Human Liability In The Construction Industry

Introduction:

Innovations and advances in technology are constantly passing new milestones in today’s world. As these advances develop, older and more traditional methods for accomplishing tasks slowly fade into history. An industry that still has manual labor at its core, but has the potential to be updated, is the construction industry. Working in the construction industry involves completing many physical and excruciating tasks, for example, laying bricks, poring concrete, operating machinery, and lifting heavy objects. While all these examples are very common in the construction industry, why do they have to be completed by humans? Human’s have the ability to design and create robots that assemble cars, drive cars, and even think on

This question brings up the topic of this proposal, is it feasible to automate the construction industry? This is an important topic of discussion for a few reasons. First, the construction industry is a very physically demanding industry, that at some times can also be very dangerous if tasks are not performed correctly. If humans are able to completely automate the industry, then the need for humans to put themselves in potential harmful situations would be obsolete. Rachael Everly, agrees and gives an example for this idea in her article, 3 ways automation will change the construction industry, she writes, “tools like drones can make it much easier and safer to inspect and monitor construction sites” (Everly). Safety is the number one priority in the construction industry, and automation can open doors to make it completely non-hazardous to humans. Another reason to bring this topic up for discussion is because the cost of a robot to work construction would be significantly less than the cost to employ a human to do the work. An automated machine is a onetime purchase, that initially may seem more expensive, would end up being a lot cheaper over time. Finally, the overall quality of work preformed by a human would pale in comparison to the work done

In high school, I was exposed to the basic operations of building and forming different structures on a ranch, and was able to learn how to use heavy equipment in the process. After graduating high school and completing my first year of college, I acquired an internship as a field engineer for a construction company called Balfour Beatty. I was assigned to work on the Overhead Centenary System, of a light rail system, on the North Metro Rail Line Project in Denver, Colorado. Working as a field engineer on this project gave me first hand experience in the construction industry. I worked manual labor in the field, as well as, completed paperwork and mathematical calculations in the office. I strongly believe that the level of experience I have in this field perfectly qualifies me to conduct my feasibility report on this topic. I plan to collect data from multiple source to help analyze the feasibility of this topic. A few sources I plan to obtain data from are: The Bureau of Labor Statistics data on employment in the construction sector; The United States Department of Labor for it’s safety reports; and multiple publications found on the Colorado State University Library database. I believe that these sources will report accurate and legitimate data to use for this