We are delighted to have been honoured with a prestigious award from an organisation dedicated to construction workplace safety.
We have won the FASET Excellence of Work Award 2017 for our work on the 40-storey Scalpel building in London.
FASET (Fall Arrest Safety Equipment Training) is the trade association and training body for the safety net rigging and temporary safety systems industry.
To win the award we had to demonstrate that we deserved recognition for our high standard of work, health and safety performance, working with the supp and client satisfaction.
The Scalpel, London
Our entry was based on a contract for William Hares, Skanska at The Scalpel, opposite the Lloyds of London and close to the famous Cheese Grater, Walkie Talkie and Gherkin buildings in the City’s Lime Street.
Our operations manager Richard Brokenshire said: “We are absolutely delighted to have been honoured in this way by a major national organisation for our work in the field of on-site health and safety.
“Safety at work on constructions sites, which by their very nature can be hazardous places, is our top priority and it is so encouraging that we have been recognised for our work in the field.
“I would like to reiterate our commitment to driving up health and safety standards to the highest possible level by continuing to innovate. The welfare of our site personnel is our number one priority and this award demonstrates that very well.”
We were involved in all aspects of safety netting, metal decking installation and shear stud welding on this intricate high-rise building in London’s busy financial district.
With the footprint of the site being that of the building we had to plan and coordinate with multiple different trades to ensure progress up through this 40-story building was smooth –including steel erection, our works, crane jumps for the tower crane, concreting works on the floors and concrete core and any snagging.
We had upward of 20 employees working on this contract at any one time and the planning and coordination of this labour was closely managed by our site supervisor and construction management team.
We installed around 38,000m2 of safety nets, all of which were inspected and tested in house at our Midlands logistic centre in accordance with FASET and BS:EN standards.
All netting works had been planned and managed, taking into careful consideration the working at height regulations. They were then installed and managed on site by our FASET qualified safety net riggers and temporary works supervisors.
Some areas of netting had to be installed using ropes as floor heights and access restricted the use of net pole and claw or MEWPS. To do this we trained our netting operatives in the FASET specialist rigger course as well as qualifying our managers to plan and coordinate the installation of the nets using specialist access techniques.
We have installed 38,000m2 of metal decking to the iconic build, having to stagger our working around the steel erection to ensure that there were exclusions zones set up in areas that were unsafe to enter for either the steel erectors or our metal deckers.
All decking delivered to the build was cut off of site in an aim to reduce noise pollution at the busy central London location.
This also reduced the number of loads that were required for delivery, meaning that the number of lifts on this tight site were greatly reduced, minimising the tower crane time.
The amount of scrap produced was therefore reduced on site by over 80% – equating to an 80% reduction in the manual handling of sharp, dangerous off-cuts of metal decking.
We also installed over 140,000 shear studs using through deck shear studding techniques. To control perimeter sparks we used a pre-installed welding blanket and always ensuring we had a fire watcher on floors below when welding.
On this contract, we achieved a 100% occupational health assessment for all employees on the site.
We were also highly commended for the FASET Health Safety Training Achievement award in which had to demonstrate outstanding performance and/or innovation in health & safety and training since August 2016 – and show how it forms a central part of the business culture.
Our entry included details of how we are the only contractor in our sector offering a full time in-house training manager ensuring our colleagues are trained to meet the needs of our clients and to meet the H&S standards required to ensure that all of our employees are competent in undertaking their duties.
We demonstrated how we remain committed to supporting apprenticeship and trainee schemes to encourage new, young talent into the business – helping not only to plug the growing construction industry skills shortage, but promoting the personal development of our trainees and apprentices.
Apprenticeships
Our trainee and apprenticeship scheme brings in young people to learn a trade and gain vital experience while still studying – youngsters who may otherwise have been lost to the industry.
We used the example of Kyle Grigg who is thriving in his work as a computer-aided design (CAD) technician and whose skills we highly value as he continues to learn in his growing role in the company.
Kyle has also been involved in producing prototypes for new and improved netting attachment devices – an ongoing project for us.
We included mention of how our new teams structure increases efficiency, as well as our monthly staff newsletter which has an H&S bulletin
FASET Membership
FASET has been growing in membership as contractors, manufacturers and trainers continue to recognise the benefits of being associated with the high standards represented by the association.
All members undergo a rigorous audit which is now accredited by SSiP and is therefore mutually recognised with other health and safety assessment schemes.
FASET members work collectively to create a great amount of free to access guidance which can be downloaded from this website.
The guidance created provides good working practices for contractors and provides understanding of the industry for clients.
Picture caption:
AWARDS SUCCESS: SMD Training Manager Steve Orr, centre, with the FASET trophy and certificate, flanked by David Collins of Huck Nets and Mark Keily of Nationwide Platforms.
Above/below, Lime Street, London
