Geotechnical and safety protective equipment planning using range point cloud data and rule checking in building information modeling

•3D data of excavation pits provide vital information for hazard identification.•Algorithms automatically detect safety risks, incl. cave-ins and fall-from-heights.•Protective geotechnical shoring and safety guardrail equipment is modeled in BIM.•Conceptual plan provides practitioners with information to standards and requirements.•Discussion on level of technology adaption in safety decision making aids industry.

After experiencing 806 fatalities in 2012, safety continues to be among the top concerns in the US construction industry. Among all construction operations, excavation is one of the most hazardous because of its inherent consequences from potential cave-ins, falls, and contacts of workers-on-foot with equipment or unknown objects. Current design, planning, and inspection of safety equipment at excavation sites is insufficient as it is still done manually, infrequently, time-consuming, and prone to human error. A new method is presented that semi-automatically identifies fall and cave-in hazards related to excavation pits and models, among other temporary geotechnical excavation objects, the required fall protection equipment. The approach first extracts relevant fall risk criteria from safety rules and regulations published by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and applied in industry best practices. Three-dimensional (3D) range point clouds from the excavated pits are then collected to measure the geometrical properties of the pit. An algorithm extracts height information automatically to identify and locate fall hazards. The integration of geometric parameters with geotechnical and safety regulations finally results in a building information model (BIM) that includes the installation of safety equipment. An experimental field trial demonstrates the applicability of the developed method for successful use by practitioners in the industry.

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