SAFETY TOWER CRANE RESCUE TEAM
Well done to PJ Hegarty staff Paddy Bennett, Mihai Rusu, Shane Kierans and Derek Smith who completed the Tower Crane Rescue training. There are four members required to establish an effective Tower Crane Rescue Team. The team is allocated to the Treasury Google and Annex projects. Over the course of the next few months, two additional Tower Crane Rescue Teams will be trained. One for the Waterfront project and a backup team to cover both. The teams are there to initiate a rescue from a tower crane and to assist the Dublin Fire Brigade in the event of an emergency.
LEAD PAINT REMOVAL AT TREASURY GOOGLE
Some of the key safety controls implemented included: • The use of wet blasting to minimise any dust generation. • Secluding the area by the use of an ‘enclosure’ using 500-guage clear polythene creating a ‘bubble’ around the work area. • Use of Filtered Respiratory Protection with chemical absorbent filters (FFP3) including Fit Testing of operatives to ensure that the RPE was effective for their own personal use. • Use of chemical resistant Cat 3 type 5/6 coverall suits. • Use of rubber gloves. • Use of IFBC bags for all waste (hazardous waste). • Lead Awareness Training. • Undertaking air tests once the works were completed. • A RAMS outlining a detailed methodology for the removal works was developed and approved for the works. Further guidance on lead work can be found via the HSA website, Safety with Lead at Work, a guide for employers and employees .
As part of the works required to be undertaken on the Treasury Google project, there was a need to remove existing lead paint from steel columns, many of which were encased in concrete. As part of the project scope an additional two floors are due to be built and to enable this to occur extra strength is required within the building which requires existing steel columns to be reinforced. Due to this, the steel columns had to be exposed and it was identified during investigation testing, that a number of these columns were painted with a lead-based paint. When intact, lead paint poses no immediate health threat, however when it starts flaking or peeling it can be toxic and can cause serious health issues as well as environmental ones. To ensure the strengthening works could be undertaken safely, the lead paint had to be removed. Our project demolition contractor, JJ Duffy, engaged with a specialist contractor to undertake the lead paint removal works. The methodology for this work was for the removal area to be fully enclosed. This was achieved using a clear polythene sheeting erected around the removal area to create a bubble. This enabled the contractor to work in silo to undertake the removal works. The methodology of removal was via wet blasting using an Aquablaster Xtreme 100 blasting machine. This allows for wet removal of the lead paint with minimal dust generation otherwise known as dustless blasting. In the areas where the Aquablaster could not be used, the contractor utilised a ‘Peel Away’ method. This involved applying a chemical-based paste with a spatula to cover the affected area. The paste was then covered by wrapping it with plastic, which is left in position for 72 hours, after which, the paste is scraped off and disposed of in approved hazardous waste bags and sealed.
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