Health and Safety Requirements in Construction Site of Car Parking Area - Term Paper Example

Health and safety Requirements In Construction Site of Car Parking Area Customer Inserts His/Her Name Customer Inserts Grade Course Customer Inserts Tutor’s Name Insert Date Here (Day, Month, Year) Introduction There is no doubt of the fact that the building and construction work is very crucial to the culture of the nation. Wherever and whatever construction takes place, it formulates its own culture whereby are involved not only the current workforce but also all those people who are directly or indirectly related to the project and even those who are not dependent at all. Before the construction process of the current project proposal recommended by the Taskforce begins its operations, there is an ardent need to take into consideration Health and Safety legislation issues to ensure safe environment for the safety and health of the workers and also retain environment, culture and the structure of the place where the construction is to take place. As the Health and Safety advisor of the company, I have to take into consideration health and safety of 150 workers who would have to face various hazards during the construction process and to form various ways and means to prevent any mishaps taking place where very heavy machines including luffing tower crane is also to be used. In the following report, I would be detailing about the health and safety measures that need to be implemented under the framework of laws and regulations. These details would be followed under the statutory requirements of the operations; suitability of the safety systems for daily operations of the work force including maintenance and inspection work, various risk factors on account of the equipments used, and various suggestions for control measures. Health and Safety Legislation Construction process has to follow the Construction Design and Management Regulations 2007 and within the parameter of the building code and zoning requirements. The process of Zoning requires the new developmental process to prevent causing harm to the residents and for preserving nature of the community. The whole process is conducted under supervision of the counties and municipalities and is determined by the state or planning authorities or legislation. The process zoning regulates and maintains the area according to the amount of space and location. The whole operation have to follow certain rules and regulations like important health and safety laws like the Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations (LOLER) 1998. Under these regulations, there is a need to ensure that for any equipments used for lifting purposes, the requirements regarding LOLER are adequately met. These requirements ensure that lifting equipments are adequately strong, sturdy and are above all meet the requirements for which it is being used for with positioned or installed properly. The marking and the information should be visible and taken into account for safe use. Similarly slings, and other accessories should also have proper marking inscribed. Moreover a person operating the equipment must carry out the operation with proper planning, under supervision and in a safe manner. Further if the equipment is being used for the first time, it should be thoroughly examined by a competent person, and the same should be examined and inspected by the competent person to take appropriate action. (Health and Safety Executive 2005: 1) In 1999, the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations was passed and was enforced on 29th December 1999. (Office of Public Sector Information 2001: online) There are special instructions for employers to maintain adequate assessments of the health and safety of the workers to which employees might find themselves exposed to, and also ensure the safety and health of others who are not related to them and various other regulations. Beside other regulations, there is also building code and law, which considers the minimum level of safety requirements for the objects constructed like building and non-building structures. Main motive of the building code is to give protection to the public health, their safety measures and ensure general welfare. The building code is generally considered as a law under the jurisdiction if the proper authority enacts the process. Duty of the employees as enshrined in the company list is assessment and maintenance of the health and safety of the employees and adoption of many prevention and protective measures: to appoint competent people that can help the employee to devise various means and measures for safety and health of the workers, also to provide training to the employees regarding the health and safety and what precautions they themselves can take to avoid themselves at risks, and ensuring cooperation with the other like contractors and guiding them the associated risks and protective measures. Safe Systems in the Work Place The Construction of the car space requires lot of money, labor and time and over and above to keep the work moving. For this there is a need to provide safe and healthy environment for the workers. As the healthy and safety advisor I would always make assure that highest standard of safety measures are adopted including maintenance and inspection work. The foremost thing is the access to t he workplace has all safety standards including the passage, gangaways, ladders, scaffolds etc are maintained and inspected regularly so that no chance is left for them for any falls or any other accident on just mere passing by. The whole passageway leading t o the exact work place is being guarded by the rails and have proper lighting system. There are two methods by the way improvement can be made on the construction sites-these are through the process of proper designing of the construction sites and by appointing of the safety managers to ensure that every thing is running smoothly. As suggested by HSE many of the accidents happens when workers move across the sites or handle the harmful materials carelessly or th ey are working at the greater heights or helping in the process of managing the transport at the site. Many of the surveys shows that proper design during the initial stages of the construction process can provide safer environment for e.g. at several places the materials which were currently being used was recycled and concrete mixer was put in place to reduce the necessity of vehicles on the sites. Lighting could also be again fitted at the ground level and is then raised to decrease the number or workers who are operating at much greater heights. This would not only reduce the chance of any accident and at the same time will reduce the cost too. Along with the good design there should be regular inspection and monitoring process. Safety representative has the responsibility to submit the report of any risky situation and reduce any chance of accidents. For this purpose they have to maintain a good and sound relationship with the workers and regular association wit h trade union workers. If union members are involved in t he safety measures then it is most likely that accidents and injury rates would fall down dramatically and this concept has been proved before. Effective barriers and warning notices have been placed several places to create restriction on the workforce on their use of the scaffold. The designing and construction of the scaffold is done in the way they could easily endure the load of materials and workmen. In case of the use of the luffing tower cranes, it is all the more important for the competent person to erect it, A luffing tower crane is a machine equipped with chains, wire ropes, winder and sheaves which are used both for lifting and lowering of both the heavy and light materials. By making the use of more simple machines it could attain mechanical advantage and got the capability to move heavy to heavy loads which is beyond the capacity of an ordinary man. As heavy to heaviest materials are required to be used in the construction of car parking luffing tower crane would be required. Previous planning and consultation of the contractors, crane owner, crane supplier, designer, project manager and electricity entity are required to make its use as effective as possible. For t he safety of the crane I could suggest that the TAC-3000 safety system can be used as an anti-collision, boundary, and zone protection safety system making an effective use of the earth’s magnetic flux for appropriate positioning.  This security system which ensures anti collision, protection of the boundary and zones and the LML capabilities could make t he luffing tower crane efficient and could be used safely on the site. The distribution of the area can take place through the high speed wireless network requiring very minimum commissioning time and on an average can help maintaining the safety of 2- 4 hours per crane. (anti-collision: online). Risks involved with Luffing Tower Crane Operation of the crane itself is a risky proposition on account of the structural failures, or collapse. The crane can also easily collide with the other structures or materials. The failure could be caused in the parts of the crane like jib or wire rope or hydraulic rams and can also be caused if the crane is overloaded or become unstable. This structural failure can also be caused if the crane is overloaded without warning and a tower crane could also show collapse if the crane could become unstable. The collapse of the crane could also be caused due to several other reasons like the incorrect use of the counterweights, or the bolts of the tower crane are not correctly turned or if the installation of the crane takes place in an inappropriate manner. The cranes can also collide if there is not sufficient space between the crane and other plants or structures which are lying proxy to the cranes working area. At many occasions, objects also would fall which may cause dismantling or erecting of the activities and at many instances, crane may also get turned over destroying everything which is in its way including itself and causing injury to workers. A crane can get overturned if the loads are kept more then the capacity of the crane which is in turn effected by many factors, like bad or devastated ground, failure to fully put to use fully extended outriggers or stabilizers, failure to make the crane at the level position, slewing at the faster rate and huge winds. Control Methods to reduce Hazards To reduce the accidents occurring on account of the operations of the crane there is a requirement for the assessment of the risk factors and adoption of the suitable measures. Further if the crane is standing it should follow the instructions of the crane manufacturers and should have capability to withstand all the forces that have been required for its operations like lifting etc. An accident on account of the fast wind waves can also occur while the crane is under operation and even while it is stationed. The magnitude of the wind force might make the operator to lose control that could cause collision. It is found that if load has a large wind catching area, there might be accident or damage either due to the boom or heavy load, because the force of the wind may control the balance of the swing brakes swing and the plugging resistance of the swing motors. The solution here lies in taking crane out of the service because supervisors at the ground level may not feel the winds intense movements and when the crane is out of the service then all of them should be left at the disposal of the weather vane. In other words, these swing brakes and drives must be disengaged. (K Shapiro, P Shapiro: 580). At the standing position crane should also must abide by the instructions of the crane manufacturers and should be capable of withstanding all the forces or hazards like heavy weights of the load, its own weight, wind loadings etc while it is in movement or static or picking up the load or performing the dismantling or erecting process. Conclusion The construction of the Car park is very important and serious business, whereby it is imperative to maintain always the health and safety measures. In each working hour, inspection of every corner of the site should be undertaken and the report presented. Proper planning should also be initiated before using cranes to avoid any accident. The working structure should be properly designed and maintained to allow free movement without any obstructions or hazards. If all precautions are taken and security and health of the workers are maintained according to the industry guidelines then the process of the construction of the car park will move smoothly and the whole project would be completed on time. Reference List Greater London Authority 2005 Building London, saving lives Improving health and safety in construction Health and Public Services Committee, Greater London Authority Health and Safety Executive 2005. Simple guide to the Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998. [Online] Available: http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg290.pdf [11 February 2009] K Shapiro Lawrence, P Shapiro Jay 1999 Cranes and Derricks, McGraw-Hill Professional. Mann, W. 2008. Crane accidents - key issues explained.[Online] Available http://www.contractjournal.com/Articles/2008/03/03/58264/crane-accidents-key-issues-explained.html [12 February 2009] Office of Public Sector Information. 2001. Statutory Instrument 1999 No. 3242:The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999. [Online] Available: http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si1999/19993242.htm [11 February 2009] Persha, INC TAC-3000 2008 Intelligent Tower Crane Safety, Tower Crane Anti-Collision, Zone Protection & Boundary Protection Safety System [Online] Available http://www.anti-collision.com/ [11 February 2009] Queensland Government 2008, Risks associated with mobile crane operations, [Online]Available at http://www.deir.qld.gov.au/workplace/law/codes/mobilecrane/risks/index.htm [12 February 2009] The State of Queensland. 2008. Risks associated with tower crane operations. [Online] Available: http://www.deir.qld.gov.au/workplace/law/codes/towercrane/risks/index.htm [12 February 2009] The Construction Plant-hire Association. 2008. Tower Crane Operator’s Handbook. [Online] Available: http://www.cpa.uk.net/downloads/286_Tower%20Crane%20Operator's%20Handbook%20LR.pdf [28 January 2009] Read More