on their impact on safety. Consequently, problems in worker safety and loss of productivity are frequently caused related to temporary structures. This paper introduces an approach that uses Building Information Modeling (BIM) to automatically create temporary structures as part of construction plans and identifies potential safety hazards related to the temporary structures. In this study, the type of temporary structure is limited to scaffolding. Automation algorithms were developed and applied to (1) analyze daily construction site conditions (2) create required scaffolding objects, and (3) identify potential safety hazards related to scaffolding. A case study using a real-world construction project demonstrated that scaffolding objects were properly created based on user-input and potential safety hazards were successfully identified without human intervention.