Holdfast Training Services Trial Blog

Over the last week my main achievement has been getting into the USACE computer system and completing my extensive mandatory online training. As Howard and Brad will attest to, this is a significant achievement and through efficiencies the system has managed to ‘trim’ a week from Howard’s time.

In the mean time I have managed a bit of time on site and a few meetings, which have brought home to me the differences in the Health and Safety (H&S) cultures between our Nations. In the UK I would put myself firmly in the category of thinking we have maybe gone a little too far, however out here I am beginning to feel like a H&S fundamentalist. As yet I haven’t reconciled the reasoning, as it is in stark contrast to the incredibly litigious culture out here and so that may have to be a future blog. For now I will give a few examples:

Firstly I was just shocked by this entirely logical solution to working at height: stilts! They appear to be incredibly useful for fitting ceiling grid and both plastering and painting the tops of walls. They give the users freedom and flexibility to work and apparently are quite easy to get the hang of.

Entirely logical

On the safety front, 6ft is considered working at height and my friend here is about 4ft up. That said there isn’t a specified limit on stilt height in the USACE Health and Safety Manual, just a requirement to protect falls from them of more than 6ft with a guardrail at least 42 inches above stilt height. Therefore the limitation is based on realistic feasibility rather than rules. The USACE H&S Manual stipulates that people must be trained and competent as well as floors being clear of detritus  so to me, properly implemented seems an entirely  sensible idea.

As the FIG site currently stands

Secondly, it is commonly known that people are simultaneously stupid, curious and lazy. Therefore it makes sense to fence construction sites to shepherd people into areas of safety and away from all the things that mean we require training, site briefings and PPE when we enter a site. Below are 4 very crude layout sketches of the Fort Indiantown Gap (FIG) boiler replacement site showing: the current site, the contractor’s ‘plan’, my plan and the compromised solution.

Their plan

My Plan

The project is quite small and all of the actual engineering will take place inside the building, which is a plant room, so in terms of danger to the public it is not immense. However there will be deliveries, a lay down area and probably some work such as metal cutting done outside of the tight confines of the plant room. As people will, twice a day, walk to and from their cars through the site it seemed sensible to enclose the whole site with a fence to protect people from these dangers and themselves.

On a second level, we appeared to have different ideas of what a fence actually is. My idea of a fence is 8ft high Heras fencing, theirs a 42” high orange barrier fence which is analogous to mine tape at 42”. Whilst I admit it will stop most Americans, including the contractor’s quality manager, to me it still leaves the thought of shortcutting through site open for some people. On a small project like this overheads are clearly tight and there is an obvious cost differential I can understand the reasoning; however the cost of a single litigation event will not only dwarf that but the entire $500,000 contract value. A compromise was achieved and all of my visits will now involve a visual inspection of the fence.

The ‘solution’

Finally, Brad, Danielle, Jo and I took the obligatory visit to Intercourse, primarily to be able to check in on Facebook and with the secondary aim of seeing some Amish people.

Cue childish sniggering

But, the learning never stops so behold our amazement at house demolition Amish style! It was clearly a big deal as there was quite a crowd, although I was quite disappointed by the looseness of their morals to be using a telehandler that clearly has electrical components, although barely. Apparently it is okay if it is ‘for business’.

If only I could safely yet quickly take down this house

How about?

Looking good

All in a day’s work!