1、Study on Risk Management of construction projects【摘要】As millions of large and small projects are carried out every year， people are using project management to manage the projects. However， the transient， unique， and complex nature of construction projects makes the management difficulty and the fac
2、t is risk is everywhere. Implementing risk management in construction projects and organizations may bring a plenty of benefits and therefore it is necessary to have risk management as an integral part of project management. It is found that any risk will directly or indirectly lead the accident and
3、 bring serious loss of money and even deaths and injuries. In order to deal with the possible risk in construction projects， risk management is highly recommended， which contributes a lot to control the risks， improve the work performance and ensure the safety of on-site construction. In a word， ris
4、k management in construction is crucial to make sure the construction projects and each step should be given enough attention. 【关键词】Construction， Risk management， Project management 一、Introduction On 15 November，2008， the construction site of Hangzhou subway collapsed， destroyed more than 100 meters
5、 of Feigning Avenue with about 20 meter collapse depth and the water of the nearby water intruded to the collapsed tunnel. 21 people were killed and four people were missing， the rest of the missing had no hope to survive. The accident caused so much attention by the media and the public， even exper
6、ts considered the accident as the largest metro accident in history. It is a difficult undertaking to manage a project as a large number of projects fail to be completed on time， on budget， or meet all requirements. Discussing how to carry out a project successfully， especially for those projects of
7、 construction industry which is far more complicate makes sense. Clough et al （2000 ） regard construction projects as complicated and time-costing undertakings， made up of some phases requiring a large amount of professional services. The basic elements such as suitable environmental conditions， inv
8、estment， engineers， managers and trained workers， insurance will help to guarantee each stage continuous and distinct. Moreover， The construction projects such as the underground engineering is more difficult to manage due to its complexity characteristics. （一）What is Project Management ？ As a resul
9、t， project management （PM） is introduced. The most influential institute， Project Management Institute who governs the professional regulations defines the project management as the application of knowledge， skills， tools， and techniques to project activities in order to meet the balance of scope， t
10、ime， and cost， which is known as the “triple constraints”. Kerzner （2009） ， one of the most respected experts， begins his book with the definition quite ironically but properly， writes that project management is the art of creating the illusion that any outcome is the result of a series of predeterm
11、ined， deliberate actions however the fact is it is a dumb luck. Dearstyne （2012） points out one main reason of managing the project unsuccessfully is that the units evaluate the risks inadequately and make the plans improperly at the beginning of the process. （二） What is Risk Management？ The risk is
12、 everywhere： some risks may make the project difficult， some may lead the project managers feel anxiety， and others are major ruinous events or even make the project come to a halt. When faced with high technical and scientific uncertainties， the migration of safety risk is the main target of constr
13、uction efforts. Here， risk management is highly welcomed as a part of project management， especially in the construction industry， to incorporate risk management into project management. The risk averse are those people who dont like the risk， avoid risk and against risk， they are very reluctant to
14、take any type of risk and prefer to a more certain result. Risk management therefore becomes a continuing activity in project development， from inception and throughout the life of the projects， and its strategic potential by some specific skills， as well as the risk manager who can easily identify
15、the relevant potential risks and give suggestions to control the risks. 二、The possible risks of construction projects The first step in creating an effective risk management system is to understand the qualitative distinctions among the types of risks that organizations face. A key step in this proc
16、ess is risk identification， as the ability to assess， analyse， respond， monitor and communicate is influenced by how well the identification process has been undertaken （Chapman， 2001）. For example， risks are classified from organizational areas， technical areas and contract areas. There are three c
17、ategories of risk in order to relate the risk categories to the levels of project objectives： operational， short term and long term. Some risks sources central to the construction activities， such as physical， environmental， design， logistics， financial， legal， social and operational risks. Its urge
18、nt to study how to manage the construction projects with useful approaches and we should carefully examine and take the management actions in these complex fields. Here is a table of the main risk types of construction projects. 三、How to deal with the risks of construction projects？ For the construc
19、tion projects， safety is of vital importance， therefore its necessary to discuss the measures that need to be taken to reduce or eliminate the risk from construction project before the accidents happen. The measures can be concluded from organizational management aspect， technique aspect and economy
20、 aspect. The detail methods of organizational management aspect are discussed below. （一）Build an effective construction team and supervision system .Project owner -prevent risk from decision making .Administrative staff and manager-reduce risk from tracking the project .Construction workers-decrease
21、 the risk from the performance of workers .Rules-manage the risk from regulations （二）Less subcontracting， less risk Mieghem values the choice of subcontracting as a approach to boost the financial performance and system cooperation. However， we should rethink about the costs and benefits of subcontr
22、acting. Chinese current level of qualification standards for construction enterprises cant meet the requirements of the construction market to further broken down， coupled with the qualified high consumption of project bidding， the low level of qualification enterprises cannot contract projects from
23、 tendering directly， which provides a huge market for the overall transfer of engineering contract， loan qualification and illegal subcontracting. Therefore， subcontracting is the common fault in the construction industry. （三）Other proper approaches Furthermore， other measures could be taken to mana
24、ge the risk by techniques and economic methods. The techniques include modeling， error analysis， reliability assessment， flow chart， decision tree and so on. It is also suggested that construction companies should make the contract and insurance carefully， like design the terms and structure of contract， analysis the list of insurance and manage the cost accounting strictly. If it is not possible to eliminate the hazard， think about how you can change the task， process and work environment to make the work safer， or whether you need to review the work equipment to reduce the risk.
