Assessing the Key Construction Safety Challenges in Sri Lanka: A Survey-Based Study

The construction industry is a key driver of economic development in a developing country like Sri Lanka. However, many construction projects still face serious safety challenge areas such as poor attitude, bad conduct, negligence, out-of-date legislation, a lack of qualified safety officers and fin...

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Main Authors: Asela Weerakoon, David Thorpe, Amirhossein Heravi, Subrata Chakraborty
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2025-01-01
Series:Safety
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2313-576X/11/1/2
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author Asela Weerakoon
David Thorpe
Amirhossein Heravi
Subrata Chakraborty
author_facet Asela Weerakoon
David Thorpe
Amirhossein Heravi
Subrata Chakraborty
author_sort Asela Weerakoon
collection DOAJ
description The construction industry is a key driver of economic development in a developing country like Sri Lanka. However, many construction projects still face serious safety challenge areas such as poor attitude, bad conduct, negligence, out-of-date legislation, a lack of qualified safety officers and financial constraints. This study aims to determine which safety challenges are the key ones in the Sri Lankan construction industry and how these challenges are classified and related to each other. The significance of this research is that it identifies the most important safety challenge areas and addresses them, which helps to overcome other safety challenge areas that rely on them. To achieve this aim, survey questionnaires were developed, and a survey was conducted among key project stakeholders, including safety officers, engineers, managers, quantity surveyors and human resources personnel, to collect information on significant safety factors that can help in improving safety. Forty-three safety challenge elements were identified and assessed through factor analysis. The ten most significant safety challenge elements were extracted and categorised into two main categories: (i) economy-related and (ii) human-resource-related challenges. The results of this survey provide a very good foundation for project managers or safety managers to identify certain criteria when selecting construction staff and making project plans.
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spelling doaj-art-8615ded894c94bbbadcd75f6c35a727b2025-08-20T02:43:03ZengMDPI AGSafety2313-576X2025-01-01111210.3390/safety11010002Assessing the Key Construction Safety Challenges in Sri Lanka: A Survey-Based StudyAsela Weerakoon0David Thorpe1Amirhossein Heravi2Subrata Chakraborty3School of Surveying and Built Environment, University of Southern Queensland, Springfield, QLD 4300, AustraliaSchool of Surveying and Built Environment, University of Southern Queensland, Springfield, QLD 4300, AustraliaSchool of Surveying and Built Environment, University of Southern Queensland, Springfield, QLD 4300, AustraliaSchool of Science and Technology, Faculty of Science, Agriculture, Business and Law, University of New England, Armidale, NSW 2351, AustraliaThe construction industry is a key driver of economic development in a developing country like Sri Lanka. However, many construction projects still face serious safety challenge areas such as poor attitude, bad conduct, negligence, out-of-date legislation, a lack of qualified safety officers and financial constraints. This study aims to determine which safety challenges are the key ones in the Sri Lankan construction industry and how these challenges are classified and related to each other. The significance of this research is that it identifies the most important safety challenge areas and addresses them, which helps to overcome other safety challenge areas that rely on them. To achieve this aim, survey questionnaires were developed, and a survey was conducted among key project stakeholders, including safety officers, engineers, managers, quantity surveyors and human resources personnel, to collect information on significant safety factors that can help in improving safety. Forty-three safety challenge elements were identified and assessed through factor analysis. The ten most significant safety challenge elements were extracted and categorised into two main categories: (i) economy-related and (ii) human-resource-related challenges. The results of this survey provide a very good foundation for project managers or safety managers to identify certain criteria when selecting construction staff and making project plans.https://www.mdpi.com/2313-576X/11/1/2construction safetysafety challengessafety managementSri Lanka
spellingShingle Asela Weerakoon
David Thorpe
Amirhossein Heravi
Subrata Chakraborty
Assessing the Key Construction Safety Challenges in Sri Lanka: A Survey-Based Study
Safety
construction safety
safety challenges
safety management
Sri Lanka
title Assessing the Key Construction Safety Challenges in Sri Lanka: A Survey-Based Study
title_full Assessing the Key Construction Safety Challenges in Sri Lanka: A Survey-Based Study
title_fullStr Assessing the Key Construction Safety Challenges in Sri Lanka: A Survey-Based Study
title_full_unstemmed Assessing the Key Construction Safety Challenges in Sri Lanka: A Survey-Based Study
title_short Assessing the Key Construction Safety Challenges in Sri Lanka: A Survey-Based Study
title_sort assessing the key construction safety challenges in sri lanka a survey based study
topic construction safety
safety challenges
safety management
Sri Lanka
url https://www.mdpi.com/2313-576X/11/1/2
work_keys_str_mv AT aselaweerakoon assessingthekeyconstructionsafetychallengesinsrilankaasurveybasedstudy
AT davidthorpe assessingthekeyconstructionsafetychallengesinsrilankaasurveybasedstudy
AT amirhosseinheravi assessingthekeyconstructionsafetychallengesinsrilankaasurveybasedstudy
AT subratachakraborty assessingthekeyconstructionsafetychallengesinsrilankaasurveybasedstudy