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 m construction projects. Nine construction projects were purposively enrolled to the study, comprising six civil engineering and three building construction project. Hie 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 m 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 lias 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 costmg 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.