Accepted Standard Benchmark and Mitigative Measures

Construction Safety mandates provide requirements of construction, protection, and occupancy features necessary to safeguard life, health, property, and public welfare and minimize injuries. It focuses and addresses the design criteria that regulate and control the permitting; design; construction, alteration, and repair; quality of materials; equipment and systems; use and occupancy; demolition; location; and maintenance of all types of buildings and structures. Separate chapters address issues specific to individual occupancy types, structural features, building materials, and building systems. The course content used in this module is based on NFPA 5000, The Building and Safety Code. It is a great companion for the Building Code used by architects, structural, building inspectors, and facility maintenance and construction engineers

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Collapse is the eventual result of an unsafe building that has been constructed without safety consideration in the design, proper implementation, and material selection. We have heard of many buildings collapse in Nigeria and it has become a common recurrence for buildings to collapse in Lagos State, killing scores of people and damaging belongings of property owners, some of the notable collapses include the very recent Lekki Garden Collapse that claimed over 30 persons which resulted from the violation of building best practices for financial gains, the Synagogue church building collapse that claimed over 100 lives as a result of poor structural, materials and design failures, the Police college partial collapse, the collapsed building in Dosunmu area of Lagos state, amongst others. 

A building with concrete work is supposed to have a life span of 20 – 30 years before it shows any signs of wearing out, and materials play an important role in this. The use of poor materials will greatly impact how long the building will stand. The design by Architects, planners and all is the first thing to consider. During this stage, all information of how the building will look, the structural consideration, and other safety requirements are imputed. Poor design is what damns the building first. There are also some important considerations like the type of walls required, the types of windows, weather consideration for the facility, and the type of roofs that most persons involved in the construction sector in Nigeria take for granted. This can significantly curb the issues of the incessant building collapse. The Lagos State Building Control Agency, LASBCA was set up in Lagos but one has to wonder if they are up to the task as under their watch there are still poor structures being erected and collapsed buildings are still being reported.

Also Read: EXCELLENCE IN THE ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH AND SAFETY SECTOR

Nigeria has its own building code which is rarely utilized and has not been reviewed or updated in over a decade. We have therefore taken a more advanced and internationally accepted code. NFPA 5000 contains provisions for every aspect of the design and construction of buildings and structures, as well as the creation of building systems for health, safety, comfort, and convenience. It provides prescriptive and performance-based options, the code is organized by the occupancy or use of the proposed facility. This module is designed for participants engaged in all sizes of building and construction project safety management (PSM). 

The primary goals of NFPA 5000, Building Construction and Safety Code, are safety, health, building usability, and public welfare, including property protection as it relates to the primary goals. 

The four goals of NFPA 5000 are:

1. Safety from Fire: To provide an environment for the occupants inside or near a building that is reasonably safe from fire and similar emergencies and to provide reasonable safety for firefighters and emergency responders during search and rescue operations
2. Safety from Structural Failure: The safety from structural failure goals of this Code is to provide high confidence of a low probability of structural failure resulting in local or global collapse, or the creation of falling debris hazards that could threaten life under any load or combination of loads that the structure could reasonably be anticipated to experience, and to provide high confidence that the structure will be capable of resisting regularly occurring loads and combinations of loads without significant damage or degradation.
3. Safety During Building Use: The safety during building use goal of this Code is to provide an environment for the occupants of the building that is reasonably safe during the normal use of the building.
4. Safety from Hazardous Materials: Facilities containing high hazard contents shall have the goal of protecting people and property from the consequences of unauthorized discharges, fires, and explosions involving hazardous materials.

Also Read: First Aid at Work

NFPAWA focuses its module on the benchmarks as indicated in this standard. On attending NFPAWA PSRM 01 training you will learn in this module the prescriptive based approach in the classification of occupancies, the various benchmark for proper design, specification, and material used for all occupancy types, special considerations that most construction persons take for granted as they type of windows and exterior walls required for certain occupancies in relation to the weather, the type of roof requirement for roof assemblies and roof structures, using consideration from ASTM code: that resists fire and provides weather protection to the building against water infiltration, wind, and impact.

To understand more about the Building and Safety code, the proper structural consideration and materials for construction, and life-safety consideration. kindly register for in-depth training with us at info@scspng.com

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