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Construction Safety Research Alliance teams with industry to reduce job site injuries

The construction industry has long been one of the most hazardous sectors, with workers facing a high risk of injury.

Researchers at CU Boulder’s (CSRA) observed that while current safety systems have effectively reduced minor worker injuries over the past decade, the rate of serious injuries and fatalities has remained stagnant.

“This means that current safety systems are not as effective in reducing serious injuries and fatalities, a major issue for the industry,” said Elif Oguz Erkal, CSRA’s associate director of research and strategy.

CSRA is a nonprofit research organization established in 2018 by Professor Matthew Hallowell. It brings together industry leaders and academic experts to eliminate serious injuries and fatalities in the construction industry.

Its first project evaluated the validity of “total recordable incident rates,” the Occupational Safety and Health Administration metric used to track workplace injuries, from minor cuts to fatalities. The study found that these incident rates are highly random and not predictive of future safety performance or fatalities.

“Despite this, the industry often relies on these rates to claim, ‘I am safe,’ ” Erkal said. “We know low-severity injuries happen for different reasons than high severity.”

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Research meets practice

CSRA is supported by donations from its 117 member companies, and research ideas are also proposed by industry members. Each project lasts about two years and is supported by a team of 25 industry professionals who meet in Boulder quarterly to collaborate. Projects are led by a principal investigator paired with a graduate student, whose dissertation is centered on the project.

“The establishment of CSRA marked a significant shift for these industries,” Erkal said. “For the first time, they have an academic research organization focused on real-world applicability, leveraging the expertise of their safety professionals to address challenges scientifically.”

Shifting the focus

Assessing the risk of serious injuries and fatalities is complex, Erkal explains, as fatalities are rare and often occur in hard-to-predict ways.

As part of its research, CSRA developed “high energy controlled assessments (HECA),” a monitoring metric that shifts focus from lagging indicators like injury rates to actionable prevention. HECA identifies both the types of life-threatening hazards present and the direct controls in place to mitigate them, even when someone makes a mistake.

This “energy-based safety” approach links injury severity to the magnitude of physical energy. For example, a heavier object higher off the ground poses a greater threat than a lighter, lower object. Controls could include a guard rail to prevent objects from falling.

“By systematically observing their operations, organizations can identify risk exposures within their systems — a significant shift in mindset,” Erkal said. “A decade ago, safety professionals would say, ‘we’re safe,’ simply because no injuries occurred that day. This perspective has evolved. Today, modern safety is defined by the presence of controls.”

‘Applicable and actionable’

CSRA’s research found that approximately 40 percent of high-energy hazards still lack adequate safeguards. In these cases, a single mistake could have fatal consequences.

HECA will help companies identify life-threatening hazards and prioritize their response, including determining where to acquire additional controls, where to focus training and other necessary actions, Erkal said.

The organization also continues to build its community of industry professionals and academics. It is committed to sharing knowledge through peer-reviewed publications, collaborative partnerships and its monthly Communities of Practice webinars, accessible to all who are interested.

“We are deeply committed to producing research that is both applicable and actionable,” Erkal said. “We want greater engagement from the industry groups to take our work, build on it and implement it.”