ABSTRACT
How can we live without construction? It fulfils many of our fundamental needs and has existed since the earliest development of mankind. Incorporating engineering and maintenance activities, construction, provides us with houses, schools, hospitals, industrial plants and infrastructure. We are all affected by these structures, hour after hour, day after day, year after year. There is no construction without ground. Any kind of construction needs a
foundation. Any construction, whether very small or extremely large, has some form of connection with the inherently uncertain ground. Our ability to cope with this uncertainty will make a difference between our foundation settlements or not, between excess groundwater in our basements or not, or even whether our structures collapse during an earthquake or not. Until now, the ground has always been a major driver of risk in many con-
struction projects all over the world. This is reflected in the relatively high failure costs and often small profit margins in the construction industry. Many projects are completed at a higher cost than estimated, as well as much later than scheduled. This causes serious additional expenditure for clients, reduced profitability or even losses for contractors and a lot of irritation for the public. For many years, risk management has added value in many sectors and industries,
such as the financial sector, the chemical industry and the offshore industry. In construction, however, risk management has not been entirely incorporated and exploited, in spite of the industry’s inherent uncertainties and high risks. The application of well-structured risk management during all project stages, from feasibility through to construction and maintenance, needs to be started or extended to many more projects. This situation is particularly apparent in groundrelated engineering and construction activities. A serious obstruction to the introduction and application of risk management is
the people factor. Together, we are that people factor. Typical human attitudes and behaviour, driven by unawareness and fear, often prevent us from considering
and
risk in a timely and effective way. As a result, we will miss opportunities to optimize projects and benefits for our organizations, our clients and our societies as a whole remain hidden and untouched. The combination of these four interrelated aspects, construction, ground, risk
management and the people factor, provides an opportunity for a new type of risk management book. Is there a need for it? Yes, I think there certainly is, in spite of a number of related books published over recent years. Examples are those written by Edwards and Bowen (2005), Weatherhead et al. (2005), Smith (2003, 1998), Boothroyd and Emmet (1996), Godfrey (1996), Edwards (1995), Flanagan and Norman (1993) and Thompson and Perry (1992). All these books cover risk management in the construction industry, but do not focus on ground risk management. The number of available books that cover ground-related risk management in particular is limited. Although works by Clayton (2001), Hatem (1998) and Skipp (1993) do focus on ground risk management, they pay little attention to the people factor. None of these books combines the four interrelated factors dealt with in this book.
