Holdfast Training Services Trial Blog

Risk.
Asked to conduct a survey of a capping beam i looked to install a suitable access via a ladder and then use a harness to secure myself to the outside edge of the capping beam. At this point I was told that this was considered dangerous and that should Crossrail spot me i would be asked to leave site. The Junior engineer told me that we should wait until Saturday when it would be quiet and no one would see me accessing the capping beam. I entered a short argument during which I pointed out. The survey would take a maximum of 5 mins and that the two approaches that the other site engineers wanted to take were wrong.

View of capping beam. Survey required of right edge, acces via broken ground behind orange pipe next to exposed scafold bars

The Options
Overly Safe. The option considered safe was to construct a scaffold tower access to the capping beam area. To which i pointed out:
1. It would take longer to construct the scaffold platform then it would take to conduct the survey
2. The risk that the scaffolders would be exposed too during the construction of the platform were the same as those that I would be exposed to during my survey. However they would be exposed to them for longer, thus increasing the risk.
Unsafe Option. The preferred option by the other engineers was to turn a blind eye and then climb onto the capping beam at the weekend without a RA. This I pointed out was possibly worse. This showed no planning of the task at hand no consideration of the risk and how to mitigate against them.
My solution seemed to be breaking new boundaries of risk acceptance and planning. I simple planned to secure a ladder to the bottom of the capping beam and midway using scaffold bars, thus preventing it from moving and then to wear a work restraint harness to prevent me from working to close to the edge. Risk assessment filled out i then presented my case to the project manager and won the argument. Survey completed and i am still alive to write this rather dull blog.
However the point I later made to my project manager is one that I have made time and time again. The aversion to risk causes engineers and operatives on site to take greater risks without proper planning. The requirement for engineers to write task sheets and method statements for all tasks on site means they are constrained by unnecessary paperwork. Having written a task sheet and risk assessment they then brief the operatives, but then fail to ask question 4 once on site ‘has the situation changed?’. To which can always be answered yes!. Task sheets and risk assessments are never updated and in effect the engineers are then working illegally, should there be an accident the RA would be void and there would be no evidence of a RA to cover the works at the time of the accident despite all the paper work that had gone before.
Has anyone else had issues like this???