HEALTH, SAFETY & ENVIRONMENT06Q3 2009Taking safety to new heightsOne of Laing O'Rourke's six guiding principles is to ' make safety personal and work responsibly' and thisquarter employees from Crown HouseTechnologies and Select have been doing exactly that. Unwilling to just accept construction industry accident statistics, both businesses are finding innovative newways to reduce the number of falls from height. A recent study by Crown House Technologies into equipment selection has been lauded by external healthand safety bodies and a lorry ladder developed by Select staff is currently being marketed as industrybest practice. CHt safety study gains credenceacross industryA health and safety study commissionedby Crown House Technologies ( CHt) isbeing used across the industry to helpreform how mechanical and electricalservices are installed on site. Technological advances and newequipment have opened up differentpossibilities for tackling safety issues, prompting CHt's health and safety leader, Gerry Mulholland, to reassess currentworking at height policies. " Falls from height dominate the M& Eaccident profile in the industry," explained Gerry. " We have to find anddevelop new ways to prevent themhappening, and hopefully, the researchwe have done will have a positive impacton other organisations too." The study investigated accident recordsover a four year period, using first handaccounts to substantiate claims. Statistics show that whereas only 6% of allrecorded accidents resulted in personalinjury claims, 25% of falls from heightresulted in a claim. The biggest proportion offalls was from podium steps, while falls frommobile elevated work platforms ( MEWPs) accounted for only 11% of accidents. Taking into account that the average weeklycost of a height related injury claim wasgreater than the weekly hire cost of onesmall MEWP, the report recommendsMEWPs as the safest, most productive andthe most economical equipment for activityat height. The International Powered AccessFederation ( IPAF) is keen to cascade theresearch findings to its 60,000 membersworldwide, while the HSE is referencing thestudy on their website as an example ofeffective workforce engagement. The full case study will be published as afeature in the November edition of Safetyand Health Practitioner magazine this year. Safety by the lorry loadA lightweight ladder that can be attachedto lorries is set revolutionise goods- vehicleaccess and significantly reduce thenumber of falls from vehicles duringdeliveries each year. The ladder was developed by Select staffafter risk assessments identified a needfor safer access onto vehicles whenunloading goods, but there were nosuitable solutions already on the market. Traditionally, drivers would climb onto thetrailer flat- bed by any means possible, often using the under- run bars asmakeshift steps. Now though, they usethe lorry ladder which is securely attachedto the vehicle and has a handrail. Select's fabrication manager Adrian Greenproduced the initial prototype beforeapproaching Youngman Group'sspecialist access division to evolve thedesign and make it commercially viable. " We approached Youngman with the ideabecause we wanted to ensure the qualityof the ladder matched its innovativedesign," said Site Facilities Leader SteveSearch. " We've been delighted to workwith Youngman and the finished productcertainly sets new standards in vehicleaccess safety." Select's entrepreneurial streak hasn'tstopped at the lorry ladder. The businesshas since developed a device to store theladder on both articulated tractor unitsand rigid vehicles, and has devised a fallprotection system which can be clampedto the edge of a vehicle withoutcompromising its loading capacity.

PROJECT FEATUREQ3 200907Barely a handful of the 100,000 dailycommuters, who pass through one of thecapital's busiest transport interchanges, Cannon Street station, will have glancedupward recently to notice Laing O'Rourke'sdemolition of a 14- storey office block sitedover the station's flat roof. Even fewer will be aware of the innovativeworld- leading foundation work whichExpanded Piling is currently forming deepbeneath their feet to support thereplacement £ 200m Cannon Place officeand retail development now taking shapeover and around the station. But that is exactly as it should be. " We are not allowed to interrupt the flow ofpassengers or trains for a second," explained Expanded's constructionmanager Matt Smith. In practice Matt haslittle time to worry about train or passengermovements. He has a rollercoaster of moretesting construction challenges to losesleep over. Confined deep in the bowels of the station, beneath just 2.6m headroom, Expanded'spiling team must work around, but notinterfere with, the foundations of severalexisting structures already sharing the site, including the large 300- year- old multi- archbrick viaduct that still carries rail lines intothe station from a nearby bridge acrossthe Thames. And just to make the geotechnical team'sjob even harder, buried beneath these arethe priceless ancient walls and floor slabs ofa Roman Governor's palace. The remains are classified as a ScheduledAncient Monument and are closely guardedby an onsite team of 20 archaeologists, tasked with ensuring not one ancient brickor ceramic tile is disturbed. There is barelyroom above or below ground to sink morethan a few conventional piles, let alonelarge caissons. Fortunately, Expanded was brought in earlyduring the design stage. Together withExpanded's specialist designer BylandEngineering, and Laing O'Rourke'sconsultant Foggo Associates, thegeotechnical team has developed a novel, cost- saving foundation design claimed notonly to be a world first but also to bequicker and safer to construct thanany alternative. The team conceived, tested and is nowcreating, a series of rectangular shapedfoundation blocks formed of mini- piles, amove estimated to have contributed to client savings on the project. The Londonclay inside each rectangle of piling is leftundisturbed before being covered with aconcrete pile cap enclosing the full foundation. The idea is that the piles, and blocks of claycontained by them, work together to carrythe large column loads above. " This is by far the most complex design wehave tackled and believe it to be the firsttime anywhere that piles and plugs ofground have acted together to form acaisson shaped foundation," claimed Foggoproject designer Tony Taylor. " They aresmaller, safer to construct and cause lessdisturbance to the archaeology beneaththem than hand- dug caissons." Laing O'Rourke's project director AndrewVeness attributes much of the foundations'success to early involvement of the group'sin- house geotechnical capability. Holding up the station( without holding up the trains) Cannon PlaceLondon" From day one we have been able tooffer our client a single, seamless teamof specialists all working towards thesame end" he said." Expanded isdelivering a strong workable design withthe high degree of construction flexibilityessential for this very complex project." Andrew Veness, Project Director52515