Eliminating Health and Safety Risk when Performing Localised Concrete Pours

To support the building infrastructure it is necessary to build a drainage system using concrete. The drainage covers require a surrounding concrete support structure and the volume required for each is relatively small at c.1m3.

Access to the drain cover locations is over unmade ground and this presents ergonomic manual handling challenges. The team identified a proprietary concrete bucket that can be directly attached to the arm of the excavator. This allows concrete to be directly loaded into the bucket from a wagon.

The concrete pouring bucket allows controlled pouring of the concrete. In addition the team identified the potential for spillage and designed/built a shuttering structure to avoid spillage.

The team has advised that this new method has increased productivity of the operation and a number of benefits have been realised including:

• Elimination of potential risk from working under a suspended load
• Eliminate manual handling for the person holding the pour hose
• Improved efficiency to construct a drain cover unit
• Reduced COSHH exposure to concrete
• Only using the required amount of concrete for the pour as it involves direct loading into the pouring bucket
• The design of the shuttering containment enables controlled filling of the void
• The slope of the shuttering is towards the void which reduces the risk of spillage to ground
• Washout of the pouring bucket minimises water use.