News

Date

02/08/2004

Shepherd's Flagship Site Promotes HSE Safety Campaign

Shepherd Construction's City Square development, located in a busy and confined area at the heart of Liverpool's business district, has been chosen by the Health and Safety Executive to highlight a pioneering construction campaign, which aims to reduce construction industry fatalities and serious injuries in the North West.

The FaTaL (Falls And Transport And Lifting) Risks Campaign 2004, is an EU-wide initiative which aims to tackle the three major causes of fatal and serious injuries in construction, along with raising awareness within the construction industry of improvements that need to be made to reduce the number of fatal and serious accidents.

The City Square project was chosen to highlight the efforts Shepherd has made on the project to integrate safety as a key element within all activities, starting with the design process.

Measures Shepherd has taken on the project, include:

• The installation of ‘Easi-edge' protection system, which is much lighter than traditional scaffolding, reducing manual handling issues. It is also quicker to erect from a site perspective as the majority of installation is done at ground level. (Falls)
• A traffic management plan has also been put into operation, to minimize the number of vehicles on site. Pedestrians are segregated from existing plant and machinery and a one-way traffic system is in place, with only one entry and one exit point on site. Deliveries are scheduled daily to ensure minimum disruption to the neighbourhood. (Transport)
• Lifting points have been calculated within the steel design software, which calculates the central point of balance along a beam. The holes are drilled in the beam as it is being manufactured, which takes no extra time at all as it is a computerised process. This is a massive time saving on site as the beams can be offloaded quicker and safer and more important from the site manager's perspective there is no damage to paintwork on the steel (caused by "wrapping" chains around steel) and therefore no risk to a person having to access for remedial paintworks! There are several lifting brackets manufactured and tested and this allows the Banksman to fix these in advance using two bolts. Columns are lifted using a "Dawson Clamp" again a "positive" connection rather than "wrapping" chains around steel. (Lifting)

Shepherd's Company Safety Advisor, Brian Hughes, highlighted the particular emphasis placed on safety on the project and how early planning was important, "Shepherd invited the HSE to site at an early stage of the project so that any issues could be looked at in advance of the programme. We were aware that advance planning was key on this project and getting everyone round the table has definitely helped."