Strategies to Improve Safe Behaviors of Highway Construction Workers

"Safety and well-being of the workforce remain an ever-present challenge and critical to meeting state departments of transportation (DOTs), the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) missions to promote and apply safe work behaviors. Despite significant efforts, the highway construction and maintenance sector has consistently reported magnitude higher recordable injury rates than most other occupational sectors. One of the practices that have been shown to be effective in curbing the frequency and severity of incidents in the construction industry is applying incentive programs that have focused on improving the reporting culture of unsafe conditions as well as supporting continual learning. Incentive safety programs have the capacity to reinforce positive behavior and discourage risky decisions through negative consequences. The intended outcome of this study is to produce guidance on the critical evaluation of safety incentive programs within state DOTs. The guidance will also identify critical success factors, opportunities and challenges, and strategies for implementing safety incentives and disincentive programs to mitigate the risk of accidents for highway construction and maintenance workers."

"The main research aim and associated objectives will be accomplished by performing five integrated tasks. Each task is described in terms of its objective, the methods that will be implemented to achieve the objective, and the associated deliverables. Please note that all tasks will be performed by the University of Kansas research team to ensure that the data are obtained, cataloged, and stored in a central location. Task 1 – Meet with the MATC Associate Director and project teams to discuss the work plan of the project’s technical scope. All members of the research team will participate in the opening teleconference and will be prepared to discuss the research plan in detail. The research plan will be presented and the research team will solicit feedback from the participants to refine the plan and the project scope. Task 2 – Literature Review Task 2 will involve a comprehensive literature review of incentive and disincentive programs to enhance safety performance from both public and private sectors. Though the focus of this review will be on highway construction workers, we believe that information related to incentive and disincentive programs from the private construction sector will also prove to be useful. This review will build upon the research team’s construction management knowledge and the wealth of literature collected for previous research on the topics of safety management, risk management, project planning, contract administration, and project controls. For example, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) states that “incentive programs can be an important tool to promote workplace safety and health.” Examples of incentive programs include rewarding workers for reporting near-misses or hazards and encouraging the use of safety committees. In opposition, disincentive strategies can be used to discourage unsafe behaviors such as disciplinary actions or special assignments for unsafe behaviors. The initial relevant work on this topic includes Hecker et al. (2005); FHWA 2023; HSIP 2023; Karakhan and Gambatese (2018), Lipscomb et al. (2013), and Winn et al. (2004). The research team will use the following resources for the literature review: • General internet search engines; • Transportation Research Board’s TRIS Online (Transportation Research Information Systems); • Academic engineering databases, such as LexisNexis and Engineering Village 2; • Academic business databases, such as EBSCO Business Source Complete and Management and Organizational Studies; • ASCE Civil Engineering database; • PMI Virtual Library; • International engineering databases such as Austroads, NZTA, etc.; and • Selected transportation agency websites In this review, the research team will focus on identifying specific challenges and benefits of deploying incentive and disincentive programs to motivate worker’s safe behaviors. While a preliminary scan of available literature indicates that there is very little guidance for state DOTs to evaluate and measure the effective incentive and disincentive programs for their highway construction workers, the team expects that the aggregation of information on basic construction management principles and practices will provide the necessary background for the survey and case studies, which are expected to yield specific strategies that are appropriate for deploying incentive and disincentive programs for DOT highway construction and maintenance crews. Task 3 – Data Collection The research efforts planned for this task represent the initial data collection phase of this research study. In order to identify the specific challenges faced in deploying incentive and disincentive programs, the research team will conduct a thorough systematic scan of 50 state DOTs. The purpose of this scan is to: (1) identify the unique challenges faced in deploying incentive and disincentive programs by DOTs; (2) identify program success and how success is measured (e.g., performance metrics, documented change in worker safety behavior; (3) identify program training requirements (e.g., enforcement of safety practices, motivational skills for supervisors); (4) describe other safety motivational approaches (e.g., awareness, reminders, safety stand downs, safety training, safety accountability, leadership training), (5) identify and document critical success factors; (6) obtain contact information for successful implementation strategies; and (7) to obtain examples of process innovations for incentive and disincentive programs used by DOTs, but not limited to, worksheets, templates, guidelines, and policies. Task 4 – Data Calibration and Case Studies Following the completion of the systematic scan, case studies will be conducted on at least five case studies with state DOTs. Case studies will be conducted on exemplary state DOTs identified during the scanning process. The objectives of the case studies are to: (1) supplement and validate the findings from the survey; (2) Identify common barriers to success in using incentive and disincentive programs to motivate highway construction workers; (3) Identify examples of success factors on how to evaluate safety performance from deploying incentive and disincentive programs; and (4) Obtain specific process examples including templates, flow charts, and checklists. All case studies will be conducted in accordance with the following case study protocol: 1. An opening interview with the DOT administrator and project manager to orient the research team to the project and to obtain relevant documentation and contacts for other participants. 2. Interviews with key project participants to identify types of formal and informal safety incentive or disincentive programs; implementation strategies; program training and funding; and other relevant safety motivational approaches. 3. Collection of examples of key success factors; templates, flow charts, and checklists. All documentation will have identified information stripped before it appears in the final report. 4. Closing interviews with the DOT administrator and project manager to verify the results and to obtain any additional documentation. Task 5 – Final Report/Guidebook The final task for this project involves the creation of a final report that summarizes the literature review and findings from the research. The report will include examples of successful templates, guidelines, policies, checklists, and other relevant resources obtained in the survey and case studies and created by the research team."

"The product of this research will be a final report with produce guidance on the critical evaluation of safety incentive programs within state DOTs. The guidance will also identify critical success factors, opportunities and challenges, and strategies for implementing safety incentives and disincentive programs to mitigate the risk of accidents for highway construction and maintenance workers."

"The construction industry employs approximately six percent of the U.S. workforce but consistently accounts for an injury rate that is five times greater than the all-industry average. With over 1,100 fatalities and 450,000 disabling injuries each year that result in $15 billion in direct costs, construction safety is a critical problem in U.S. society. While the private construction sector has deployed incentive and disincentive programs with regularity, state DOTs have unique limitations on their ability to apply these programs. This research will advance the understanding of the applicability of safety incentive and disincentive programs for DOT highway construction and maintenance crews."