Shortlisted for CECA Health & Safety Award
AmcoGiffen shortlisted for Health & Safety Award.
Our River Aire Bridge refurbishment project is shortlisted for the prestigious CECA Yorkshire and Humber, Linda Grant Health & Safety Award 2019 with winners for both 2019 and 2020 to be announced at the annual dinner on 30 September 2021.
The 180-year old, 3 span masonry underbridge carries rail track over the navigable River Aire and is close to Fairburn Ings nature reserve and housing estates. The scope of the project carried out on behalf of Network Rail included; waterproofing, masonry repairs and upgrading the footbridge.
Despite the challenges of the location we achieved 34,000 safe working hours. One of the ways we did this was through our AmcoGiffen ‘Close Calls’ reporting system. This provides a platform for our people to submit suggestions, near misses and observations that we act on to eliminate risk. We received 407 ‘Close Calls’ reports during the project allowing us to take appropriate and immediate action where necessary to prevent accidents and incidents.
We designed a custom-built enclosure with scaffold and debris netting to provide safe working access and protect the water course. In addition, to install the scaffold and complete masonry repairs on the lower levels we built an 800-section water pontoon that doubled as a crash deck in the first and third bridge spans. Our scaffold decks were lined with plywood and visqueen to prevent pollution and all waste material removed after each shift, we then took daily water samples for testing to safeguard the river.
We managed to develop a safe programme of work that kept our people, our neighbours and our environment safe and the river open to traffic while completing critical repairs and refurbishment to this important structure.
We also built a bespoke 300 metre haul road with clear warning signs and concrete barriers to protect both the environment and members of the public. All vehicle movements were assisted with a banksman and we were constantly on watch for site safety breaches
Stephen Cunningham, Senior Contracts Manager, AmcoGiffen, said: ‘We’re really proud of our safety achievements on this project, we managed to develop a programme of work that kept our people, our neighbours and our environment safe and the river open to traffic while completing critical repairs and refurbishment to this important structure’.
