CLIENT: Camway Facilities Maintenance Limited
Client Brief
Camway Facilities Maintenance Limited requested that Arco Professional Safety Services carry out a survey of floors 10 & 11 balconies at Beaufort House located in central London with a view to recommending suitable safety provisions in order to facilitate a safe method of working for both planned and reactive maintenance operations.
In order to cause minimum disruption to the many business occupiers on floors 10 & 11 at Beaufort House Camway Facilities Maintenance Limited stipulated at the tender stage that all surveying and installation works must be conducted out of normal working hours.
Arco Professional Safety Services' Solution
In order to Minimise the Work at Height risk and enable a controlled means of access coverage along the balconies Arco Professional Safety Services first considering which type of safety equipment/systems would be fit for purpose in line with the HSE advised hierarchy of fall protection.
Due to the need of the client to carry out planned & reactive maintenance; working at height could not be avoided and therefor eliminating the risk not possible, leaving Arco Professional Safety Services to first consider installing collective fall prevention measures in the form of guard rail around the perimeter of the balconies thus offering a passive solution for multiple workers by providing a physical barrier to the fall hazard.
The client deemed a collective protection solution would not be a viable solution and therefor Arco Professional Safety Services specified the installation of personal protection systems in the form of horizontal wire systems, due to the width of the balconies and limitations regarding fixing points a fall restraint system could not be implemented. Taking the above into account Arco Professional Safety Services specified that all 8No. balconies should have a horizontal cable-based fall arrest system installed to minimise the distance and consequence of a fall should one occur.
All systems were designed and installed mounted atop of bespoke posts affixed to structural concrete beneath the aluminium cladding along the parapet plinths with chemical resin thus giving a robust and aesthetically pleasing finished product.
To facilitate a safe method of work for the install of the fall arrest systems Arco Professional Safety Services assessed all the risks and determined the best way to proceed would involve a combination of temporary restraint lines rigged back to internal structural columns and utilising fixed posts that had previously undergone all testing.
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Benefits of Our Solution
When used in conjunction with the relevant proprietary system transfastener the cable system enabled a maximum of 2No users a hands-free fall protection solution to undertake all future planned and reactive maintenance tasks that the building will require.
The system was designed to ensure end loads were controlled to less than 19KN, in order to achieve these potential fall arrest loads all systems were designed with the inclusion of shock absorbers.mAs dictated by the Work at Height Regulations (WAHR), maintenance staff working at height can now carry out all activities with the aid of suitable fall protection equipment.
