Construction is one of the most dangerous occupations. The most prominent reason for worker accidents is unsafe behavior, particularly rooted in the inability to recognize and appropriately respond to risk factors. Previous studies have investigated worker perception and comprehension of construction hazards and safety information in laboratory settings. A relationship has been found between workload and workers’ situation awareness (SA), a useful concept for understanding risk perception and comprehension. However, it is necessary to investigate the actual construction environment to increase the real-world applicability of the research results. This experimental study analyzed workers’ SA in relation to physical and mental workloads acquired while performing work at a construction site. Perception (Level-1-SA) and comprehension (Level-2-SA) were measured using the SA Global Assessment Technique as subjects walked inside a facility under construction and performed inspection or construction works. Statistically significant differences were found between perception and comprehension of safety-related information. It was also found that mental load negatively affected SA. This study provided external validation of previously investigated effects of workload on workers’ perception and comprehension of safety-related elements at real construction sites. The study’s findings can improve the understanding of workers’ safety behaviors and help suggest directions for safety management guidelines. Graphical Abstract

The low productivity of the construction industry has been identified as a chronic problem, and this has been exacerbated by recent environmental factors, including COVID-19 and climate change. As a response to these environmental changes, policies related to recovery after COVID-19, digital transformation, and the Green New Deal have been established worldwide, and related projects have been launched. These three issues may seem to have different goals but they are interrelated, and guidelines for the direction of the construction industry should be outlined. In this study, key initiatives that need to be prioritized to successfully achieve the goals of the three issues are identified. Based on these, strategic directions and mid- to long-term measures to address environmental changes are suggested. This study surveys the perceptions of construction experts to establish the key initiatives via the analytic hierarchy process method, and their expected utility was evaluated. This study is significant in that it analyzes how construction experts perceive environmental changes and contributes to the development of the construction industry by identifying key initiatives that should be undertaken.

In recent years, offsite construction has attracted increasing attention, which has led to the broader use of precast concrete (PC) construction methods. Accordingly, the need for safety management in PC production plants is increasing. However, despite the potentially hazardous tasks performed in PC production plants, such as the handling and transportation of heavy materials, well-established safety management guidelines are lacking. Therefore, this study aims to propose a safety management guideline tailored to PC production plants. To this end, this study examined the existing safety manuals and extracted safety management items that need to be monitored to manage safety risks in PC production plants. In addition, this study investigated critical safety management items by administering a questionnaire-based survey to plant workers and managers on the perceived importance and management performance of the items in the guideline by using the importance-performance analysis method. The results indicated that safety management is relatively weakly implemented compared with workers’ perceived importance of safety management. In addition, the results indicated that the focus should be on work- or worker-related safety management items, such as the continuous monitoring of workers’ access to hazardous areas and the proximity between workers and dynamic risk factors, such as the loading of materials and equipment operation. The results of this study contribute to the development of a more systematic and detailed guideline for the safety management of PC production plants to continuously manage safety risks and prevent safety accidents.