Due to the high number of accidents that occur in construction and the consequences this has for workers, organizations, society and countries, occupational safety and health (OSH) has become a very important issue for stakeholders to take care of the human resource. For this reason, and in order to know how OSH research in the construction sector has evolved over time, this article-in which articles published in English were studied-presents an analysis of research conducted from 1930 to 2016. The classification of documents was carried out following the Occupational Safety and Health Cycle which is composed of five steps: regulation, education and training, risk assessment, risk prevention, and accident analysis. With the help of tree diagrams we show that evolution takes place. In addition, risk assessment, risk prevention, and accident analysis were the research topics with the highest number of papers. The main objective of the study was to contribute to knowledge of the subject, showing trends through an exploratory study that may serve as a starting point for further research.

This paper presents the results of a research project carried out in Spain that aims to develop a method that let employers to assess, during the design phase, the occupational health and safety costs of a specific construction project. This method classifies costs in four categories: insurance costs, prevention costs, accident costs, and recovery of costs. Labor accident data were obtained from 1990 to 2007 for the entire Spanish construction industry, and these data were subsequently homogenized and exploited. A mathematical model was created for computing each cost category. This method allows employers and project managers to estimate aprioristically the cost incurred as a result of occupational health and safety during the project, based on tangible values such as the construction project budget or the work schedule, as well as statistical data. An application to this method in a case study illustrated that the occupational health and safety costs for that construction project came to approximately 5% of the total cost of the budget.

Brick is one of the most common building materials, and it is also one of the largest components of waste generated from both construction and demolition. Reuse of this waste would reduce the environmental and social impacts of construction. One potential bulk use of such waste is as a cementing agent for soil stabilization. However, this is currently limited by the need to mill the residue to a particle size below 0.035 mm. In this study, the behavior of two soil types stabilized using alkali-activated brick dust was investigated. The unconfined compression strength at different curing temperatures and moistures and the use of different types and concentrations of alkaline activators were investigated. It was found that the addition of brick dust resulted in an increase in the soil strength between 1.7–2.3 times with respect to the non-stabilized material, suggesting that the resulting materials will find practical applications in construction.

In several countries, brick and ceramic tile are the most important construction materials; therefore, associated waste generation is common in construction and demolitions. An alternative use for waste is to incorporate it into road construction. However, the biggest limitation to use it as structural pavement layers is that strength and durability regulatory requirements are not met for highways when it is used. As an alternative, construction and demolition waste (CDW) soil mixtures are proposed as subgrade improvements which require less of a thickness increase of pavement structures to meet highway standards. The results of this article present the behavior of silty soil, brick residues, and ceramic tile mixtures in different added material ratios. Laboratory evaluations were conducted and included material characterization, compaction tests, obtaining CBR values, and obtaining resilient moduli. A parametric thicknesses evaluation was performed on flexible pavement structures with different traffic conditions and CDW ratios. It was concluded that CDW material addition increases strength and the resilient modulus similarly to granular subbase (AASHTO M147-65). Therefore, the pavement thickness can be reduced, and costs can be decreased by more than 7%.