Weeks 18 & 19 – 8th to 22nd July – Holidays and H&S incidents!
Week 18 resulted in me spending most of my time as part of an investigation team looking into why one of the crew decided to climb inside a pile to sort out an issue with the reinforcement, noting that a pile is classed as a confined space! Happy joy joy feelings all round that saw me snowed under with the associated paperwork and having to re-write the activity method statement in quick time. Net result was that the individual concerned is no longer a JHG employee. The only other thing worth mentioning is the one “win” that the whole site had which was the pouring of a flood light foundation. On paper this is the most simple of tasks complicated by an overly interested client in what is just a bit of steel and some concrete. What made this pour even better was that it was in the pouring rain. Australian’s don’t normally work in the rain so when my supervisor said to me the boys aren’t keen I responded with ” I’ll do it with them!” And so I found myself fully embracing all of the leadership training bestowed upon me standing in the pouring rain helping out with the pour. I got a huge sense of satisfaction from this, gained further respect from the work force and also reasserted the position of the civils crew as the team to go to when something needs to get done! What was most satisfying though was watching all of the other crews leave the site by the ferry, watching on to see us at work; I hope they all felt guilty!
This saw me through until the start of the R&R period for which I was eternally grateful. Team Serevena went on a well deserved holiday to Heron Island using a special “locals” discounted rate. Apart from the rain everyday we had a good time, i got in a couple of dives and almost managed to swim with the humpback whales! i got to about 20-30m away from a pod of 4. It was great to spend some time with Lisa and the kids without any TV’s, phone os internet as distractions.
Week 19 was meant to start with a flurry of activity according to the works programme but sadly due to the aforementioned wet weather and a lack of proactivity on the site over the R&R period from the “covering” shift nothing was ready for when we returned. This has continued to be the case over the course of this week and I have ended up falling 5 days behind in the works programme and there’s nothing I can do about it. The reasoning is also attributed to a poor dewatering method (refer to previous blog about the old PM’s good ideas) and I foresee this as being an issue for the remainder of the project.
None of this really matters now though as yesterday (Saturday 21st July) all work was stopped on the site due to a major H&S incident. At 3am on Saturday the night shift were lifting a tubular pile off cut away from the King Pile wall with a segment of sheet pile attached. The tubular pile was rigged up but not the sheet. It was assumed that the clutch between the 2 was welded and as the crane slewed the sheet slipped its clutch and fell into an open excavation, approximately 600Kg of steel! No one was injured but the potential for severity has resulted in the JHG chief exec closing the site pending an investigation and full review of all method statements and risk assessments. The civils crew has a total of 47 live task risk assessments so this may take some time, coupled with the fact that the new PM and project director for the Gladstone area and the area manager for Northern Region wants to review a percentage of them all!
What does this mean?
I suspect that the next few days will be fun and games in the workplace as we become swamped with external investigatory teams and safety types analysing our every move. It is unlikely that any work will start again before Tuesday and even then every one will be on their tip toes not wanting to put a toe out-of-place. My house is in order as I have just reviewed the Activity Method Statements that I inherited but there may well still be room for improvement. Fortunately it is not one of mine that will be scrutinised alongside the aforementioned incident. Well off to bed now in preparation for what lies ahead tomorrow!!!
Holdfast Training Services Trial Blog 
Presumably all lifting operations have a lift controller or similarly titled individual with responsibility for ensuring the load is adequately secured to prevent redistribution, deformation and disintegration i.e. make sure it doesn’t fall to bits, change the way it is suspended or what it looks and feels like? This would be a role responsibility for all lifts and not a lift specific activity and so would be a generic SOP as opposed to something that would feature on an activity method statement? If it is a role responsibility I would then expect to see responsibility for the definition sitting somewhat higher than site engineer level.
Most good learning occurs where things are going wrong…. There may be much to gain on your site at present. Keep looking at what is going on and asking why, and, how might it be better?
Richard, lots to be gained but full of frustration. My supervisor has been away on training since this debacle began allowing me the opportunity to lead the civils crew out of this hole. The problem is that the senior leadership team are still too focussed on delivering the programme and thus are condensing the safety reviews. All of the crews bar mine started work again today as I was not satisfied with the state of the task risk assessments. We still can’t progress much anyway as there’s still no weld procedure and this is preventing us from moving forward! C’est la vie.
Plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose (I think)!