Theses amazing sculptures are the work of sculptor Ben Long the project started in 2004 and was in development for 2 years.
This ambitious series of scaffolding sculptures were inspired by his experience of working on construction sites as a teenager and each one took up to 3 weeks to construct using tube and fitting. Throughout the project Ben worked with specialists including D+R Scaffolding Group and Amiri Construction Ltd.
Harsco Infrastructure has swept aside the competition to win the Access Project of the Year Award at the recent International Awards for Powered Access (IAPA) in Amsterdam.
Harsco received the award in recognition of its work on the Heron Tower project in London, which included the development and installation of Europe’s tallest ‘double-decker,’ and the UK’s highest ever, Mast Climbing Work Platform (MCWP).
The IAPA awards are given to mark examples of best practice and excellence in the powered access industry, with judges selecting the winners on their imaginative, unusual or technically demanding solutions to access problems. In Harsco’s case this revolved around creating a bespoke, 180-metre high mast climbing MCWP which enabled large-format, blast-proof cladding to be installed on the outside of Heron Tower. According to cladding contractor Scheldebouw, this was something that ‘just wasn’t possible’ with standard access equipment.
The project highlighted Harsco’s ability to offer engineered access solutions which go beyond the normal equipment hire parameters. It also underlined Harsco’s skills in enabling the customer to speed up the schedule of cladding work while still ensuring complete safety for the workforce.
“We’re delighted to win this award,” comments Harsco Infrastructure’s European Managing Director, Paul O’Kelly. “This is one of many projects that illustrate our innovative approach and commitment to the continuous development of the powered access market and the Award shows that our efforts and our successes are being recognised and acknowledged.”
A 34-year-old Jersey City man involved in a two-car accident Friday night was hospitalized with head injuries after his car careened into scaffolding and a building, police reports said.A 52-year-old Staten Island man waiting at a red traffic light in the westbound lane of Sip Avenue at 9:34 p.m., said he saw a Ford traveling north on Kennedy Boulevard hit a two-door Honda that was heading south and turning left onto Sip Avenue.
The Ford then careened into scaffolding surrounding a building at 2800 Kennedy Blvd. and slammed into the building, reports said.
The man driving the Ford was treated at Jersey City Medical Center for non-life threatening head injuries but could not make a statement to police, reports said.
The four occupants of the Honda, including a 19-year-old driver and three other Jersey City residents, were taken to Jersey City Medical Center where they were treated for minor cuts and abrasions, reports said.
The driver of the Honda, who lives on Passaic Avenue, told police that the Ford was traveling at a “high rate of speed.”
Via: www.nj.com
The family of a man found hanged in his home have paid tribute to a “lovely son and wonderful brother”.Dean Hearne, 42, was found by his mother at the family home on Wigmore Road, Carshalton on January 8.
An inquest heard the father of three, who worked as a scaffolder, had been feeling down in the months before his death, because he had not seen his children.
The night before he died, he was taken for a drink by his nephew Mark Hayes, in an attempt to cheer him up. Whilst out, Dean told him: “You will miss me when I’m gone,” but the court heard Mr Hayes thought nothing of the comment.
When he returned home at around 2.15am, Dean asked his mum to have another drink with him, but when she refused, he told her he loved her and she went back to bed.
She discovered his body the following morning, when she went downstairs.
His sister Karen Acres, said: “Dean was a popular and well known person, who was loved dearly. He was always the life and soul of the party and he loved going fishing.
“Dean loved his children dearly and was a lovely son, wonderful brother and a really caring uncle. He will be greatly missed and loved always, never ever forgotten by his family and friends.”
Recording an open verdict, Coroner Roy Palmer said: “I do not have the evidence to say it was an accident, but I do not have enough evidence to persuade me that he meant to die.”
A poem written as a tribute to Dean said:
“Dean told me our love would never die, but your soul fled to the sky. My heart broken in two. Having the heartache and pain embraced in my heart. Missing your smile from your face and the tender touch of your lips, your arms tightly around my hips. These memories now stored in my head, now and forever more. With all those dreams we once shared, I bid you farwell Dean as someday we shall meet again My lover, my soul mate, my best friend, Mr ? xxx”
Scarborough police are investigating the theft of 40 tonnes of scaffolding from a town centre hotel.
The scaffolding was taken sometime during a two-week period between Friday 1 April 2011 and Wednesday 13 April 2011, from a secure yard at the rear of the Royal Hotel, in St Nicholas Street.
Thieves broke in through a padlocked gate and took the haul of scaffolding tubes valued at around £5000.
The stolen tubes consisted of:
60 12ft lengths
100 4ft lengths
50 8ft lengths
50 10ft lengths
Each tube was marked with pink paint on one end and white paint on the opposite end.
Officers are appealing for anyone with information about the theft to come forward.
PC Craig Malia, of Scarborough police, said: “This was a substantial amount of scaffolding which would have taken between 20 minutes and an hour to load up.
“It would probably have needed a 20 tonne wagon to load it all up in one visit or would have taken numerous visits with a smaller vehicle.
“The hotel is in a busy town centre location and it is highly likely that someone will have seen the scaffolding being taken.”
Anyone who can help the police with their enquiries is urged to contact PC Craig Malia, of Scarborough police, on 0845 60 60 24 7, quoting reference number 12110059218.
Alternatively, Crimestoppers can be contacted anonymously on 0800 555 111.
Via: (Press Release )
An investigation is under way after two workmen were injured when scaffolding collapsed at the Bemahague School construction site in Onchan.The men were taken to Noble’s Hospital with injuries including broken ribs and lacerations, and have since returned to their homes in the United Kingdom.
The accident happened at around 1pm on Thursday, and the men were working for a UK-based sub-contractor as cladding installers.
A spokesman for the Island’s Health and Safety at Work Inspectorate said they were detained in hospital overnight, but their injuries ‘certainly weren’t life threatening’.
He said the investigation would include interviewing people and sending items for forensic examination, with the aim of finding the cause of the accident and trying to prevent a similar thing happening again.
Two firm convicted of health and safety breaches after a construction worker fell to his death at a top private school have each been fined £200,000.
James Kelly, 50, was erecting stonework at Glasgow Academy in April 2007 when he fell about 30ft (9m) from scaffolding.
Glasgow Sheriff Court heard how he suffered fatal head and chest injuries.
His employer Stirling Stone Limited and Robertson Construction Central Limited were found to have failed to meet their health and safety obligations.
Robertson Construction, of Elgin, was ordered to pay the fine at a rate of £100,000 per month over the next two months.
Multiple failures
Stirling Stone were ordered to pay £10,000 per month.
Sentencing the firms, Sheriff Sam Cathcart told them that their health and safety procedures had fallen far below the appropriate standards.
“A further aggravating factor against each accused is that this was not a breach of the statute by a single failure,” he said.
In the case against each accused, the Sheriff Cathcart said, there were multiple failures.
He added: “The fines cannot and should not be seen as an attempt to value Mr Kelly’s life in money.”
During the trial, the court heard that Mr Kelly had been employed as a labourer by Stirling Stone Limited, which had been sub-contracted to carry out work by main contractor Robertson Construction.
He was working on the third level of a loading tower of the scaffolding when he fell in Glasgow’s Colebrook Street on 26 April 2007.
The 50-year-old was taken to the nearby Western Infirmary but pronounced dead on arrival.
The court heard from the labourer’s colleague, Stuart McCafferty, who saw him just before he fell.
Mr McCafferty, a stonemason, claimed that it looked as though Mr Kelly had stopped for a cigarette.
‘Kept falling’
He said: “He looked like he stopped for a smoke. He leaned against the rail and just kept falling.”
Mr McCafferty added that there was often a problem on the site with unqualified workers altering scaffolding instead of trained scaffolders.
The witness told the court: “If we couldn’t find a scaffolder, we would do it.
“It took too long to get a scaffolder. We shouldn’t have done it but we did.”
The court heard that the railing Mr Kelly leaned on was not properly secured with a cuplock to hold it in place.
Supervisors should have been aware that staff were changing the scaffolding themselves and stopped it.
The companies should also have taken reasonable precautions to prevent Mr Kelly’s death such as arranging set times each day for scaffolders to visit the site to make any necessary changes.
The court was told that since Mr Kelly’s death, Robertson Construction and Stirling Stone had made changes to their procedures on site.
Via: BBC
Scaffolders tried to claim thousands in compensation after a council van collided with their lorry – at less than 2mph.
Town hall chiefs faced the threat of a £70,000 bill following the bump in slow-moving traffic.
The driver and two passengers in a lorry owned by S&S Scaffolding Ltd claimed they suffered whiplash in the collision with the van, and launched personal injury claims totalling £3,700.
The company, based in Atherton, near Wigan, also submitted a £6,430 claim for damages to the vehicle and for its ‘loss of use’.
Wigan council accepted blame for the collision but refuted both compensation claims and challenged the legal costs.
Now a judge at Bolton County Court has dismissed the action after hearing from two expert witnesses.
One, an independent engineer, said that the damage sustained by the lorry would have cost no more than £300 to repair.
And an eyewitness said both vehicles were travelling at between one and two miles per hour.
District Judge Shaw ruled that no injuries or any significant damage was caused and described the claim for the van’s damage and its loss of use as ‘wholly wrong’.
He also dismissed a legal bill of more than £50,000 and ordered that the council did not have to pay the £300 repair bill to the van. The council was awarded £9,332.
Council bosses today welcomed the ruling and said local authorities across the country were facing an increasing number of ‘grossly exaggerated’ claims involving low-speed road traffic collisions.
It was also revealed that the firm, based at Chanter’s Industrial Estate on Arley Way, Atherton, had carried out work on behalf of the council in the past.
The collision took place in Tyldesley, near Wigan, in 2008.
The lorry’s driver James Stubbs, of Henley Grove, Bolton, and passengers Thomas Gemmell and his son Gareth, of Hinkler Avenue, Bolton, brought the claim alongside the company.
Paul McKevitt from Wigan council said: “Local authorities across the country are facing an increasing number of claims from people who say they were injured in low speed impacts but this council is determined to scrutinise all allegations in order to protect public funds.
“It’s particularly disappointing, as this company has done work for the council in the past, and grossly exaggerated claims such as this are damaging to trust and future working relationships.
“The facts just didn’t stack up and by putting a coherent and persuasive defence before the court we have saved the council tax payers of this borough more than £70,000 of public money.”
“We hope this verdict sends a clear message that we will do all we can to protect public money and any claims that appear exaggerated will simply not succeed.”
The company refused to comment.
Mr Stubbs and Gareth Gemmell couldn’t be reached for comment. Thomas Gemmell declined to comment.
Hundreds of workers locked-out of a new plant being built for BP near Hull are staging a sit-in as industrial unrest threatens to spread across the engineering construction sector.The sit-in started today at the Saltend biofuels plant this morning after workers heard that peace talks at conciliation service ACAS broke down last night.
GMB union leaders will host a meeting of engineering construction shop stewards from across the country next week to discuss the deterioration in industrial relations.
The union has also donated £100,000 to a hardship fund for the 430 Saltend workers who lost their jobs last month.
The workers were employed by Redhall Engineering Solutions to carry-out pipework at the plant but Redhall’s contract was terminated by the BP-led client consortium Vivergo Fuels following a dispute over performance.
Workers were hoping to be taken on by a replacement contractor or direct by the client but nothing has been sorted leaving them in limbo and unpaid since early March.
The GMB is vowing to step-up its publicity campaign over the protest and will stage a demonstration outside the BP AGM on Thursday.
Les Dobbs, GMB Senior Organiser said: ”The employers walked out of the ACAS talks yesterday although the unions were prepared to continue talking to try to resolve this dispute. GMB will now press ahead with the protest outside BP’s AGM on Thursday.
“BP and Vivergo know that the site can not be finished until the work done by the Redhall workforce restarts.
“Unions want guarantees that this work will be offered to the locked out workers – who have TUPE rights to this work – but we have had no such guarantees.”
Via: Construction Enquirer
London-based AGS Scaffolding has been placed in the hands of administrators.The Leyton firm, which recently boasted it biggest scaffolding job worth £3m for the Savoy revamp, is now being run by London accountancy specialist SFP.
AGS built up a good reputation in London and the South East over 15 years offering scaffolding services to the building, civil engineering and entertainment industries.
In that time it worked on many major landmark buildings in the capital, including museum Tate Modern and the Savoy Hotel refit.
A source in the industry told the Enquirer: “With the way things are it takes just one bad paying job to cause problems. But its a big surprise that a firm like AGS has run into trouble.
“We understand that another company is in talks with the administrators to buy the assets of the firm, but nobody has heard anything more.”
Via: Construction Enquirer
Harsco received the award in recognition of its work on the Heron Tower project in London, which included the development and installation of Europe’s tallest ‘double-decker,’ and the UK’s highest ever, Mast Climbing Work Platform (MCWP).
The IAPA awards are given to mark examples of best practice and excellence in the powered access industry, with judges selecting the winners on their imaginative, unusual or technically demanding solutions to access problems. In Harsco’s case this revolved around creating a bespoke, 180-metre high mast climbing MCWP which enabled large-format, blast-proof cladding to be installed on the outside of Heron Tower. According to cladding contractor Scheldebouw, this was something that ‘just wasn’t possible’ with standard access equipment.
The project highlighted Harsco’s ability to offer engineered access solutions which go beyond the normal equipment hire parameters. It also underlined Harsco’s skills in enabling the customer to speed up the schedule of cladding work while still ensuring complete safety for the workforce.
“We’re delighted to win this award,” comments Harsco Infrastructure’s European Managing Director, Paul O’Kelly. “This is one of many projects that illustrate our innovative approach and commitment to the continuous development of the powered access market and the Award shows that our efforts and our successes are being recognised and acknowledged.” 
A 52-year-old Staten Island man waiting at a red traffic light in the westbound lane of Sip Avenue at 9:34 p.m., said he saw a Ford traveling north on Kennedy Boulevard hit a two-door Honda that was heading south and turning left onto Sip Avenue.
The Ford then careened into scaffolding surrounding a building at 2800 Kennedy Blvd. and slammed into the building, reports said.
The man driving the Ford was treated at Jersey City Medical Center for non-life threatening head injuries but could not make a statement to police, reports said.
The four occupants of the Honda, including a 19-year-old driver and three other Jersey City residents, were taken to Jersey City Medical Center where they were treated for minor cuts and abrasions, reports said.
The driver of the Honda, who lives on Passaic Avenue, told police that the Ford was traveling at a “high rate of speed.”
Via: www.nj.com 
James Kelly, 50, was erecting stonework at Glasgow Academy in April 2007 when he fell about 30ft (9m) from scaffolding.
Glasgow Sheriff Court heard how he suffered fatal head and chest injuries.
His employer Stirling Stone Limited and Robertson Construction Central Limited were found to have failed to meet their health and safety obligations.
Robertson Construction, of Elgin, was ordered to pay the fine at a rate of £100,000 per month over the next two months.
Multiple failures
Stirling Stone were ordered to pay £10,000 per month.
Sentencing the firms, Sheriff Sam Cathcart told them that their health and safety procedures had fallen far below the appropriate standards.
“A further aggravating factor against each accused is that this was not a breach of the statute by a single failure,” he said.
In the case against each accused, the Sheriff Cathcart said, there were multiple failures.
The sit-in started today at the Saltend biofuels plant this morning after workers heard that peace talks at conciliation service ACAS broke down last night.
GMB union leaders will host a meeting of engineering construction shop stewards from across the country next week to discuss the deterioration in industrial relations.
The union has also donated £100,000 to a hardship fund for the 430 Saltend workers who lost their jobs last month.
The workers were employed by Redhall Engineering Solutions to carry-out pipework at the plant but Redhall’s contract was terminated by the BP-led client consortium Vivergo Fuels following a dispute over performance.
Workers were hoping to be taken on by a replacement contractor or direct by the client but nothing has been sorted leaving them in limbo and unpaid since early March.
The GMB is vowing to step-up its publicity campaign over the protest and will stage a demonstration outside the BP AGM on Thursday.
Les Dobbs, GMB Senior Organiser said: ”The employers walked out of the ACAS talks yesterday although the unions were prepared to continue talking to try to resolve this dispute. GMB will now press ahead with the protest outside BP’s AGM on Thursday.
“BP and Vivergo know that the site can not be finished until the work done by the Redhall workforce restarts.
“Unions want guarantees that this work will be offered to the locked out workers – who have TUPE rights to this work – but we have had no such guarantees.”
Via: Construction Enquirer 
The Leyton firm, which recently boasted it biggest scaffolding job worth £3m for the Savoy revamp, is now being run by London accountancy specialist SFP.
AGS built up a good reputation in London and the South East over 15 years offering scaffolding services to the building, civil engineering and entertainment industries.
In that time it worked on many major landmark buildings in the capital, including museum Tate Modern and the Savoy Hotel refit.
A source in the industry told the Enquirer: “With the way things are it takes just one bad paying job to cause problems. But its a big surprise that a firm like AGS has run into trouble.
“We understand that another company is in talks with the administrators to buy the assets of the firm, but nobody has heard anything more.”
Via: Construction Enquirer