Scaffolding on the front of a Southsea hotel collapsed this morning crushing six parked cars.
Strong winds are thought to have brought down the independent scaffold on The Royal Beach Hotel, Southsea.
The scaffolding was erected for painting up to the fifth floor of the hotel.
Local police announced that there were no body in the parked vehicles and no injurys were reported after the scaffolding collapsed.
One of the crushed car owners said: “Thank goodness nobody was killed, that’s the main thing.
“But I’m a bit upset about the car. I haven’t been allowed to get under there to have a good look but I think it’s a write-off.”
Written By Daniel Norton
Harsco Infrastructure have today announced major wins in European orders totalling more than $35 million for the groups industrial and commercial sectors.
BASF Group chemical complex in Antwerp, Belgium has given Harsco a three-year contract extension for onsite insulation maintenance services. The chemical complex is the largest processing site in Belgium and the second largest BASF plant in the world. This new contract extension represents a 50 percent increase in work over Harsco’s previous contact at the plant.
BASF Group chemical complex in Antwerp, Belgium
Harsco Infrastructure Group CEO Ivor J. Harrington said, “Onsite reliability has been a key requirement of BASF, as has maintaining safe working practices and a consistent, high level of quality. This renewed framework agreement demonstrates that Harsco continues to meet all of these requirements, and at a level that has earned us an expanded role from of one of the world’s largest blue-chip chemical companies.”
Another major win for the group are new orders to support three large-scale requirements in the shipyard maintenance and commercial construction sectors. Under the first two, Harsco will provide scaffolding and access equipment services through the main contractor Keppel Verolme for maintenance of two major deepwater construction vessels, including the Heerema Marine Contractors’ SSCV Thialf, the largest crane vessel in the world, as well as the Scarabeo 6, a semi-submersible drilling rig owned and operated by Saipem.
Harsco also won the order for delivering access services for another large crane vessel, DSV Balder, this time working directly for Heerema Marine Contractors. The orders continue Harsco’s growing role in the specialized maritime maintenance sector and add to Harsco’s previously-announced scaffolding support of the Saipem 7000, the world’s second largest deepwater crane vessel.
In addition to its industrial plant and shipyard orders, Harsco has also received a new order to begin work on the second phase of a major construction project in France, the new Les Terrasses du Port retail complex in the city of Marseille. Harsco is providing a full range of aluminium shoring, modular slab formwork, powered access and mechanical access to the project, supporting overall construction lead VINCI. Due for completion in the spring of 2014, the Terrasses du Port will be a 580,000 square foot (54,000 m2) complex filled with internationally-recognized retail outlets, 25 restaurants, a viewing terrace and other leisure facilities. Harsco’s formwork and shoring equipment is being used to create more than 860,000 ft2 (80,000 m2) of concrete superstructure slabs, some of which will be almost 20 feet (6 m) thick.
“With our restructuring nearing completion, the resulting improvements we’ve made in market position and increased sales efforts are reflected in these awards. They clearly demonstrate Harsco’s growing ability to win multi-service roles with large-scale global construction partners and industrial plant operators,” said Mr. Harrington.
A accident inquiry has found that a scaffolder died in a 25ft fall from a house scaffold should of been wearing a harness.
Image source: news.stv.tv
Dundee Sheriff Court has found that George Carr, 67, died of multiple injuries from his fall from height.
The accident happened on June 16, 2011, Mr Carr had been helping a friend carry out roof repairs to a property in Sommerville Place, Dundee.
The Inquiry
The Health and Safety Executive carried out a full investigation and gave evidence at the Sheriff Court. The court heard how Mr Carr who had been a scaffolder for over 30 years had been helping out as a favour.
Mr Carr had lost his balance, fallen and been fatally injured as a result.
Sheriff Thomas Hughes said: “I find that the defect in the system of working, which contributed to the death, was the failure to use a harness and the failure to install a guard rail at the end of the scaffolding on which Mr. Carr had been working.”
He also added: “This incident is a tragic demonstration of why health and safety regulations must be complied with. If Mr. Carr had been wearing a harness it is unlikely that he would have sustained his injuries and he would have been protected by the use of a guard rail. Unfortunately persons who do not abide by the Regulations, do so at their peril.”
Written by Daniel Norton
Cape’s Saudi Arabia operations are proud to have won a Gold award from the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) in the 2012 Occupational Health and Safety Awards.RoSPA is the largest and longest-running programme of its kind in the UK, awarding commitment to accident and ill health prevention. The scheme looked not only at Cape’s accident records, but also at our overarching health and safety management systems, including important practices such as leadership and workforce involvement.
Cape’s Saudi Arabia operations are leaders in the fields of insulation, refractory, painting, scaffolding, fireproofing and IMG works.
Michael Dismore, Operations Director for Cape Northern Gulf, commented:
“We are delighted to receive this highest tier of award from RoSPA, recognising Cape Saudi Arabia’s unwavering commitment to health and safety – a dedication which runs throughout the Cape organisation.”
David Rawlins, awards manager at RoSPA, said:
“The RoSPA Awards programme provides well-deserved recognition for the winners and spurs on other organisations to raise their standards of accident and ill health prevention. We congratulate Cape RB Hilton Saudi Arabia Ltd on its success and encourage it, and all our other winners, to remain committed to safety and health, an approach that is well recognised to be good for workers and the bottom line.”
Via: Press Release
A former scaffolding company director has been fined after two employees were injured in a scaffold collapse.
A 26-year-old man working for Robert Leslie Butler fractured his left ankle and right heel as he jumped six metres from a scaffold tower at student accommodation on Radford Boulevard, Nottingham, on 24 January 2011, as it fell to the ground.
Image source: ppconstructionsafety.com
A second employee, 46, was working at a height of around 10 metres. He managed to hang on to the scaffold as it fell. It crashed into the building opposite and he was able to slide down to the ground, suffering minor injuries.
The men, both of whom have asked not to be named, were in the process of dismantling the scaffold.
A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation found the scaffold tower had not been erected to industry standards and had not been fitted with adequate ties to secure it to the building.
Robert Leslie Butler, 46, of Owthorpe Close, Top Valley, Nottingham pleaded guilty breaching Regulations 4(1)(c) and 8(b)(ii) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005 by virtue of Section 37 of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. Today Nottingham magistrates fined him a total of £3,000 and ordered him to pay costs of £2,000.
After the hearing HSE inspector Kevin Wilson said:
“The two men were extremely luck to survive this incident. There was no safe sequence of work in place to dismantle the tower. The fact the scaffold only had ties at the top meant that as soon as they were removed a collapse was inevitable.
“Work at height should be properly planned and a safe system of work developed. Mr Butler failed his employees in both respects.”
At the time of the incident Mr Butler was director of RB & Son Scaffolding Limited. The company has since been dissolved.
Via: hse.gov.uk
Wates Construction and MPB Structures have been fined a total of £100,000 over an incident in 2007 when seven construction workers were injured after scaffolding collapsed at Liverpool John Moores University’s Art & Design Academy.Liverpool Crown Court heard that workers had been pumping concrete onto the third floor of the building for most of the day on 19 September 2007 when the supporting scaffolding holding up the concrete suddenly collapsed. The workers’ injuries included cement burns to their skin and eyes, and bone fractures.
The Health & Safety Executive investigation found both the principal contractor for the project, Wates Construction, and the concrete subcontractor, MPB Structures, allowed the supporting scaffolding to be erected from a preliminary design, clearly marked ‘for discussion and pricing purposes only.’
The drawing did not include all the information needed to erect the scaffolding correctly or safely. The companies also failed to ensure the scaffolding was checked before allowing the concrete to be poured.
Both companies admitted breaching the Health & Safety at Work Act 1974 by putting workers at risk. Wates Construction, of Station Approach in Leatherhead, Surrey, was fined £50,000 and ordered to pay £35,591 in prosecution costs on 10 April 2012. MPB Structures, of Crucible Road in Corby, Northamptonshire, was fined £50,000 with costs of £35,362.
Susan Ritchie, HSE inspector, said after the hearing: “This incident resulted in seven men falling roughly ten metres onto wet concrete which contained various bits of metal and wood.
“The companies should have made sure they had an appropriate design they could use to build from, and that the structure was inspected before the concrete was poured.
“Instead, more than 250 tonnes of concrete was poured onto scaffolding incapable of taking such loads and the inevitable happened – it collapsed. These basic errors could easily have resulted in several people losing their lives.
“This incident should act as a stark reminder that if you fail to plan and manage projects properly then there is a real potential for things to go seriously wrong.”
Last year, there were 50 workplace deaths and nearly 3,000 major injuries reported in the construction industry in Great Britain.
Wates Construction was charged with breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974, which states: “It shall be the duty of every employer to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of all his employees.”
Dave Smith, chief operating officer for Wates Group, commented: “Safety is a core value at Wates and we remain committed to continuously improving our health and safety policies and procedures. We undertook our own internal investigation following this incident and have fully incorporated the findings and recommendations into our induction, training arrangements and policies.”
MPB Structures was charged with breaching Section 3(1) of the same Act. The section states: “It shall be the duty of every employer to conduct his undertaking in such a way as to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that persons not in his employment who may be affected thereby are not thereby exposed to risks to their health or safety.”
Via: placenorthwest.co.uk
Balham High Road, Wandsworth has been closed off after scaffolding erected outside a building on the street collapsed this morning.
Firefighters were called at 3.20am to remove the 10m by 8m scaffolding tower, which was lying in the road and on the pavement opposite Sainsbury’s.
An infra-red camera and lights were used to make sure nobody was trapped underneath. A spokesman confirmed no one was hurt in the incident.
The road remained closed at 9am and traffic in the area has been severely affected.
Via: yourlocalguardian.co.uk
Cape has today announced the award of a two year contract extension from Wood Group PSN for fabric maintenance services to support the Shell Northern Plants at the St Fergus and Mossmorran facilities.St Fergus Natural Gas terminal
The integrated multi discipline contract covers the provision of access, Insulation, Asbestos management, surface preparation and coatings and is a key contract award to the Cape UK team.
Wood Group PSN is the largest provider of “Brown-field” services to the oil and gas industry. With a global network of over 26 000 people in more than 35 countries, they offer high integrity services that optimise the performance of facilities, maintain production, reduce operating costs, ensure asset integrity and extend the operating life of fields.
The contract award reinforces the long term relationship that WGPSN and Cape have forged in delivering safe and reliable services to the Shell Northern Plants, and Cape look forward to taking this new phase of the relationship forward to deliver long term sustainable value for its customer.
UK scaffold company NSG UK has opened a new office at the Wilton Centre on Teeside in northeast England. Operations in the region will be managed by Steve Raby.Tim Walker, NSG UK general manager, said: “The North East is a thriving centre for industry, manufacturing and engineering, and we felt the time was right to develop a site presence in the region. There is significant investment planned for the Teeside area which already has important industrial market and we are keen to capitalise on our longstanding relationships in the region and to play a part in its development.”
“This expansion is another sign of our commitment to growth and the aim of becoming the UK’s leading scaffolding and industrial services provider.”
NSG is owned by Montpelier, France, based Altrad.
Jason Gibbs
Advanced Scaffolder Jason Gibbs has set up a You Tube Channel in the hope of sharing to the world his day to day experiences of working as a scaffolder.
The series of videos gives you a first hand look into the world of a working scaffolder. Over the coming months you will see some of the great places he has worked and the sights he has seen from some of the tallest buildings in London.
httpv://youtu.be/mH7Ti6zXElo
Jason’s Comments: With the Beamwork done, we started taking the lump up – mostly 2 handed, its been hard going, but we’re upto the 4th floor… with another to be based later in the week on the same site thats 260ft high – which could be one of, if not the biggest Tube and Fitting Staircase in the world.
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Strong winds are thought to have brought down the independent scaffold on The Royal Beach Hotel, Southsea.
The scaffolding was erected for painting up to the fifth floor of the hotel.
Local police announced that there were no body in the parked vehicles and no injurys were reported after the scaffolding collapsed.
One of the crushed car owners said: “Thank goodness nobody was killed, that’s the main thing.
“But I’m a bit upset about the car. I haven’t been allowed to get under there to have a good look but I think it’s a write-off.”
Written By Daniel Norton
RoSPA is the largest and longest-running programme of its kind in the UK, awarding commitment to accident and ill health prevention. The scheme looked not only at Cape’s accident records, but also at our overarching health and safety management systems, including important practices such as leadership and workforce involvement.
Cape’s Saudi Arabia operations are leaders in the fields of insulation, refractory, painting, scaffolding, fireproofing and IMG works.
Michael Dismore, Operations Director for Cape Northern Gulf, commented:
“We are delighted to receive this highest tier of award from RoSPA, recognising Cape Saudi Arabia’s unwavering commitment to health and safety – a dedication which runs throughout the Cape organisation.”
David Rawlins, awards manager at RoSPA, said:
“The RoSPA Awards programme provides well-deserved recognition for the winners and spurs on other organisations to raise their standards of accident and ill health prevention. We congratulate Cape RB Hilton Saudi Arabia Ltd on its success and encourage it, and all our other winners, to remain committed to safety and health, an approach that is well recognised to be good for workers and the bottom line.”
Via: Press Release 
Liverpool Crown Court heard that workers had been pumping concrete onto the third floor of the building for most of the day on 19 September 2007 when the supporting scaffolding holding up the concrete suddenly collapsed. The workers’ injuries included cement burns to their skin and eyes, and bone fractures.
The Health & Safety Executive investigation found both the principal contractor for the project, Wates Construction, and the concrete subcontractor, MPB Structures, allowed the supporting scaffolding to be erected from a preliminary design, clearly marked ‘for discussion and pricing purposes only.’
The drawing did not include all the information needed to erect the scaffolding correctly or safely. The companies also failed to ensure the scaffolding was checked before allowing the concrete to be poured.
Both companies admitted breaching the Health & Safety at Work Act 1974 by putting workers at risk. Wates Construction, of Station Approach in Leatherhead, Surrey, was fined £50,000 and ordered to pay £35,591 in prosecution costs on 10 April 2012. MPB Structures, of Crucible Road in Corby, Northamptonshire, was fined £50,000 with costs of £35,362.
Susan Ritchie, HSE inspector, said after the hearing: “This incident resulted in seven men falling roughly ten metres onto wet concrete which contained various bits of metal and wood.
“The companies should have made sure they had an appropriate design they could use to build from, and that the structure was inspected before the concrete was poured.
“Instead, more than 250 tonnes of concrete was poured onto scaffolding incapable of taking such loads and the inevitable happened – it collapsed. These basic errors could easily have resulted in several people losing their lives.
“This incident should act as a stark reminder that if you fail to plan and manage projects properly then there is a real potential for things to go seriously wrong.”
Last year, there were 50 workplace deaths and nearly 3,000 major injuries reported in the construction industry in Great Britain.
Wates Construction was charged with breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974, which states: “It shall be the duty of every employer to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of all his employees.”
Dave Smith, chief operating officer for Wates Group, commented: “Safety is a core value at Wates and we remain committed to continuously improving our health and safety policies and procedures. We undertook our own internal investigation following this incident and have fully incorporated the findings and recommendations into our induction, training arrangements and policies.”
MPB Structures was charged with breaching Section 3(1) of the same Act. The section states: “It shall be the duty of every employer to conduct his undertaking in such a way as to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that persons not in his employment who may be affected thereby are not thereby exposed to risks to their health or safety.”
Via: 
