CONTENTS 04.02.10
NewCivilEngineer
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www.nce.co.uk1 04.02.10 NEWCIVILENGINEER3
05
TRANSPORT Tube troubles
Presh Tube row ignites after Tube Lines request 82weekend closuresof the Northern Line
18
STRUCIURES Weston-super-Mare
After rising frOIDthe ashes, Weston-super-Mare's pavilion is ready to open this summer.21
CODR 510ft NudearSpedal
Tacklingthe legacyof Britian's pioneering atomic industry at Dounreayand Sellafieldsites.
Alsoin thisissue
06 News
EA launches flood testing centre
14 News
What causes major construction failures?
08 News
Contractors warned against making bad weather claims
10 News
Micro generation plans slammed
16 Letters
Business, transport, ICE, energy, geotechnical
26 ICE News
UK experts debate global water security
Comment
AntonyOliver
Subsmbeto
NCE0844 848 8859
"ft is clear that more needs to be done to ensure that avoidable accidents are indeed, avoided"
.~
We need to make our work place a saler place
The deaths of IWorailway workers this week in separate, unrelated falls froIDthe Tay Bridge and Forth Rail Bridge serve once again to highlight the dangers that still exist in the construction industry.
Put bluntly, in our clayto clayactivities, we manage to kill more of our colleagues than any of the other main UK industry groups.
According to the Health & Safety Execu- tive's (HSE) figures, in 2008/09 there were 53 fatal injuries - a rate of 2.5Fer 100,000 workers. This is the third highest rate of fatal injuries, behind the much smaller agriculture and extractive industries.
And, it gays, "relative to other industries, a higher proportion of reported injuries as caused by falls froIDheight, falling objects, contact with moving machinery, coilapses/
overturns and electricity".
Add to this the fact that at 254.1 major injuries Fer 100,000 employees last year, construction also hurts and maims more of ils workers than any main sector.
But of course it is also a fact that the industry is now a much, much safer place to work that it was. According to those same HSE figures, the rate of fatal injuries continues to fail and last year it was less than half the 2000/01 rate.
But without prejudging or commenting on the specifie cases in Scotland this week, it is clear that more needs to be doue to ensure that avoidable accidents are indeed, avoided.
Certainly there is a huge amount of work and investment being put in by clients and firms to move towards "zero harm" and this should not be overlooked. But accidents such as those this week demonstrate that our guard cannot be ailowed to drop.
Not least as the industry's workload starts ta pick up post-recession. The downturn of the last couple ofyears cannot fail to have flattered the HSE figures and the fear must be that as activity picks up the number of accidents will also.
The latest HSE-backed research by
industry research body CIRIA into major hazards in construction is therefore
extremely timely. It is an opportunity for the industry to work together to examine the often simple, often complex causes of accidents and failures.
It is a critical issue for the industry and one that NCE is proud to support. Thank- fully major incidents are rare but too often their consequences are catastrophic - personally, financially, and corporately.
1 therefore urge everyone in construction to fill in the online questionnaire detailed on page 14 and then gel involved in this project by sharing best practice and ideas.
Because- and here's one last HSE stat- last year it is reckoned that injury and work-related ill health cost the industry 3M working Jars.
Moral issues aside, given the pressure on everyone's bottom lines, if nothing else, that is a cost that we reaily need ta contn)!.
