Health and safety issues and mitigation measures relating to adaptive-retrofits projects: Literature review research implications for the Ghanaian construction industry

摘要

Adaptive-retrofit projects (ARPs) are associated with dire health and safety (H&S) issues which are fragmented and scattered in the existing literature on retrofitting, refurbishment, renovation, rehabilitation, and repair and maintenance work (5R+M). To effectively guide the safe execution of ARPs, these fragmented and scattered issues together with their mitigation measures need to be identified and consolidated into a single unified coherent insight. Therefore this paper, as part of an on-going PhD research on ARPs in Ghana, reviews academic literature to identify and compile a comprehensive list of the H&S issues with their mitigation measures for ARPs. After performing electronic database literature searches and subsequent critical examination of the literature obtained, thirty-six (36) health and safety issues/challenges and twenty-six seven (27) mitigation measures relating to execution of ARPs were identified. These findings provide a sound preliminary basis for further empirical studies towards the development of a coherent and unified guidance for the safe execution of ARPs in Ghana while taking into account local conditions that could also induce additional H&S issues which may not be apparent in the extant literature.