David A. Langford

This paper considers the issue of safety risks on construction sites. It introduces the concept of combined effect of different risk factors to the accident. For proper safety planning, safety managers need to be well aware of the direct causes of the accident as well as indirect factors that adversely effect on site safety. If it is observed that if a hazardous environment exists at the site, then either that hazardous environment must be eliminated or occupations and processes related to that hazard must be properly protected. One of the measures for evading such hazardous situations is to predict such situations and to reschedule the start time of high-risk situation so that risks are not concentrated during certain periods and at certain locations. In order to predict when and where the risk will reach its highest level, analysis should be performed based upon various information including statistical sources such as accident histories and this should be done in coordination with the activity scheduling. This paper analyzes the result of accident history and provides information about vulnerable situations. In addition, it presents a theory of safety planning method which estimates the risk distribution of a project and helps the safety manager to both estimate situations of concentrated risk and then to reschedule it when it is necessary.

Conflicts between project participants have been identified in various construction industry reports as being one of the principal causes of poor performance on construction projects. These conflicts occur at the interface level in one respect because participants have different objectives and different organizational cultures which define their approach to work and relationship with the other project participants. This research was therefore undertaken to investigate and identify the organizational cultures of two significant players in the project coalition – architects and contractors – on the premise that by revealing specific cultural characteristics and orientations, establishing significant areas of difference and initiating discussion on some of the implications for conflicts and project performance, the context would have been set for assessing and understanding the behaviour of these project participants. A questionnaire survey based on some specific indices of organizational culture conducted on these two groups of participants revealed that in terms of specific traits, significant differences exist in task organization, sources of power and influence, control and coordination, formality, people issues and nature of tasks. The implications are that conflicts are likely to occur within the project coalition at the interface level where human interaction elements occur and this could detract from achieving project objectives. Awareness of these differences, however, improves the chances of achieving the right balance when constructing the team and this could lead to the development of synergy and good ‘project chemistry’ with positive consequences for overall project performance.

This paper considers how popular culture, especially the cinema, depicts two professions; namely, engineering and the law. It argues that despite the large number of engineers working in the developed economies their lives and their work are seldom portrayed in cinema. In contrast, the legal profession is ubiquitous in its presence in film. The paper seeks to use different forms of analysis, such as culturalism, Marxism, structuralism, feminism and post‐modernism when applied to film theory in settings where engineers and lawyers are depicted. The paper makes a distinction between the presentation of the work of engineers and lawyers in ‘real life’ and cinematic form. The process of engineering in real life is visible yet in cinematic terms it is ignored. In contrast, the legal process is invisible in real life but has high dramatic content in the cinema. When considering the products of the two professions, engineering produces tangible products whilst law produces intangible yet highly cerebral discourses. Yet, in the cinema, the engineering product is a backcloth for other messages where in law the legal product provides a backcloth for a central and dominant message about the legal process. The conclusion is that engineers have to re‐engineer themselves to be more visible in society if they are to be regarded as cinematic heroes.

This paper reports the outcome of an investigation into the construction costs in 11 motorway projects. The projects formed one length of road and were of identical specification; five of the projects were undertaken by a traditional design, tender, construct method, and five were undertaken by a procurement system by which the contractor bid a lump sum for the work and so absorbed potential risks and benefits from changes in prices of resources or fluctuations in quantities of work necessary for the completion of the work. One project was undertaken by a design and build method. The results of the analysis indicate that in roadworks the construction cost per kilometre of road is some 11% less expensive when lump sum contracts are used. This benefit appears to be more pronounced in the case of bridge structures incorporated into the motorway. Of greater significance is the cost certainty that is afforded using the lump sum methods. The research showed that lump sum projects were much more likely to be completed within the budget. Finally the lump sum methods required less management by the client organization and delivered more harmonious working relationships between the client and contractor.