Costing of Health and Safety Elements in Construction Projects in Gauteng, South Africa

The current study reports on findings from a study on the costing of health and safety elements in construction projects. Nine construction projects were purposively enrolled to the study, comprising six civil engineering and three building construction projects. The findings showed that H&S elements were costed by contractors using an itemised breakdown even though such items were not included as a trade items in the Bills of Quantities (BOQs). The costs established from actual expenses incurred on construction projects revealed that H&S expenditure ranged between 3 and 4% for projects with a value below R500 million and between 4 and 5% for projects with a value above R500 million. Further, H&S costs were found to be directly proportional to the projects value and indirectly influenced by the client. Costing of H&S elements has been a challenging task as there is no standard on how H&S elements should be priced in the South African construction industry. The lack of a framework to assist with costing of H&S elements on construction projects makes accurate and adequate monitoring of H&S costs to be problematic. Thus, a standardised pricing framework can assist contractors to cost and for clients to adequately evaluate bids and or variations on construction projects, and to ensure that provision for H&S as provided for by the Construction Regulations 2014 is made.