BIM-driven automated decision support system for safety planning of temporary structures

Temporary structures are essential to support various activities of a construction project. Proper utilization of temporary structures can have a significant influence on critical aspects of the project such as cost, productivity, and safety. However, a process of planning temporary structures still relies on labor-intensive and error-prone efforts based on implicit knowledge of workers. Moreover, temporary structures are planned without detailed spatiotemporal analysis of their implications and systemized approach to safety. This tendency may yield the inefficient employment of temporary structures and unsafe job sites. Lack of systemized approach for identifying hazards related to the temporary structure would result in not only an economic loss but also fatalities and injuries. This paper introduces a building information model- (BIM-) based decision support system that provides safety plans for temporary structures considering their costs and durations. Focusing on scaffolding, the system automatically generates multiple scaffolding plans and quantitatively evaluates them regarding safety, cost, and duration. By analyzing project-specific spatiotemporal information to identify relevant hazards and variations of cost and duration, a specific plan for utilizing scaffolds, which is the most appropriate regarding safety, cost, and duration, is selected among the generated plans. The developed system was implemented using a BIM software tool and validated with an in-depth case study on a real-world construction project. This can be utilized as a decision-support system that enables the users to develop a plan with minimized safety hazards related to scaffolding while considering workflow, cost, and duration at the same time.