Risks have huge negative consequences on the performance of construction projects [1]. For many years, construction industry has been known to have high risks which affect all stakeholders in the industry [3]. The risks include contractual risks, design risks, construction risks and financial risks, among others [4]. These risks are diverse and unavoidable hence the best way to deal with them is to create a risk management plan [5], irrespective of the size of the project [6]. Risk management entails identifying hazards, assessing frequency and severity of the hazards, minimizing risks to levels that can be tolerated by the society, ensuring that there is proper control and monitoring of the risks, and communicating to all stakeholders about these activities. Risk management process is very important in ensuring that the objectives of the project are achieved. The project studied in this report is Brisbane Quarter. The contractor of the project, Multiplex, is preparing this risk management plan so as to avoid or minimize risks as much as possible. This will help in completing the project successfully. The plan has been prepared by following the principles and guidelines of AS/NZS ISO 31000:2009.
Brisbane Quarter is one of the biggest mixed-use development projects ever in Queensland, Australia. The project is located at 300 George Street on the former Law courts site, along Brisbane River. It is borders by George Street, Ann Street, Adelaide Street and North Quay. Shayher Group, developer of this project, bought the site in 2013 for $63 billion [7], and was approved by Brisbane City Council in December 2013 to implement the project. The development comprises of three towers: an 82-storey luxury residential tower (Tower 1) with 467 apartments, a 34-storey hotel tower (Tower 2) with 312 hotel rooms, and a 41-storey office tower (Tower 3) with 58.92m2 of office space. There will also be a retail shopping mall comprising of a master ballroom, retail stores and conference facilities on the first three floors underneath the three towers [8]. Demolition of the former law court buildings started in 2014 and construction of this project commenced in 2015 and is estimated to cost over AU$1 billion [9]. Upon completion, Tower 1 will be second tallest building in Brisbane. Figure 1 below shows the aerial view of Brisbane Quarter.
Figure 1: Aerial view of Brisbane Quarter [10]
Brisbane Quarter is susceptible to a wide range of risks, just like any other construction project. Because of constraints, this report only focuses on health and safety risks associated with the project.
The developer of Brisbane Quarter is Shayher Group. The Group has appointed Multiplex, a global contractor, to build the towers [11]. The main objective of Brisbane Quarter project is to rejuvenate business in Brisbane. The project aims to attract local residents, local and international business communities, and tourists for leisure and business activities, create employment opportunities for local residents, and make Brisbane a global tourist and business destination.
According to Work Health and safety Act 2011 [12], all employers are required to ensure that safety and health of workers is prioritized and guaranteed in their working environments. The risk management plan in this report is prepared in accordance with the principles and guidelines of AS/NZS ISO 31000:2009. Another Australian Standard that has been used to prepare this risk management plan is IEC/ISO 31000:2009 (risk assessment techniques). These are Australian Standards that were formulated to help businesses or companies minimize/manage risks so as to complete their projects successfully. The overall risk management process followed in this report is as illustrated in Figure 2 below. With this process, all potential health and safety risks of the project will be identified, analyzed, evaluated, treated and monitored thus reducing their adverse effects on the project.
Figure 2: Overall risk management process [13]
Communication and consultation are very important in successful implementation of any engineering project. Through communication and consultation, stakeholders share knowledge, experiences and challenges. It also improves collaboration between stakeholders thus minimizing conflicts and disputes [14]. It is also through effective communication that stakeholders get to understand their roles and responsibilities, and seek help when necessary [14]. Based on the experience that Multiplex has in construction industry, the company will have a comprehensive communication and consultation plan to ensure that all stakeholders involved in the project are fully informed on every activity.
The objectives of communication and consultation plan are: share information with all stakeholders about components, benefits and implementation of risk management plan; educate stakeholders about risks and their harms; give stakeholders an opportunity to provide their opinions on how risks should be minimized/managed; get to know the interests of each stakeholder; enhance coordination and collaboration among stakeholders; help stakeholders understand their responsibilities and the consequences of failing to accomplish them; share challenges that stakeholders are experiencing; ensure that stakeholders are updated with the progress of the project; and encourage stakeholders to have common goals and work together to achieve them.
For risks to be managed properly, the goals and interests of stakeholders must be understood [15]. This helps in ensuring that stakeholders are allocated roles and responsibilities which they are able to execute effectively and help implement risk management plan. This project involves numerous internal and external stakeholders, who have varied power and interests. Stakeholders with more power have greater influence on the project compared to those with low power. Generally, understanding the powers and interests of stakeholders helps to understand the key players in the project, the stakeholders to be prioritized, level/frequency of communication with the stakeholders, and how to meet the needs of each stakeholder. Figure 3 below shows a typical power/interest matrix
Figure 3: Typical power/interest matrix [16]
As shown in Figure 3 above, there are different categories of stakeholders, each with a varying degree of power and interest in the project. This matrix will help Multiplex to know how to deal with each stakeholder.
Establishing context mainly involves defining the risk management context, internal and external contexts, roles and responsibilities of stakeholders, and risk criteria.
This risk management plan only focuses on health and safety issue related to Brisbane Quarter. The plan will only be used to mitigate health and safety risks to the workers, public and the environment. This is important because workers, public and the environment are highly susceptible to health and safety issues in this kind of projects [18]. Therefore, their health and safety should always come first [19]. The project is located along Brisbane River thus posing risks to the water quality of the river, aquatic life and residents and businesses that depend on the river. It also involves use of different materials, equipment, plant and machines, which pose various health and safety risks to workers. So the risk management plan will establish the best ways of managing these health and safety risks, such as training of workers [20].
Multiplex is a Sydney-based leading global contractor that has vast experience in development of high rise buildings, civil infrastructure, high end residential properties, stadia, education facilities, mixed-use properties and health facilities. The company operates in Australia, The Middle East, Europe, Canada and India. Since being founded in 1962, Multiplex has completed over 920 projects, including Wembley Stadium, The Emirates Tower, Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, King Street Wharf, Melbourne Square, Swanston Academic Building, Perth Stadium, JW Marriott Marquis, and 65 Sussex St., among others [21]. The work of projects completed so far is valued at US$71 billion and the company’ revenue in 2016 was US$4.4 billion [22].
Brisbane Quarter is a project that is being developed and owned by Shayher Group, a Taiwan-based residential and commercial real estate development company. The company is a subsidiary of Pau Jar Group, a global private property developer. The company’s vision is to develop exciting precincts and spur economic growth of Brisbane. One of these projects is The Hamilton, a new and impressive retail, commercial and residential community in Northshore Hamilton. Other projects completed by Shayher Group include Former CSIRO Indooroopily, Hurstville Plaza and Former HM Prison Pentridge Apartment. Brisbane Quarter project is expected to revitalize business in Brisbane by attracting both local and international investors, business owners, entrepreneurs and tourists. The project is projected to create thousands of jobs directly and indirectly, generate revenue for the government and put Brisbane on the global map as a business and tourist destination. The company is collaborating with Brisbane City Council to implement this project.
Brisbane Quarter is prone to numerous construction risks, which cannot be covered in this report. For this reason, this risk management plan only focuses on health and safety risks. The risks also have varied probabilities of occurrence, consequences and severity. The risks to be analyzed will be selected by following the acceptance criteria provided in section 4.2.3.
Internal and external stakeholders
Some of the internal and external stakeholders in this project are provided in Table 1 below
Table 1: Internal and external stakeholders
Internal Stakeholders External Stakeholders
Multiplex board of directors (executive and non-executive directors) Brisbane City Council
Multiplex financial manager Subcontractors
Multiplex technical manager Suppliers
Multiplex risk manager Society (general public)
Multiplex auditor Environmental agencies
Multiplex partners Financial institutions
Multiplex employees
Some of the specific roles and responsibilities of stakeholders are provided in Table 2 below
Table 2: Roles/responsibilities of stakeholders
Stakeholder(s) Roles/responsibilities
Multiplex board of directors Formulate risk management policy
Review and approve risk management plan
Provide needed management support to implement risk management plan
Multiplex financial manager Ensure that adequate resources are allocated to for implementation of risk management plan
Multiplex technical manager Ensure that the project is designed to minimize risks throughout its lifecycle
Approve risk management plan
Multiplex risk manager Ensure that risk management plan is effectively implemented, monitored and reviewed
Oversee implementation of risk management plan
Train staffs on risk management
Multiplex auditor Ensure that resources allocated for implementation of risk management plan are utilized appropriately
Multiplex partners Provide financial, technical and any other kind of support when needed
Multiplex employees Comply with the policies and practices in the risk management plan
Brisbane City Council Formulate health and safety policies and standards
Supervise the project to ensure compliance with set health and safety requirements
Subcontractors Ensure that all works are done in compliance with the safety and health standards in the contract
Suppliers Ensure that products and services provided meet the minimum health and safety requirements in the contract
Society Give suggestions on how the company should attain high level of health and safety
Raise concerns whenever their health and safety is compromised
Environmental agencies Collaborate with other stakeholders to identify threats of the project on the environment
Carry out environmental impact assessment of the project
Financial institutions Provide financial support for full implementation of the project, including the risk management plan
Risk assessment in this report mainly involves identification, analysis and evaluation of risks, in accordance with AS/NZS 31000:2009. These activities are as follows
Safety is one of the core values of Multiplex. The company uses its health and safety expertise to completely eliminate or minimize risks. They ensure that their projects adhere to OHSAS 18001 or AS/NZS 4801 standards [23]. According to IEC 31010:2009 [24], there are various methods used to identify risks. Some of these include: brainstorming, direct observations, interviews, fault tree analysis (FTA), checklists, scenario analysis, bow tie analysis, surveys, structured ‘what-if’ technique (SWIFT), and incident analysis, among other. The risk identification methods that has been used by Multiplex are past experience, checklists, brainstorming and interviews with professionals. The following are some of the items that were included in the checklists: hoarding/fencing of the site, use of personal protective equipment (PPE), materials storage, plant/equipment use, training of staffs, posting of safety and emergency signs, availability and statuses of first aid tools, protection of visitors on site, performing of safety induction, edge protection of the site, environmental assessment studies, endangered species or heritage properties, working space, noise levels, etc. Checklists can be prepared from the company’s past experience or crisis management reports of previous engineering project failures [25]. Using these methods, various risks have been identified as shown in the risk register in Appendix 1
Risk is a quantitative component of uncertainty whose probability of occurrence and size of damage can be estimated [26]. Risk analysis involves determining severity of the risk. However, the likelihood and consequences of the risk should be identified first.
There are various techniques of risk analysis. Some of these include: risk matrix, analytic hierarchy process (AHP), failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA), expert judgment, expected monetary value analysis and fuzzy logic assessment. Multiplex has used risk matrix in preparing this risk management plan. The risk matrix is as shown in Table 3 below (likelihood and consequences are given a score on a scale of 1 to 5).
Table 3: Risk matrix
Insignificant (1) Minor (2) Moderate (3) Major (4) Catastrophic (5)
Certain (5) M H H E E
Most likely (4) M M H H E
Likely (3) L M M H E
Unlikely (2) L M M M H
Rare (1) L L M M M
Purple means low risk that can be managed using routine procedures; M – blue means medium risk that is acceptable but has to be monitored/treated; H – orange means high risk and the top level management should take action; and E – dark red means extreme risk that requires comprehensive investigation and treatment.
Exiting risk controls
Some of the controls that Multiplex is currently using to manage risks are provided in Appendix 1.
Risk acceptance criteria
Risks have varied levels of influence on the project. The acceptance criteria used by Multiplex is FMEA. In this risk analysis technique, RPN (risk priority number) is determined so as to establish risks that have huge impact on the project. Risks with high values of RPN are the ones that have to be prioritized because they threaten the entire project. FMEA technique basically identifies, quantifies and mitigates sources of risks. The summary of FMEA analysis is provided in Appendix 2. From the results obtained, two risks, airborne substances and chemicals and water quality, have very high values of RPN. Therefore Multiplex will prioritize these two in terms of risk control.
Risk Evaluation
Some of the commonly used risk evaluation techniques include FMEA, Fault Tree Analysis (FTA), As Low As Reasonably Practicable (ALARP), Monte Carlo Simulation, cause and effect, and Hazard and Operation Study (HAZOP). Multiplex has used ALARP to evaluate risks. This technique is mainly used for identifying risks that should be treated first and those that require further treatment, depending on the effectiveness of current controls [27]; [28]. ALARP categorizes risks into three regions: intolerable region, tolerable region and acceptable region, as illustrated in Figure 4 below
Figure 4: ALARP principle [29]
In overall, risks that need further treatment are airborne substances and chemicals, water quality, machines and equipment, and falling objects.
Risks can be managed by various technique, including risk avoidance, risk transfer, risk sharing, risk reduction, risk retention, or risk control. Risk treatment techniques include elimination, substitution, use of engineering controls, use of administrative actions, and use of PPE [30]. Multiplex will apply a variety of risk treatment options including: training of workers, reducing the amount of toxic substances used, proper storage of chemicals to reduce exposure, proper labelling of chemicals to avoid mishandling, frequent water quality tests, proper waste disposal, proper maintenance of machines and plant, close supervision of activities, frequent audits, transfer of risks to responsible parties, and strict adherence to wearing the right PPE. The most suitable treatment options will be selected by considering various factors such as resource requirements (cost, time and expertise), effectiveness of the option, ease of implementation, flexibility of the option, benefits of the options and technology used to implement the option. By applying the right treatment option(s), the likelihood, occurrence, consequences and severity of the risks should drop significantly.
It is a requirement in the AS/NZS 31000:2009 standard for implementation of a risk management plan to be monitored and reviewed. In construction industry, conditions, stakeholders, powers and interests do change thus affecting risks. Risk monitoring and review helps in determining the effectiveness of treatment options implemented and if there is need to change or improve the options. Multiplex will use the monitoring schedule provided in Table 4 below
Table 4: Risk monitoring and review schedule
Activity Frequency
Risk checklists Daily
Risk inspection Weekly
Risk register Weekly
Health and safety reports Weekly
Health and safety training Monthly
Health and safety meetings Monthly
Safety inductions Quarterly
Internal safety & health audit Quarterly
Monitoring of risk management plan implementation will include the following activities: performing water quality tests of Brisbane River and keeping records of results obtained, asking workers of any health complications, asking local residents if there are any effects that the project has on their daily activities, frequent checks of activities on site by the risk or safety manager, frequent checks on those violating health and safety rules, and collecting feedback from workers on the impacts of risk treatment options implemented.
The risk manager at Multiplex has the power to close any risk and remove it from the risk register. Nevertheless, this can only be done if certain conditions are met. First, the best risk treatment method should have been successfully implemented within the pre-determined period. Second, the risk level of that particular risk should have reduced substantially to acceptable region. Third, the possibility of this risk occurring should be almost zero. Last but not least, the top management should review and approve the proposal by the risk manager to close the risk.
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