İnşaatlarda yapı makinaları kullanımında iş güvenliği risk değerlendirmesi

Abstract

İnşaat sektörü, 20.yüzyılda gerek Türkiye’de gerekse dünyada ekonominin dinamik bir bileşeni olarak yerini almış, 21.yüzyıla gelindiğinde ise tartışmasız olarak ekonomin lokomotifi sektörü konumuna yerleşmiştir. İnşaat sektörünün, bahsi geçen dönemlerde ekonomideki payının büyümesinde hiç kuşku yok ki teknolojik ilerlemelerin etkisi oldukça fazladır. Teknolojik gelişmelerin 20.yüzyılın ikinci yarısındaki gelişimi, mühendislik disiplinleri arasında özellikle makine sanayinde ve elektronik sanayinde ön plana çıkmıştır. Teknolojik gelişmeler arasında bu iki ana sanayi tipinin yanı sıra birçok başlığın ele alınması mümkündür. Ancak özellikle makine sanayindeki ilerlemeler bu dönemde inşaat sektörü açısından oldukça önemlidir. 19.yüzyılda yaşanan sanayi devrimi ile birlikte üretimdeki verimliliği hiçbir dönemde olmadığı kadar arttıran makinalaşma, günümüzde inşaat sektörü için vazgeçilemez bir noktaya gelmiştir. İnşaat projelerinin hemen hemen tüm aşamalarında kullanılan makinalar ile günümüzde üretim ve verimlilik açısından geçmiş dönemlerde hayal bile edilemeyecek seviyede üretim kapasitelerine ulaşmak mümkün olmuştur. Ne var ki makinalar üretimde bu denli pozitif girdiler sağlarken aynı zamanda işçi sağlığı ve iş güvenliği açısından da ek tehlike ve riskleri de beraberinde getirmiştir. Sektörde işçi sağlığı ve iş güvenliği yönünden yapılan araştırmalar ve istatistikler dikkatli bir biçimde incelenecek olursa yapı makinaları kaynaklı kazaların ne denli ciddi sonuçlara yol açtığı daha rahat gözlenebilecektir. Yapı makinaları kaynaklı iş kazaları, sonuçları itibari ile sektördeki diğer iş kazaları ile karşılaştırıldığında ölümle ya da sürekli iş görememezlikle sonuçlanan kazalar bakımından üst sıralarda yer almaktadır. Proje yönetim safhalarında, yapı makinalarının verimlilikte sağladığı avantajların yanı sıra işçi sağlığı ve iş güvenliği bakımından getirdiği risklere bağlı dezavantajları da değerlendirilmelidir. Ülkemizde inşaat sektöründeki proje yönetimi uygulamalarında bahsi geçen başlıkta bütünlüklü bir bakış açısının olduğunu söylemek ne yazık ki oldukça zordur. Bu çalışmada, sektörde yaygın olarak kullanılan yapı makinaları belirlenmiş, makinaların çalışma alanlarına bağlı olarak riskleri ortaya konmuş ve güncel risk değerlendirme metodolojileri yardımıyla yapılan risk değerlendirmesi ile incelenen her bir yapı makinası için ayrı bir risk değerlendirme formu hazırlanmıştır.Çalışmanın sonunda, hazırlanan kontrol formları ve proje yönetimi esnasında kullanılabilecek örnek dökümanlar vasıtası ile daha etkin bir iş güvenliği faaliyetinin nasıl oluşturulması gerektiği tartışılmış, proje yönetiminde yapı makinaları kaynaklı risklerin önlenebilmesine yönelik çeşitli öneriler getirilmiştir.

While the construction industry took place in the 20th century as the most dynamic component of the economy in Turkey and in the world as well, in the 21th century it has unquestionably become the locomotive of the economy. Concerning the growth of construction industry’s share in the economy, there is no doubt that the effect of technological advancements is quite high. While it is possible to discuss many topics about the technological advancements, in the construction industry, probably the progress on the mechanization has to be considered as the primary topic. The mechanization, which has increased the production efficiency than ever before since industrial revolution in the nineteenth century, becomes an indispensable point in today’s construction industry. Whereas the machines used in almost all stages of the construction projects provide benefits by increasing the production rates, they also pose additional hazard and risks with regards to the work safety. Yet there has been no study on the above-mentioned positive inputs of construction machines on production; and the additional risks that arise from the use of machines on construction sites regarding worker health and work safety, or on the risks that have been removed by the use of those machines. In this context, altough there are studies on the utilization frequency of construction machines in the sector, and the number of machines, etc., it is unfortunately hard to say that there is a comprehensive study that relates those studies with worker health and work safety. In this study, the risks that arise from the use of construction machines regarding worker health and work safety are assessed; and the objective features of aforementioned studies on production and construction machines in respect to worker health and work safety are examined. While determining the risks of every activity carried on construction sites, designating the techinal aspects of applied activity is crucial and the ways of avoiding the risks of that activity should be considered in this perspective. Because of this, as well as the technical aspects and the area of usage of construction machines; their rarely positive and dominantly negative impacts on worker health and work safety are meticulously examined. If the researches and statistics done in the area of the health and safety of the workers are examined carefully, it will be clearly observed that how accidents resulted from the construction machines cause serious problems. But, the required emphasis on the critical condition of construction machines have not been put in the studies on worker health and work safety. A great deal of studies done in the sector concentrate on falling from high places, falling of materials from high places and electrical shock, which are at the top of occupational accidents statistics. The concentration on the aforementioned statistics that cover a significant place in those studies inevitably provided certain knowledge. The investigations of the accidents resulted from the use of construction machines, and the other types of accidents that cover a significant place in occupational accidents statistics have been important for the improvement of insufficient knowledge on that subject. The accidents caused by construction machines, although changing according to the study year, generally ranked as the fourth or the fifth with regard to frequency of accident types. But, the insufficiency on statistics recorded in our country causes several problems. With the insufficiencies of social security organization (SGK) on the classification of occupational accidents, it is imposible to get an explicit result on this subject like several others. Nevertheless, distinct from the statistical considerations, another differentiating point of the accidents resulted from the use of construction machines is their being the uppermost level accidents regarding the deaths and injuries that cause permanent incapablity of working while compared to other accident types in the sector. The features of machines utilized in the sector such as having big volumes and weights, result in high severity scores compared to other accident types. Severity is one of the two basic elements that creates risk in accidents. Because of this, severity scores of construction machines are very high in the literature and root-cause analysis on this subject. This feature of the machines in occupational accidents is one of the most important difference form other accident types. The prevention of risks that are caused by the use of construction machines can only be possible by determination of the causes of aforementioned risks and preventive activities on the subject. In this study, dangers and risks of construction machines are determined with the help of risk assessment methodologies in the literature, and suggestions are stated for the minimization of those risks. The selection of the proper methodology among more than a hundred methodologies in the literature, and the risk assessment technique are explained. In order to clearly inform all the workers in the sector about the risks of construction machines, the higly rated decision matrix method is prefered. In construction sector, the name “construction equipments” is used for a very wide machine group that are utilized in every phase of the production. There is a need to a certain restriction in this wide machine group for the risk assessment study, because it is imposible to cover every construction machines. The machines that are mostly used in the sector and mostly stated in the occupational accidents records are chosen and risk assessment is done for a total of 11 construction machines. The name of the machines that are risk assessed are as follows: Forklift, tower crane, mobile crane, loader, back-hoe loader, excavator, concrete pump, bulldozer, grader, road roller and dump truck. For each of these machines, as well as risk assesment forms that are prepared, the risk assessment of all the machines are carried out by the same way but machine based. The assessment that is carried out with the method chosen among the risk assessment methodologies is done based on not only the theoretical features of the above-mentioned machines but also the observations of each machines on the job sites. The modal and the brand of the machines, and the construction projects that these machines are used are handled in this regard. It is observed as a result of the assessments that each machine has common dangers and risks. For the purpose of covering the risks of every construction machines, dangers and risks of each machine are separately assessed, and in one sense, a general danger and risk assessment form for construction machines is prepared. Besides the risk assessment of the covered construction machines; with a detailed perspective, the necessity to hadle the worker health and work safety aspects of construction machines is highlighted not only for technical terms but also for the managerial points. In this respect, the underlined point is, in addition to the advantages of construction machines on the productivity, the assessment of the disadvantages related to the risks of construction machines on worker health and work safety. For the formation of the perspective that aims to decrease the risks by several activities carried out from the choise of construction machines, and the determination of their use areas to the preperation of construction schedules, which are to be done before beginning to use the machines on sites; various recommendations are stated with reference to the Occupational Health and Management Systems. In these recommendations, which are in terms of determination and control of the risks of construction machines with regard to worker health and work safety implementations that are required to be treated as a part of project management; besides the general recommendations on construction site set up; several document control forms that can be used as a part of rapidly developing integrated management systems are also prepared in order to keep the risks of machines in daily usage under control. These forms are prepared with reference to the noncompliences that are resulted from the analysis of occupational accidents faced in the sector, besides the dangers and risk that are detected through risk assessments of the studied construction machines. A concrete outcomes of this study, which proposes that it is required to handle the work safety of construction machines as a part of every construction activity and every step of project management processes, are checklists and control forms for inspection which can be easily used by all the professionals in the sector. It was clearly observed in the research period that the literatüre on the area of work health and safet is very limited. Fort he reader, it is likely to observethis scarcity throughout the study, whic deals with a specific subject among the limited literatüre on work health and safety. The interviews that take place in this study reveal the varieties in risk perception differences fort he determination and control of risks in the sector. In the conclusiıon part of the study, besides the descriptions of risk prevention factors stated aboce, a documentation study that is about curbing those risksis carried out. The study outcomes, whic should be taken as a part of the documentation systematics in work health and safet management system, will become contributions to the studies concerning the practical processesin the sector on work health and safety.