Physiological Demands of Concrete Slab Placing and Finishing Work

Abstract

Construction craft work is physically demanding. As a result, many craft workers become excessively fatigued, which may lead to decreased productivity and motivation, inattentiveness, poor judgment, poor quality work, job dissatisfaction, accidents, and injuries. This paper investigates the feasibility of measuring in situ physical demands of concrete slab placing and finishing work and how this physical demand may be used to characterize both work intensity and whether the demands are physically fatiguing to the workers. Physiological measures of energy expenditure, including oxygen consumption and heart rate data, were collected for an eight-member concrete slab placing and finishing crew performing actual construction work. The results reveal that most of the crew members who were performing manual work experienced heavy physical demands and more potential for physical fatigue compared with those operating construction machinery and equipment. These workers routinely exceed one or more published guidelines for acceptable levels of energy expenditure, oxygen consumption, and heart rate. The methods described in this paper have wide application in identifying excessively demanding construction tasks so the work can be modified and productivity improved.