Civil Engineering

Risks in Civil Engineering - Construction Industry of United Kingdom

[Name of student]

Executive summary

Civil engineering is a field full of risks. The risks are of many types and depend upon the domain in which the construction operations are carried out. The risks are mainly associated with the safety of workers and the design which is being constructed. In this paper, construction Industry of United Kingdom has been chosen as the focussed industry. The construction industry of United Kingdom is one of the biggest and most advanced construction industries around the globe. The more huge the industry, the higher vulnerability it has to the risks associated with construction. The similar is the case with UK construction industry. Despite of the advanced technologies and equipment, the risks associated with construction industry are very hard to handle and can be deadly for the workers and can bring massive loss to the contractors if not managed efficiently. The risks in the UK construction industry include professional, economic, legal, physical, contractual, technological, environmental and reputational. Risk management is therefore a must in the UK construction industry just like any other industry. The process of risk management is very important to follow in the sequential manner. The risk should be identified first, and then it should be assessed for seeking a positive solution. The assessment of all the possible solutions is also important for selecting the most optimum out of them. This paper discusses all the risks and the risk management process in the context of construction Industry of United Kingdom.

Risks in Civil Engineering - Construction Industry of United Kingdom

Industry Background

UK Construction is a very wide field of research simply because it covers many various types of trades and works such as; building flyovers, inspecting homes, maintaining railways and roads. The term “construction” has many various meanings which include repairing, demolition, erection of houses, offices, flyovers, roads, dams, etc. It is safe to say that no other industry requires so much accurate application of business practises as much as the construction industry. The environment surrounding UK construction project complicates decisions which are to be made regarding the appropriate use of tools, materials, equipments and labour. Additionally, the government influence and labour practices have a major bearing on business decisions that are to be made (Roger, 2008).

The concept of risk is multi-dimensional. In the framework of UK construction the possibility that a definite factor which can be disadvantageous to the entire project is always present. If such determinants are not predicted beforehand the consequences of such results can be either better than what was expected or even worse. Different unpredictable and dangerous events may fall on an organization which can have a very disadvantageous or unfortunate effect on it (Akintoye & Macleod, 1997. p. n. d). On the whole, the construction industry has been very slow at the applying of appropriate methods of management to the conduct of their business (Serpell & Alarcon, 1998, p.n.d.). The management in UK construction industry has been distinguished as being ...