entries found
A Constructor’s Collaboration: Freight Delivery by Cargo Bike
The Mayor of London’s Transport Strategy, published in 2018, sets out a vision for a healthier, greener and more prosperous city. The strategy makes clear that a new type of thinking is required to increase active, efficient and sustainable travel to help achieve this vision for London. The Mayor, through TfL, will work with the boroughs, businesses and the freight...
Winter Working
The construction industry is by no means a seasonal one – construction work takes place all year round, including in winter, especially as some types of work (such as repairs or maintenance) are caused by the weather conditions associated with the season. Winter weather poses many challenges to the construction industry, including creating hazardous working conditions, fewer daylight hours, demoralising...
Scaffold Netting System
The site team at Osborne Infrastructure Ltd has installed a unique scaffold netting system. The system was designed and patented by Castle Scaffolding Ltd, and it is thought that this is the first time that this system has been used practically on a site. This scaffold system has been designed especially to mitigate the hazard of any debris or falling...
3M barrier tape
Due to dark nights and winter working, we wanted to highlight the crowd barrier that segregated the moving vehicles and the pedestrians. We always have a crowd barrier in place but the 3m blue tape reflects the headlights of the machine. This then alerts the driver of the machine and helps to ensure that there is no collision between the...
Microwave sensors on temporary lighting
As part of an ongoing effort to minimise carbon dioxide emissions, Multiplex, working in collaboration with Cape (Electrical & Mechanical) has successfully procured the use of microwave sensors within the temporary LED lighting package at the Marble Arch Place project. There are many advantages to using microwave sensors over traditional head-end controlled and passive infrared sensors (PIR) temporary lighting systems....
Pop Up Cone
These pop up cones take up no space at all, fold flat to 30mm. We have been trialling them on our current site to good effect. Cordon off areas in seconds carry a dozen in a single lift and they took up very little space in a vehicle when folded down. These can also be used in emergency situations for...
A Frame – Safety Barrier
An ‘A’ frame has been developed to re-use scaffold as a safety barrier. Over 100m of this barrier type are in use and such is the success with subcontractors, more has been requested. The barriers are easy to assemble and dismantle, yet robust and sturdy and have been used for excavations and pedestrian walkways. The barriers are fully re-usable, not...
Monitoring Unauthorised Vehicles
On site, the team had developed an app which monitors any unauthorised vehicle incursions into the works area by barriers having a movement sensor attached which is connected to the app. Any unauthorised vehicles can be recorded and if part of the works team., they can be monitored on the same system. Warning of any unauthorised private vehicles entering the...
Integrated Balustrades in Cladding
Through design Coordination with the cladding contractor, the team at IQL S9 have significantly reduced the amounts of work done at the edge of the building in high risk roof and balcony areas. We have achieved this by integrating the balustrades into the top of cladding, eliminating works to install balustrades and copings at the edge of the building. A...
Construction Impact Environmental Walks
Transport for London (TfL) have adopted the Healthy Streets Approach to improve air quality, reduce congestion and help make London’s diverse communities greener, healthier and more attractive places to live, work, play and do business. This involves prioritising walking, cycling and public transport. As the population rises there is a need for more infrastructures to cope with demand. This results...
Magnetic tape to close gaps around services
At IQL S9 we have used magnetic tape to close gaps between services and the openings. The tape can be cut to fit around all shapes and sizes of services and sticks down onto the riser plate. This closes the gap left after the service is put through the opening and therefore eliminates the opportunity for materials to fall through...
Promoting Road Safety
On this project the Irish Road Safety Authority (RSA) were invited to promote safer driving amongst its workforce and safer driving practices for their own individual safety and those of other vulnerable work users. 140 workers participated in the activity day which involved presentations, workshops and physical exercises to raise awareness about road safety and the highway code. The practical...
Brick/Block Lifting Cage with Pallet Fork Attachment
The Battersea Station Northern Line Extension site have recently begun installation of block-work walls in the below ground station structure. Blocks are delivered to site on wooden pallets and then have to be lifted down onto the relevant floor level. In partnership with Conquip, an innovative new cage has been trialed and adopted that enables this process to be completed...
Clear signage ensures safe vehicle egress
This bespoke signage has been designed to ensure smooth and safe vehicle egress from site, onto a one way road. It demonstrates the three step sequence of our gate team to enable safe exit. Crowd control barriers are pulled across the pavement to protect pedestrians, the oncoming traffic is halted by the second marshal and the lead traffic marshal indicates...
Tool Tethering Learning Hub 
Last year, 13 people in the UK never came home from work to their wives and family. They were victims of one of the most deadly workplace killers – tools dropped from height. Often overlooked in favour of the highest profile workplace killer, falling from height, falling tools are now the second biggest killer in the UK workplace. On Mace’s...
Magnetic and spray can tethers for working at height
Magnetic Tethers: As part of our working at height safety procedures, we require all items on a leading edge to be tethered, including small nuts and bolts. These are very challenging to tether in a conventional way, due to their size and sometimes awkward shapes. Therefore, we decided to introduce magnetic tethers for all work at height. The majority of...
Magnetic wristband
A magnetic wrist band which is embedded with super strong magnets has been given to operatives for holding metal fixings. This is to be used when working at height adjacent to a leading edge to help minimise small fixings from falling from height. This also enables the sub-contractor to have both hands free while working.
Safe access when working on deep RC slabs
During the planning stages on constructing the 2.4m depth basement raft slab, we identified a significant risk of working at height and falling from height that the steel fixers would be exposed to when standing on the first layer of top mat above the rebar chairs. In order to overcome the above risks, we introduced a layer of D49 (Wrapping...
Mobile Lane Barrier and Road Rake
Highways works propose unique risks to workers due to their proximity to dangerous areas and measures should be taken to minimise these risks. See the examples below for how one site addressed this: The site implemented two measures to improve safety during highways works. The Road Rake clears up debris mechanically, eliminating the need for carriageway crossings, live lane working...
A Collaborative Approach to Removing Loose Components when Working at Height
On The Madison project, Balfour Beatty encouraged a collaborative approach with all subcontractors on site to carry out a site-wide reassessment of its Working at Height safe systems of work. All parties were encouraged to create innovative solutions and mitigate risk in their own areas of work. Magnetic Tethering The façade contractor highlighted a narrow shim that was very challenging...
Setting the Benchmark for Tethering
The external façade includes a ‘CAP’ covering the top 3 floors of the Tower – this is made up of a number of steel ladder sections which are connected together and fully glazed. This is a unique project whereby the works are taking place at a height of 170m in a location bordered by heavily trafficked roads on all 4...
Visual Communication of Safe Working Limits – Rail
In order to help the platform reconstruction teams to identify the Safe Working Limits of the Permanently Earth Sections (PES) on the Liverpool Lime Street Re-modelling and Re-Signalling Project, Buckingham Group Contracting Ltd as Principal Contractor have been using Magnetic Blue flashing LED lights (Night-searcher Pulsar Pro rechargeable 9 function LED warning lights) which attach to OLE structures as a...
Automatic machine for setting out road lines
Where possible, new technologies should be used to minimise manual handling by operatives which can lead to long-term health problems. See the examples below: The motorway project now uses a GPS controlled robotic machine to set out white lines on the roads. This avoids employees kneeling down to place the lines, which may cause repetitive strain injury. For more information,...
Safely loading brick pallets
To remove the risk of a pallet of bricks becoming unstable on brick forks when being lifted to a high level with a tower crane, we have introduced the use of Brick Lifting Cages which fully contain a pallet of bricks/blocks and allow for safe contained lifting of such materials by 4 point attachment to a tower crane. These can...
Exclusion zone information tag
We need to barrier off areas on site from time to time to allow specific works to be carried out without risk to other people working on site. Sometimes there is a situation where no one is visible working in the exclusion zone. To counter this potential issue, we have produced a tag to attach to barriers at access points,...
Communication of Safe Working Limits – Rail
Isolation demarcation warning boards were used to warn of the safe limits of isolation where live equipment was found to be in close proximity to rail works on the Liverpool Lime Street Project. In order to help identify the safe working limits of the Permanently Earthed Section (PES) sections on a platform, magnetic blue flashing LED lights were attached to...
‘Skyrak’ system on MEWPs
The safe transportation of materials is essential to securing the safety of all workers on site. This is particuarly important when working at height with Mobile Elevating Work Platforms (MEWPs). See the examples below for how one site addressed this: The ‘Skyrak’ system was introduced as a mandatory requirement on all MEWPs. Traditionally, materials like pipework and lengths of materials were...
Glow in the dark escape route markers
We have installed Photo luminescent floor mounted discs to compliment the demarcation of escape routes as a safety measure. To further assist in safely guiding people out of the building during a fire or emergency situation we have fixed the floor mounted discs on all our escape routes This initiative has been introduced to improve upon a previous initiative of...
Green light to highlight tunnel refuge points
Construction work in confined spaces, such as tunnels, poses a unique risk to those working on site. One of these risks is the danger of collision between pedestrians and plant machinery. See the examples below for how one project addressed this: The project team identified the Plant Pedestrian interface within the tunnels to be a high consequence risk. Refuge bays...
Reduction in timber shuttering when concreting steel columns
The polypipe foundation system is a time saving and safe solution to fitting steelwork to deep pad foundations. It involves cutting 375mm diameter polypipe sections to the depth of the pad below ground level, then installing them over the bolts on the pad foundation. The area around the polypipe is then backfilled with type 1 stone to ground level thus...
