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Newsletter Issue 57 - November 2008
Recruitment Aided!The Ground Forum is delighted to announce that 19 ground engineering job titles have been included in the new ‘Shortage Occupations List’ (SOL) which was published by the Migration Advisory Committee on 9th September. Inclusion of these 19 ground engineering jobs in the new SOL means that, when the new points based immigration system comes into operation, these occupations will qualify for a work permit without having to accumulate sufficient points by other means. In the meantime the 16 ground engineering disciplines remain on the old SOL, as negotiated by Ground Forum in 2005 and 2007. Inclusion of these ground engineering occupations on the SOL has been described as “our life saver” by one senior geotechnical consultant. Why? Because it aids recruitment of skilled staff from outside the European Economic Area (EEA) without which timely delivery of the ground engineering sector’s current workload would be impossible. The Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) was set up by the UK Border Agency, a department within the Home Office, in 2007 in order to provide independent and rigorous identification of those occupations suffering shortages in the UK, with persistent vacancies which cannot be filled from within the EEA. Keith Gabriel, the Chairman of Ground Forum, commented “we are delighted that the MAC has recognised the continuing skills shortage affecting the ground engineering sector” and added “I wish to acknowledge the excellent work carried out by Dianne Jennings and her team in Ground Forum’s secretariat; we had only three weeks in April to undertake the necessary research and compile a full report for the MAC; they pulled out all the stops to ensure that our research and report were both comprehensive and submitted on time – a superb effort.” The ground engineering job titles included in the new Shortage Occupation List are included under two classes of the Standard Occupational Classification 2000 (SOC): For full details of the new SOL and the accompanying reports see: http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/aboutus/workingwithus/indbodies/mac/macfirstshortagelist/ Anyone wishing to employ people from outside the EEA now also needs a licence. Go to http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/employers/points/ for an application form and for information about the requirements that HR systems and companies must meet in order to obtain a licence. Apprentices - back in vogueEquipe Training Limited has delivered its’ first courses in September from their newly established Drilling AcademyTM near Banbury, Oxfordshire. The courses were delivered on behalf of the British Drilling Association and comprised Module 5 – Site Management and Module 6 – Drilling and Grouting of the Land Drilling Sector Apprenticeship Scheme.
EQUIPE have applied to join the AGS and course information will be circulated to Members when available. FPS Electronic Pile ScheduleThe long nights of re-typing pile schedules could be a thing of the past as the Federation of Piling Specialists launches a standardised form of pile schedule for use by Contractors and Engineers alike in the driven and bored piling market. For too long now the procurement of piling has involved the laborious inputting of piling data by engineers into schedules with a wide variety of formats. This has usually been followed by the re-typing of the same data by each of the piling tenderers, incorporating of course a few human errors along the way. This same data has then been tweaked and adjusted each time the designer has issued new information. At contract stage, it has often then fallen to the Engineer to rigorously check the successful tenderer’s piling schedule against his own design details. This is obviously a very inefficient way of working and with increasingly tight tender periods this wasted time could be better spent on honing the design solution and improving the quality of the end product. Furthermore it is sometimes the case that unnecessary human errors remain unspotted and deficient piles are as a result incorporated into the permanent works. Differing formats of information, particularly pile loading has lead to misunderstandings on numerous occasions between Engineer and Piling Contractor. It is against this background that the FPS has developed a standardised pile schedule in Excel format which it is hoped will be used by the Engineer as a simple way of conveying pile design information such as pile diameter, cut-off level, applied loadings etc to the Piling Contractor. The key features of the pile schedule are as follows:
With the information provided electronically the Piling Contractor can supply the Client, his designer and follow on contractors with as-built information in a standard format which can be used easily by all parties and which will act as a key document in the Piling Completion Report. Furthermore the pile schedule is designed to be easily compatible with new data handling systems such as DIGGS. Obviously the success of the new pile schedule, which can be downloaded for free without prior registration from the FPS website, will be reliant on the numbers of practitioners who use it regularly. Therefore the FPS is very keen to receive feedback from users so that any improvements which may be necessary can be implemented as early as possible. Please contact the Federation of Piling Specialists at fps@fps.org.uk. 
Unexploded Ordnance - a Construction Industry GuideAs the representative of the AGS on the project steering group for the forthcoming CIRIA construction industry guidance on UXO, Andy O’Dea of Peter Brett Associates LLP updates us on the scope of the guidance and the benefits it will bring. In the March 2005 issue (number 49) of the AGS Newsletter, you published a letter from my colleague at Peter Brett Associates LLP (PBA), Richard Thomas, on the controversial issue of unexploded wartime bombs (UXBs). It transpires that this was one of the contributing factors to CIRIA commissioning a research project to produce definitive guidance on the issue for the construction industry. PBA has part funded the project and I have been involved throughout, representing both the AGS and PBA on the project steering group. The final report is nearing completion and is likely to be published in the coming months. I thought it was timely for me to write to update the AGS on the scope of the report and the benefits it will bring. The assessment of risk associated with Unexploded Ordnance (UXO) is controversial and fraught with difficulties. For example, several thousand items of ordnance are removed from construction sites in the UK each year (of which some 5% are live). However, in the period 2006/2007 (readily available HSE records), no reported injuries to construction workers were attributed to incidents involving UXO. This is in spite of other risks or accidents in the UK construction industry resulting in 77 fatalities, 3,711 major injuries and 7,108 other reportable injuries. Make no mistake about it, the risk associated with UXO is overwhelmingly influenced by the consequences of an event rather than the likelihood of encountering or detonating a device in the first instance. Three main issues drove PBA to get involved in the project:
We are pleased to say that all three issues have been addressed by the project guidance. We feel that the report is a comprehensive and extremely useful piece of work that will help to dispel many of the myths surrounding UXO and allow future UXO risk assessments to be supported by a consistent and rigorous approach that is underpinned by scientific reasoning. The report provides a comprehensive introduction to UXO and outlines the duties and responsibilities of the parties to a construction project in the context of UXO risk. A clear and concise flow diagram outlines the risk management framework; from preliminary risk assessment (that can be carried out by a non-UXO specialist) through to detailed risk assessment, where required, (to be conducted only by a UXO specialist) and on to risk mitigation and implementation. Each element of the risk management framework is described in full detail in subsequent chapters of the report. Advice on emergency response planning and the appointment of UXO specialists is drawn out in the later chapters. The report is supported by a dozen or so relevant case studies and especially important issues are emphasised in highlighted boxes. Example risk assessment reports, verification reports and clearance certificates are provided in the appendices along with the ‘nuts and bolts’ of UXO survey techniques, equipment and limitations. The report has been through a rigorous consultation process and has been distributed widely across the industry for comment on a number of occasions. Consultation responses have been received from developer clients, regulators, consultants, contractors, infrastructure bodies, government defence organisations, academia and professional bodies such as AGS. A special note of thanks goes to those at the AGS who have given their time and expertise in reviewing the report and making the consultation process a success. This report presents a major advance in helping to provide a consistent and robust approach to the assessment of UXO risk in the construction industry and is to be welcomed. Undoubtedly, it is a first step and further guidance will follow in time. However, CIRIA Report RP732 Unexploded Ordnance (UXO) – a construction industry guide, is a big step in the right direction. Andy O’Dea Do your engineers know their quick hitches from their Direct Attachment Couplings?A quick-hitch is a latch device designed to facilitate the efficient connection and removal of attachments (such as buckets, grapples and rock breakers) to plant and equipment. It is often affixed to the end of the dipper arm of an excavator, as a means of enabling different types and sizes of excavator bucket (for example) to be changed at will. According to Health and Safety Executive (HSE) figures, 13% of all accidents investigated on excavators are attributed to the bucket detaching from a quick hitch and injuring a ground worker. These are mostly fatal or major injuries but it is likely there are many more dangerous bucket detachments which go unreported because no injury occurs. The HSE believe quick hitch failures are relatively common, although injuries are less so. As a result of these facts and a number of recent fatalities, this is now a major topic for HSE enforcement on construction sites, reflecting the serious nature of their concerns. To ensure safety on site it is important those hiring excavators understand their obligations towards safety and have in place the systems and procedures required. Quick hitches are not normally made by the excavator manufacturer although some are badged and sold by them for use with their equipment. Research conducted by the HSE some time ago identified 20 different manufacturers, most of whom had several different designs of QH with either manual, semi automatic or automatic functions. Due to this vast array of equipment and the variations in type and designs, any procedures in place must cater for all eventualities and this brings its own problems. It is unreasonable for the engineer in charge of the site to become an expert on all quick hitches yet they as the senior person on site are deemed responsible for safety. Recent enforcement guidance from the HSE to their inspectors outlines the standard expected for safety on site, which should be referred to for full guidance. It is important any organisation using excavators as part of their work reviews their procedures and ensures systems are in place to manage the risk to which staffs are exposed. Risk assessments and safe systems of work must be in place and if you employ more than five people these have to be written. So what should you consider when setting up procedures to manage staff safety and satisfy the HSE should they visit? As outlined in the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, the first objective must be to eliminate risk where reasonably practicable. In such circumstances this would involve the replacement of quick hitches with ‘Direct Attachment Connections’ but this may not be reasonably practicable as an excavator operator may change the bucket on his excavator up to 30 times a day to maximise the machine productivity. Despite this inconvenience, this is the approach being taken by at least one major plant hire company due to their concerns about the viability of managing quick hitch safety on site. If the hazard cannot be eliminated it should be substituted with something less hazardous. All quick hitches carry a risk of detachment so achieving this is difficult although in some cases a fully automatic hitch could prove easier to manage than a manual or semi automatic version. Where manual intervention is required there is a risk of retaining pins being missed, put in to wrong holes or just being left off for expediency but automatic hitches must be properly maintained and used in accordance with manufacturers instructions for safe operation. Realistically, most ground investigation companies do not control their own excavator fleet and are governed by the equipment they can get hold of local to the site and at short notice, so demanding direct connections or fully automatic hitches may not be a realistic option. In such cases the obligation will be on the ground investigation company to ensure they have suitable safe systems of work in place to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the safety of staff on site no matter what equipment turns up on site. Placing the emphasis on the receiving engineer on site may cause delays and encourage uncontrolled risks to be taken in an effort to get the job done. A better approach would be to consider safety at the moment of hire where the following items can be checked and discussed with the provider. If you are hiring an excavator with driver for use on site, you must ensure the contractor has adequate public liability insurance. Your public liability insurers may stipulate a required level of cover which will typically be in the range of £1m to £2m. If you are hiring plant and driver from a larger plant hire company, they should be able to provide you with a written risk assessment covering the risk to site staff. This must cover the risk from bucket detachment as a result of quick hitch failures and operators must be in possession of a CPCS or CSCS card. These do ensure competence with a quick hitch so should be supplemented with evidence of training in the particular type of hitch in use. Realistically, many of the excavators you hire will be provided by small companies. Where the number of employees is less than five the assessment does not, by law, need to be recorded so in such cases you should ensure you have a risk assessment which covers such eventualities and drivers and hirers should then work to these. The risk assessments must consider the competency of excavator drivers and their understanding of quick hitches and how this should be demonstrated on site. Any safe system of work and risk assessment, either from the plant hirer or your own, must include an outline of how staff are instructed and trained to remain clear of the excavator bucket while in use and where to stand. This is the primary method of risk management and makes sure that if the bucket becomes detached, there is no risk of injury. Clear evidence of equipment maintenance in line with manufacturer guidance must be seen. In addition to the regular service and daily maintenance checks required for excavators, quick hitches should have a thorough examination and inspection at six monthly intervals as they are classified as lifting accessories under the Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations (LOLER). None of these requirements should pose any problem to responsible equipment hirers and an inability or reluctance to provide such information should ring alarm bells. When you don’t check what you are hiring or have not clarified the competency of the sub contract staff, you are bringing uncontrolled risks into your organisation. In a dynamic environment these will combine with other causal factors such as commercial requirements and client deadlines, leading to a high likelihood of accidents. The HSE have provided their inspectors with guidance on appropriate penalties for companies in breach of statutory duties. Where ground workers are required to work under buckets fitted with a quick hitch, a prohibition notice will be issued where all work must stop until the matter is rectified and this could lead to possible prosecution. Where there is no risk assessment referring to the risk of bucket detachment, an improvement notice would be considered which will require the organisation to implement systems and procedures within a fixed time period. Where site managers are not aware of the safety requirements of the quick hitches in use, an improvement notice will be applied and where the operator is unaware, a prohibition notice will be given. Any prosecution, prohibition notice or improvement notice applied by the HSE will generally need to be stated when clients ask you to demonstrate your health and safety record. As a key requirement of the Construction Design and Management Regulations 2007(CDM), where competency and your ability to demonstrate you can do the work safely is key, any such blemish could be the difference between being awarded a contract or not. HSE document (SIM 02/2007/01 Version 2) The HSE Safety Alert can be found at – www.hse.gov.uk/construction/quickhitch.htm The Dangers of Trial Pitting
The legal position ……..
Health & Safety At Work Act 1974 – Section 37 - Offences by the body corporate.
The Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007
This photograph used to appear on the website of Alex’s Employer.
THIS SHOULD BE SEEN AS A WAKE-UP CALL TO THE GROUND INVESTIGATION INDUSTRY
This trial pit is 5.5m deep. What danger do you see in the picture? How confident are you that your engineers:-
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The courses were attended by apprentices from leading UK drilling companies and incorporated theory sessions provided from the Drilling AcademyTM as well as a site visit to an operational site managed by M&J Drilling. Keith Spires, Operational Director of Equipe Training, said that “the apprentices were being given a unique opportunity to experience all aspects of their trade”.
This is Alex Wright. 
