Modelling the Cost of Health and Safety for Building Construction Projects

The health and safety (H&S) statistics of the construction industry in terms of accident and injuries has remained high for many years. This is as a result of most construction firms lacking information on the costs of accident prevention measures due to inadequacy of available data and the absence of a model specifically developed for H&S. This study aims at modelling the cost of H&S in building construction projects. The quantitative approach used 40 Bills of Quantities (BOQ) for the collection of data on building construction projects from quantity surveying firms through purposive sampling. Data were analysed using simple percentile and regression analysis. Result on the estimation of the cost of H&S in construction projects revealed that, for projects costing between N0.15 billion and N2.88 billion the percentage of safety cost to the total construction cost of the projects is 5.67% and approximately N21, 271.98/m2 as H&S cost per unit area. It was concluded that before execution of projects the cost of safety is predictable by engaging the information from the BOQ and by using project duration. It was recommended that a distinct section should be assigned for H&S in the BOQ for safety cost components such as PPE, CPM and ST for adequate estimating of safety cost items. This model would provide a reference for construction practitioners and professionals in estimating in details, the cost for H&S at early stage of project construction.