Earlier this month NASC attended a European scaffolding summit that took place in Germany, representing the British scaffolding industry.
The UEG with the SBS organised a special panel-based discussion meeting and invited NASC to send representatives to Cologne, who flew out to take part.
NASC is one of the founding members of the UEG, which is a trade body that oversees national scaffolding organisations throughout Europe. While the SBS was founded as a support for the EU to give SMEs based and operating in the EU representation when it comes to the process of meeting standards in the European and international markets.
The summit was divided into two different panel discussions. While the first dealt with the review of CEN TC 53 standards, the second focused on utilising the Erasmus Plus programme to exchange trainees in the scaffolding industry.
There was also working group meeting help by the UEG to push ahead with the establishment of a standard in common risk assessment. The piece of documentation, which will be a supplement to the practical guideline for supply/provision and the operation of protective and working scaffolds (UEG 2016) and will be published by the organisation in the very near future.
According to the managing director of NASC, Robin James, the discussion summit highlighted even more so why the UEG is important as a forum for discussing matters relating to the European scaffolding industry. The event and past events like it, which was attended by European delegates from all over the continent, is supported financially by SBS.
James noted “A number of national scaffolding organisations across Europe are looking to join UEG. Associate membership is also strong, with supplier organisations from all over Europe looking to be part of a body which represents the European scaffolding industry.”
Introductory comments were made by Dagmara Chodzicka-Merken (EU Legal & Policy Officer), Christel Davidson (SBS Director), Martine Angele (UEG President) and was introduced by the UEG and SBS expert, Christoph-Ludwig Bugler. National organisations in countries such as Sweden, France, Norway and Germany all had representatives in attendance at this panel and there was a strong encouragement for those representatives to continue the discussions within their own national committees, as the CEN meetings and decisions they make are relevant and affect anyone working within the European scaffolding sector. From this discussion panel, it was clearer than ever that the UEG has a very crucial role in the facilitation of discussion and debate relating to CEN TC 53 standards.
During the second panel there were examples given of the opportunities scaffolding trainees had to participate in training exchanges in different countries throughout Europe. It highlighted the success of the informal agreements of trainee exchanges happening at the moment between Germany and Switzerland and Germany and Norway, in the hope that as this initiative benefits those trainees in the industry, that it would continue to expand. It was clear from the discussion that the UK is a location that is in high demand for this kind of exchange arrangement. The introduction for the discussion was made by the ZDH representative Dr Christian Sperle of ZDH (Zentralverband des Deutschen Handwerks) who spoke of his disappointment and the negative aspects of Brexit.
In attendance for this panel was British, Norwegian and German representatives, alongside the NASC Director of Training & CISRS Manager, David Mosley, who spoke positively and passionately about the training that takes place in the British scaffolding industry. He was assisted, of course, by a translator.
Birgid Becker (Deutschlandfunk) did a fine job of chairing the panel, with ease and respect.
After the conclusion of the event, all delegates in attendance from a variety of different European organisations enjoyed some local food and hospitality and participated in some fine networking.
Generation UK are pleased to have provided all the scaffolding equipment for the British Councils 16th International Architecture Exhibition at the Venice Biennale. The Venice Biennale is renowned for setting new global trends and launching the international careers of many pioneering artists and architects. With up to 500,000 international visitors each year, the Venice Biennale is one of the longest-running cultural festivals in the world.
The International Architecture Exhibition set a theme of “Freespace” for the festival, which has led to the construction of a new public gathering space; called “Island”. Generation UK knew that to make this years festival a roaring success, the best option was to supply Altrad Futuro System Scaffold. Futuro is faster and safer to erect compared to conventional tube and fitting and its 8-connection point make the system extremely adaptable for any project; perfect to showcase at the International Architecture Exhibition!
Generation UK also had the help of other Altrad sister companies in the production of making this project possible. Altrad DESSA designed the plans for the Futuro to be erected, Altrad Germany made the equipment and Altrad Italia made the whole project possible by helping with logistics. With Venice being a floating city it was especially important to ensure the Futuro could reach the end destination.
Visitors approaching “Island” at the British Pavilion will find the building covered with Generation UK Futuro system scaffold, supporting a wooden platform at roof-level. As well as a Futuro staircase running the length of one side of the building, leading up to an elevated piazza, a place to meet or to relax amongst the tree-tops of the Giardini, open to the sky with views across the Lagoon.
Generation UK are pleased to have been apart of such an iconic festival and praises The British Council with its success in presenting “Island”. The exhibition will run from 26th May to 25th November 2018.
For more information on how Generation can help you with your projects please get in touch!
The redevelopment of Cryfields Student Village at the University of Warwick will see 828 new bedrooms provided across 12 buildings including townhouses and cluster blocks.
The £57m Student Village development also includes a ‘village hall’ which will contain meeting areas, offices, a laundrette and post room.
Rilmac Scaffolding will be on site for up to two years, providing continual access scaffolding for Kier who are the developers of this key project.
Having worked closely with Kier for many years Rilmac say they are ideally suited to ensure the required high standards and professional delivery are met.
This prestigious new contract increases Rilmac’s involvement in higher education development projects to more than half a dozen currently working on-site or recently completed.
With the marketplace for student accommodation growing 17% annually, Rilmac expect that there are more opportunities on the horizon as well.
“We are experienced in long-running projects on large construction sites like Cryfields Village,” said Sam McSpadden Director at Rilmac Scaffolding
“We are looking forward to progressing at the University of Warwick. Kier’s confidence in us to deliver on site underlines the hard work everyone at Rilmac has put in over the past few years to develop our capabilities in this area.”
“This is another major development we have become involved in across the country,” added Rilmac Scaffolding Managing Director Des Booth, “Congratulations to everyone in the team who made this possible.”
Since Rilmac Scaffolding launched back in 1990 the firm has grown from a six-man operation to a nationwide business, employing over 150 people, and working on many key construction projects nationwide.
Hong Kong is backing the innovative upcycling of bamboo previously used as scaffolding on construction sites in the region.
As a forward-thinking initiative, the practice is set to both revolutionise how this natural material is facilitated in future, and avoid unnecessary landfill.
Extremely strong and resilient, bamboo scaffolding is a familiar sight in this part of the world. It’s also ideal for creating temporary structures, being incredibly versatile and cost effective.
This year alone 49 tonnes of bamboo was used to set up stalls at 15 Lunar New Year fairs. And it was all collected as part of the Reuse & Upcycling Programme. The scheme was set up by the Environmental Protection Department and the Environmental Campaign Committee, together with non-profit organisations Green Come True and JupYeah.
Green Come True Co-founder Hill told Scaffmag bamboo can be made into a wide variety of objects including tables and swings. But there’s so much more to the story as the organisation has discovered at their workshops, with individuals producing a wide variety of things including wind chimes, pen holders and even rain sticks resembling the noise of rainfall. The possibilities are endless. Co-founder Ren Wan said: “If we want to solve our environmental problems we need creativity to explore more possibilities.”
Participant Ho Siu-yu firmly believes upcycling the bamboo helps lessen the burden on Hong Kong’s landfills. She said: “Our landfills are nearly at capacity, so I believe it will be good for Hong Kong if we recycle or upcycle more materials. Looking after the environment is really important for us all.”
It’s a feeling shared by all of those involved. The aim now is to get the message out to as many people as possible.
“The Reuse & Upcycling Programme for Bamboo shows upcycling can be a fun process”, added Environmental Protection Department senior administrative officer James Chan. “We would like to use the programme as a means to tell the public that if we unleash our creativity, we can really show our care to the environment and have fun along the way.”
The department plans to continue collecting used bamboo from Lunar New Year fairs, and to invite more organisations to participate in the programme. In essence, scaffolding in China can now serve a huge range of purposes. It’s also positive proof, some construction materials can be successfully upcycled, with the people of Hong Kong leading the way.
The TRAD Group are keenly aware of how important their people are to the success of the business. They believe in teamwork, mutual support and encouraging all their staff to continually develop their skills and extend their careers, and become the best they can be.
The TRAD Group is also well-known for its stance on encouraging women to pursue careers in the construction sector. With more than 50% of their office staff women, many in Senior positions it’s a principle close to their hearts. To highlight the commitment TRAD are founding sponsors of the ‘Inspire Me’ campaign hosted by Construction news.
Women are under-represented across construction generally, and in scaffolding in particular. While the nature of the work may be largely to blame, there are many positions at TRAD where women have made major contributions to their success, for example in areas such as surveying and estimating.
The TRAD Group are keen to build on this success and encourage more women to purse professional and managerial careers, with the chance to move into senior leadership positions.
UK legislation, of course, sets minimum standards for companies to support workplace diversity and equality. At TRAD, they want to go beyond these minimum standards and set the bar much higher. The aim is to establish a fully inclusive environment that contributes to their employees’ well-being and success.
One of TRAD’s key objectives is to create mentoring and training schemes to give women the chance to become operational heads within supervision and contracts management, with the chance to eventually become board directors.
Des Moore Group CEO welcoming Stephanie Betts to the team.
As an example, one of their employees, Stephanie, is currently being trained, coached and mentored to become a member of TRAD’s contracts team which manages more than 300 scaffolders on site. They are also supporting Stephanie through university day release as she earns academic qualifications, which will further help her professional career.
Des Moore, TRAD Group CEO and President of the NASC (National Access & Scaffolding Confederation), is committed to increasing diversity across the industry, and in particular to inspiring more women to pursue careers in construction – especially in management and leadership roles.
TRAD hope the rest of the industry will follow the initiative shown by the NASC by supporting, encouraging and promoting the development of the ‘Inspire Me’ campaign objectives. At TRAD, they have found that encouraging women to pursue careers in our sector is not only the right thing to do in terms of equality of opportunity, it gives them a significant competitive advantage. How? By enabling them to draw on the different skills, ideas and perspectives that women bring to their business.
Working alongside Van Wijnen, a construction company on a project entitled Project Milestone, 3D printing specialists from Eindhoven University of Technology are using a large 3D printer to produce 5 pebble-style houses.
Using a large robotic arm with a nozzle attached that will follow the digital designs layer by layer, the houses will be printed using a cement mixture, which has a consistency that is not unlike whipped cream. The cement is printed out in very thin ribbons.
Compared to construction that uses cement moulds, this approach will help to reduce the waste as only the required amount of cement will be poured out at any one time.
The 5 houses created by the partnership will be located within a wood in the Eindhoven district of Meerhoven, with the first being relatively simple. By simple we mean a single floor property with the 3D printer only being used to make the internal and exterior walls.
Each house after that will be more sophisticated and complex, as the researchers will be using it as a learning experience to improve their technique. It is thought that some of the properties may even have additional installations such as plumbing fabricated as the process progresses.
In a press release regarding the project, it was noted that the area surrounding the location of these 3D homes is being transformed into a sculpture garden and will feature ambitious and high quality projects involving architecture used as sculptures in a constantly changing landscape.
Interesting and unique shapes are not normally how we envision budget housing, but that is what to expect from these creations. There will be irregular and exotic structural designs and softened, rounded edges to showcase the fact that 3D printing can create virtually any shape.
In the long-term, the idea is that if these 3D printed houses work well, it could prove to be a new and cost-effective way to build homes to the specific spec of buyers without the cost increasing too much. There is even talk of these buildings having electronics such as wireless controls and sensors embedded into the walls during the printing to create smart homes.
Van Wijnen have noted that this project could show that housing made from a 3D printer is a sustainable, customisable and affordable alternative as the country is seeing a shortage of skilled bricklayers and other workers in the construction industry.
Professor Salet from Eindhoven University added that this new printing technology allows things that couldn’t be done before to be achieved. Including the creation of shapes that were ordinarily very difficult to make and even when they could it would be in large batches. With the new printer they will be able to do very bespoke industrial work.
Furthermore, noting the point made further up the page, the professor highlighted that because the only concrete that is ever used is what is required, there is less waste.
This is not the first time 3D printers have been used to create homes. However, these 5 buildings are the first 3d-printed dwellings that can actually be inhabited. Once they are completed, they will be rented out via a real estate company, and they are looking to house the first occupants sometime during 2019.
A contractor and scaffolding firm must together pay out almost £65,000 after their safety failings led to a worker plunging five metres from a roof.
Leeds Magistrates’ Court heard how in December 2015 a subcontractor working for Centreco (UK) Ltd, was installing solar panels to the roof of Firth Steels in Brighouse, West Yorkshire.
The subcontractor slipped on the roof, sliding down to the edge protection. The toe board of the edge protection snapped and he fell through the scaffold, landing on a sub-station flat roof. He suffered life-changing injuries, including a fracture to his spine, a broken coccyx and nerve damage. The subcontractor was in the hospital for almost three months and is now unable to work due to ongoing mobility issues.
An investigation by the HSE found that the scaffolding firm had not erected the scaffold to a recognised industry standard or design. The investigation also found that the contractor had failed to take effective measures to prevent workers falling through fragile roof lights surfaces.
Oswestry Shropshire Scaffold Ltd, Oswestry, Shropshire pleaded guilty to breaching the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. It was fined £28,800 and ordered to pay £945.20 in costs.
Centreco (UK) Ltd, Chorley, Lancashire also pleaded guilty to breaching the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. It was fined £33,500 and ordered to pay £945.20 in costs.
HSE inspector Jayne Towey said after the hearing: “Falls from height often result in life-changing or fatal injuries. In most cases these accidents are needless and could be prevented by properly planning to ensure that effective preventative and protective measures are in place such as edge protection or barriers built to the correct standard.”
A box van became trapped under some scaffolding on a street in Holsworthy, Devon on Sunday, May 27.
Image Credit: Holsworth Post
The Holsworthy Post reports that the Mercedes box van became trapped under scaffolding, which had been erected whilst work on a building in a local street was carried out.
No vehicles could pass so the police and fire services attended along with a team of scaffolders from the company concerned. The scaffolders took down part of the scaffolding in order to free the vehicle, which was not local.
A Devon and Cornwall Police spokesperson said some damage was caused to the building as a number of bricks were knocked out on the first floor.
Details were exchanged by all parties. The police left the scene at 12.40pm but the scaffolders remained on the scene.
The National Access & Scaffolding Confederation (NASC) hosted a breakfast event in a bid to share what the NASC is doing to further improve working practices across the scaffolding industry.
The Future of Safe Scaffolding event was held at the UK Chamber of Shipping in London last week. Attendees to the event included Health and safety personnel, procurement representatives from major house builders and local authorities. They heard how the NASC aims to streamline their procurement process and create a safer and more effective and accountable supply chain. Furthermore, the confederation also discussed the advantages involved in only using scaffolding contractor members.
The NASC also expressed how keenly they were to actively collaborate with principal contractors and the wider construction industry much more closely in the future – with a view to further increase standards both in scaffolding and construction in general.
Expert speakers at the event
Expert speakers at the event included Des Moore, TRAD Group CEO and NASC President, Bob Whincap, former Chair of the Access and Scaffolding Industry Training Organisation, and Lee Roswell, GKR Scaffolding Group Director and NASC Chairman for London and South East Region.
Attendees at the breakfast event also heard from motivational safety speaker Dylan Skelhorn. Dylan suffered a serious accident a few years ago while working for a now-defunct company who took safety very lightly. He spoke from experience about how the accident affected himself, his family and work colleagues, and of his daily struggles after being forced to work unsafely.
Motivational safety speaker Dylan Skelhorn. Image Credit: GKR Scaffolding Ltd
Speaking after the event Des Moore, CEO of the TRAD Group and NASC President, said: “This event gave us the opportunity to talk directly with procurement and health and safety professionals from a wide range of principal contractors.
“It was fantastic to be able to share what the NASC is doing to further improve working practices across the scaffolding industry with delegates and also learn what challenges they face.
“It was clear from the feedback during the Q&A session there is a lot of common ground between principal contractors and the NASC and its members and a strong will to collaborate more closely in the future.
“We look forward to further discussions exploring how the value of the services provided by our members might help these contractors achieve their goals in a safe, and efficient manner.”
Scaffolding dramatically caught fire in Sydney, Australia yesterday after the office block cladding was removed less than a week ago because of concerns sparked by the deadly Grenfell Tower blaze in London last year.
Local media reports the fire ignited the plastic sheeting on the scaffolding of the building, just before 8am and climbed the exterior in a matter of minutes.
Workers had to scramble up the scaffold to avoid the wall of flames.
Fire & Rescue NSW Commissioner Paul Baxter told local reporters it was hard to tell how today’s fire would have played out if the cladding was still in place, but said it could have been “dramatically different”.
The fire was contained before it could reach the internal structure of the building, which is on Macquarie Street next to the NSW Supreme Court and near state parliament.
Twenty people were evacuated and several were being treated for smoke inhalation.
An investigation into the cause of the blaze is under way.
