LO1 Review health and safety regulations and legislation associated with the storage, handling and use of materials on a construction site.

Unit Learning Outcomes
LO1 Review health and safety regulations and legislation associated with the storage, handling and use of
materials on a construction site.
LO2 Discuss the environmental and sustainability factors which can impact on and influence the material
choices for a construction project.
LO3 Present material choices for a given building using performance properties, experimental data,
sustainability and environmental consideration.
LO4 Evaluate the performance of a given building in respect of its human comfort requirements.
Assignment Brief and Guidance
You are employed by a large general contractor, as a Design Build Technician. The company has recently
appointed a new Managing Director who has decided to shift the company’s focus towards greater use of
sustainable practices. To achieve this, the Managing Director has asked you to prepare reports on how to
improve sustainability and awareness of the environmental impact of construction activities within the
construction process.
The Managing Director suggests that your presentation covers the following tasks:
a) .Explain the main procedures involved in the safe storage of construction materials and
construction waste on site
b) Some materials need special handling either due to their weight or to the effect they may have on
health, outline the procedures involved with a material containing dangerous dust and a second
where weight is an issue
c) Outline how a risk assement is conducted on the excavation of a service trench aand compare
this with the risks of working on scaffolding. Prepare a risk assessment for cutting a concrete
paving slab and show how these procedures help improve the standard of Health and Safety in
modern construction sites.
d) Explain how many different health and safety regulations such as Constructin Design
Management and other recent developments in health and safety regulations apply to a site
activity with which you are familiar helping to ensure a safe handling and use of the materials
used.
TASK 2
(a) Explain material environmental profiling and life cycle assessment in a civil engineering
context. Show how this is influencing the choice of materials for a specific construction project
with which you might be familiar or where a case study is available.
(b) Discuss the benefits of product declaration and environmental certification in establishing a
good environmental profile either for a construction project that you are famillar with or a case
study that has been published..
(c) Produce a waste management plan for a given project, taking into account a typical range of
relevant waste materials.
(d) Give examples of sustainable practices and considerations for material choice which have
contributed to good environmental ratings for a typical building. (For this part it is suggested
that you consult the information available from the BRE
TASK3
(a) Taking the results from tests that you have conducted in the laboratory, show that different
materials are suitable for use in the building structural framework, or in provision of insulation
(b) Discuss these results in terms of the material properties and regulatory requirements.
(c) Show how testing procedures are designed to overcome the variation inherent in construction
materials and how statistical methods are used to investigate results that are very different from
those of most of the other values in the sample.
(d) The choice of building materials for the outside of the building are to be selected for their
performance and environmental characteristics. Suggest suitable materials and state clearly why
this choice has been made.
(e) Examine the choice of materials for the columns in the building referring to Euler’s buckling
formula to show how the main considerations that are needed to prevent buckling. Give an
example of the testing procedure that would be used to check that the material would be able to
support a structure.
(f) Show how the use of appropriate materials and other sustainable practices and design work
contribute to an improved environmental rating .
TASK4
(a) State clearly what are the five main requirements for human comfort within the building under
construction.
(b) For each of the main requirements in a) above indicate what characteristics are needed in the
materials used in the structure to ensure human comfort with the minimum of environmental
disturbance.
(c) There are several office areas within this multi-use building, show what charctersitics of materials
and passive design choices used for this area which will help to promote human comfort..
(d) Estimate the rate in kilowatts at which heat needs to be generated in the building to maintain an
inside temperature of 200C when the outside temperature is at 00C assuming that the windows
make up 30% of the outside wall area. That the walls are insulated to a U value of 0.2,watts m-2
0C-1 the roof and floor to a U value of 0.23 watts m-2 0C-1 and the windows (triple glazed have a
U value of 0.9 watts m-2 0C-1.
(e) If the building is designed for 150 occupants some of whom are sitting most of the time but some
are quite active assume that the average need for fresh air averages out at 8 litres per second per
person. Calculate how much heat would be lost supplying this amount of cold fresh air when the
outside air is at 00C assuming that the specific heat capacity of the air is 1kJm-3 oC-1
(f) One of the spaces inside the building is used for meetings and can hold up to 200 people if
needed. The dimensions of this space are 17m x 30mx8m high. The walls of this are 30% glass
with an absorption coefficient of (double glazing with 10mm gap) at 500Hz = 0.03, the walls of
acoustic timber wall panelling 0.42, the floor as carpeted over concrete is 0.25 and the ceiling is
covered with perforated plaster board with an absorption coefficient of 0.85. Calculate the
reverberation time of this space.
(g) Discuss what is menat by passive and active design. Show how passive and active design
methods can reduce the energy used by the occupants of the building, minimise the use of non-
renewable materials, cut down on water use and minimise the footprint of the building.
The Scenario for Task 4
As a new HND Civil Engineering graduate you are employed by a medium sized
construction company seeking to establish good environmental credentials. They
have a contract to build a new multi-use development including offices, flats, a public
space and retail or other space accessible to the public. The site previously ownded
by the local authority contained a chemicals factory which has been demolished and
the site decontaminated by the local authority prior to selling to a property developer
who has awarded the contract to the company on condition that the development
meets high environmental standards.
The site extends to some 20,000m2
of which 12,000m2
is to be a public open space
with children’s play ground and a leisure area where city centre workers can enjoy
lunch in the open air. The footprint ot the development is 8,000m2
and may be built
as high as 40m. The public access part of the development will run along the main
road which is on the north side of the site with a frontage of 200m. it will have 10
each floor will have 3.5m of space from floor to ceiling floors with a slab floor at each