National Academy of Construction
Transforming the Industry to Build a Better Nation
The SDRI framework offers a powerful, forward-looking lens into safety degradation risk across the U.S. construction sector. By integrating weighted leading indicators with operational exposure, SDRI enables early detection of risk escalation — often weeks or months before lagging metrics like TRC or DART begin to shift.
This Executive Insight complements more traditional considerations in the construct of SDRI. It addresses the structure and safety profile of NAICS 23, maps the association between net margins and various safety incidence rates (Total Recordable Case (TRC) rates; Days Away Restricted Time (DART), and fatalities), and presents subsector-specific insights.
This Executive Insight is complemented by the Executive Insight “Safety Degradation Risk Index (SDRI): The Link between Safety and Profitability”.
A review of select, recurring construction failures has shown an identifiable need to address the translation of lessons observed into best practices. In this Executive Insight we look at five common construction failure types.
Weather-related failures are especially common during transitional phases—when structures are partially complete, temporarily supported, or suspended mid-hoist.
Unsafe sequencing failures typically occur when temporary bracing is omitted, improvised, or misjudged. The assumption is that the remaining structure will hold. But without a sealed plan and verified load path, that assumption can be fatal.
This oversight is dangerous. Temporary works are transitional by nature, but their failure is anything but temporary.
In construction, materials are expected to perform under load, resist environmental exposure, and maintain integrity over time. But when degradation sets in—through corrosion, fatigue, or undocumented reuse—those expectations collapse.
Construction failures are often blamed on field execution. But in many cases, the root cause lies upstream—in the design itself.
This article by Jesus de la Garza and Craig Martin explores why risk tolerance persists in construction, showing how people unconsciously adjust their behavior and often take greater risks when they perceive increased safety. It also highlights cultural and behavioral factors that can undermine safety measures and offers practical strategies for leaders to reduce unnecessary and unmanaged risk.
Management often faces clear right-versus-wrong decisions, such as replacing a worn, unsafe tool. In these situations, ethical leaders recognize the responsibility and choose the right action.
In today’s world, if you are not keeping score, you are probably not playing to win.
We have examined some of the factors that drive a changed risk environment for large engineering and construction programs and some of the new tools and risk assessment approaches that must be added to our standard risk management techniques. Concomitant with this changed awareness.
This Executive Insight builds on the NAC Executive Insight entitled “Safety through Design,” which provides a top-level view on the importance of hazard elimination at a project’s design stage and lays out a number of guiding precepts. It can be found on the NAC website.
Effective asset management and operations are the life blood of any business. The old adage of “Grow or die” applies universally, so all work must be executed to deliver business success or the business will not be competitive and eventually will cease to exist.
A safety program that yields a zero-injury result is composed of three distinct parts: content, process, and a culture. This Executive Insight integrates these three elements.
This document is a compendium of safety position papers from 2005 to 2020 addressed to American CEO’s and others. The intent of these papers was to enlist and inform the users and leaders of the American Construction Industry to embrace zero injury techniques and improvement in safety culture to improve their safety performance. Keywords: safety performance, zero injuries, safety culture
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