Managing a construction project is a tedious task, as you are well aware. You need to coordinate multiple trades and even multiple supervisors or project managers. Coordinating all the people, materials, and equipment is a tough enough task, so you want to ensure the site conditions are adequate for your teams to get the project underway safely.

Construction site inspections and site condition audits are critical elements of managing a project from inception to fruition. Routine inspections of your construction site will help avert incidents, mitigate issues like logistics and equipment placement, and allow your teams a safer work environment.

Let’s take a deep dive into all aspects of the construction site inspection concerning the site conditions for your teams. We’ll provide you with some actionable steps critical to your site audit success. And some practical tips you can use today to start providing a more efficient and effective process for your construction site inspections.

Construction Site Inspections – A Necessary Evil?

Depending on the scope of your project, an internal auditor may be all that is required. When your project contract calls for an external auditor, that’s when things can get expensive. A typical commercial building and site inspector could run into the tens of thousands of dollars. (source)

However, today’s mission is to discuss completing internal construction site inspections utilizing your team members. And even then, there is still a cost to conducting an assessment. These costs will be:

• Labor costs for the time of the inspector/auditor
• Project time loss for the time that the project must pause to allow an inspection to occur

Many project managers cringe at the thought of inspections, knowing that these inspections can act as a brake on the speed of your project to reach fruition. But, it doesn’t have to be something that we cringe at nor fear.

Consider your costs of inspection versus costs of accidents. A study published on Science Direct tells of how the average costs of accidents at construction sites equate to a percentage of the overall project cost:

“Average total accident cost (TAC) account for 0.25% of contract sum.”

Assuming a contract cost of $1 million, the average cost of accidents is $2500. Considering a brief inspection could avoid this average cost at a much lower rate, financially speaking, it makes no sense to avoid inspection. Remember, though that is the average over an array of projects. Serious injury or even fatalities can cost companies millions of dollars.

Knowing that there are many possible incident scenarios, from accidents to the incorrect equipment arriving for the site conditions, it should be evident that regular and routine construction site inspections are necessary, even if you view them as ‘evil’ and costly. The costs of accidents or site closures due to safety violations are almost always much, much more expensive than the audit cost.

9 Critical Tips For Site Condition Inspections

Completing a pre-construction site inspection or even mid-project is vital to your project’s ongoing safety and logistics. Due to the importance of this task in aiding your site management, we’ve put together nine critical things to include in your construction site inspection.

1. Ensure All Members Of Your Site Team Are Aware Of The Inspection  

One of the essential things to include as part of your site condition inspection is ensuring all members of your site team are aware that an internal construction site inspection is occurring. One common reason for lapses in construction safety and logistics on-site is unannounced visits or inspections. Throughout a project, materials may be moved around and placed at one location temporarily before being relocated permanently. Equipment could also move from one location to another, depending on work zone needs and availability. If you want to guarantee the best possible results for your construction site inspection, ensuring all team members know it’s happening will help minimize any poor behavior due to lack of preparation or awareness.

2. Conduct The Inspection During The Same Time Of Day As Your Project

Utilizing the same time of day can help you control factors like sun glare, shadows, and lighting changes. Using the same time of day for your site condition inspection will also help determine how things are performing throughout this timeframe.

If you notice that an area is consistently worse during one part of the day than another, there might be a good reason for it (specific equipment often being in use or employees taking their breaks at different times). If discovered on-site early enough, it can help you manage your schedule better to minimize delays due to easily preventable issues.

3. Have A Digital Reporting System

Inspections are always more effective when the information found is accurate and precise. In addition to taking notes during your site inspection, it can be an excellent idea to utilize a mobile app like the 1st Reporting app to take pictures or video of any specific areas that need attention or where safety violations have occurred. Having digital records will provide you with greater accuracy and allow for easier sharing of this information among team members and your supervisors.

4. Don’t Ignore Any Violations Or Issues Found During The Inspection  

A construction site inspection is about much more than just being there so that you can tick off the check-boxes on the list in front of you. You need to approach each project from an unbiased perspective, ensuring you’re checking everything thoroughly before implementing solutions to address the problems. Doing so will help you ensure no safety hazards on your site and that all logistics issues are managed effectively.

5. Make Sure You Pay Attention To Any Extreme Weather Conditions

Extreme weather is often unpredictable and can cause construction delays or even emergencies that require immediate intervention. If you do notice extreme weather conditions during your inspection, it’s always best to prioritize any necessary precautions immediately to ensure the safety of all employees at your site.

Storms may be brutal for some mobile equipment, especially mobile cranes with mobile jibs. As soon as possible, mobile crane operators should communicate with mobile operators about the safest routes to move mobile equipment under the circumstances. It is to avoid mobile crane contact with overhead power lines or other catastrophic preventable incidents.

6. Mid-Project Inspections Can Be Very Effective In Addressing Data Gaps And Potential Issues

Mid-project inspections can be an excellent way to address data gaps and potential issues before they become more significant problems later in the project. In addition, it allows you to provide up-to-date feedback on progress so far while still giving them time to resolve any issues that came up during your inspection.

It also allows you to better approach planning moving forward while providing employees with an opportunity to speak up about anything that might have been missed or changed since your last site visit.

7. You Need To Include A Discussion Of Emergency Response Procedures During The Inspection  

Emergencies don’t wait for ideal times or “appropriate” circumstances to pop up. You need to ensure that your team members and contractors are trained in the proper procedures they should follow when dealing with an emergency. As these kinds of problems can often be unpredictable, it’s essential to ensure everyone on site will know what to do — and how quickly they need to respond.

8. Ensure All Employees And Contractors Are Trained In Any Necessary Procedures Or Standards

As with any construction site, there is always the potential for injuries, accidents, and even fatalities on-site if safety is not put first at all times. Consistent training in best practices for safety is essential so that every worker knows what they should be doing to remain safe and healthy.

Try instituting a safe buddy system for site guests. It means you should have one of your personnel fully trained on all safety procedures on-site to escort any untrained guest who requires site access.

A buddy system isn’t preferential to having anyone on-site fully trained. Still, some situations arise where a site visitor, perhaps an investor or the property owner, comes to the site and requires safe passage.

9. You Need To Include A Discussion Of Logistical Issues During The Inspection

Logistics are the backbone of every construction site. Although logistics are often overseen by a completely different team within your organization, it’s still essential for you to address logistical concerns during your inspections. It is no less accurate if logistics issues do not fall directly under your jurisdiction or responsibility.

Asking contractors about their logistics should be part of any construction site inspection. Still, if no problems arise in these discussions, it can also be helpful to check in with other team members on-site who may have additional input on potential issues.

If your team is operating multiple types of equipment as part of the logistical processes, you also need to ensure your team follows proper equipment inspection procedures. You can use printed vehicle inspection forms, or you can use a more sophisticated and efficient system. Namely, a digital reporting solution that encompasses a mobile form automation solution for all of your reporting needs is a better idea than print.

Benefits of Adopting A Mobile Construction Site Inspection Solution

Explicitly focusing on mobile reporting and information management, the 1st Reporting mobile app allows workers and managers on construction sites to report and communicate safety and site conditions, mobile issues (including portable equipment and mobile crane-related mobile safety), roadway obstructions, forestry-related mobile hazards, mobile storage hazards, and any other mobile hazards on a mobile phone or tablet.

Workers can use the app’s real-time reporting system to submit their reports with photo-based documentation of mobile safety and site conditions as well as time-stamped data such as date/time submitted, user name, user email address/ phone number, location information using GPS coordinates.

You can customize the templates and forms, although the library of existing pre-made forms is extensive.

The app utilizes a customizable notification system. Team members complete their reports, and the reports are instantly sent via push notifications to team members responsible for responding and managing situations on site. A full suite of customizable reporting forms is offered by 1st Reporting that may be used for custom workflows and processes.

Mobile site inspection is part of construction site inspections. They include mobile safety and mobile workflows that you must address for your enterprise to continue operating at the highest level possible.

Explicitly designed so any manager may effortlessly manage workflows, the 1st Reporting app helps by doing several other things like helping your team to:

– Report on conditions

– Respond to reports

– Find solutions to problems

– Set up notifications for critical issues (using customizable push notifications)

– Track progress over time, including measuring key performance indicators (KPI’s) like issue response and issue resolution timeliness, and mobile site inspections

All mobile reporting happens using a mobile form built into the app that uses interactive checklists and input fields to collect critical information about construction site conditions and other issues on your construction sites. The 1st Reporting app is available for both Apple iOS and Android devices, so no matter what platform you prefer, you can utilize the mobile solution. You can install it directly onto your smartphone or tablet or access it via your browser if you don’t want to download it onto an existing personal device.

Using the mobile reporting system has several benefits over paper-based forms:

• The reports can instantly capture time-sensitive mobile site conditions
• The mobile reporting forms are mobile device friendly. They are developed to be mobile-device optimized to easily use with a mobile phone or tablet versus a non-mobile form.
• Reports utilizing mobile devices require less time and effort from users, thereby encouraging more comprehensive reporting.

In addition, there is no need to maintain paper copies of reports as all mobile site inspection-related information is stored within your account for easy access whenever you need it in the future.

The mobile report data is captured electronically and organized into digital dashboards, which give you powerful insights about construction site conditions, including mobile safety, other mobile conditions, and mobile workflows.

---

As it should be apparent by this point that construction site inspections are crucial if not critical to the operations of construction projects. Considering including the tips above in your inspection protocol is recommended for optimal inspection success. Similarly, utilizing a mobile reporting solution that can include automation to boost process efficiency is an excellent move towards lowering operating costs and time to complete processes.