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Spotted in San Diego, California, a man quietly working on a window in the autumn sun, while straddling his step ladder. The scene is quite pastoral and reminiscent of a painter in the south of France. He is of course at risk of the ladder tipping sideways and dumping him on his back and from a height of around two metres and his apparent weight he could well sustain a serious injury. It i ... more
Construction industry leaders are throwing their weight behind attempts to reduce the everyday health risks faced by construction workers in their workplace. The inaugural Construction Health Summit will be held in London on 21st January 2016, bringing together key players in the industry to address the fact that occupational disease kills far more construction workers than site accidents. Whi ... more
Two men survived a high speed collision with the counterweight from a foundation crane in Singapore on Wednesday The incident, captured on a dash mounted camera, shows the crane mast catching up on the branches of a tree causing the superstructure to rapidly slew through 90 degrees throwing its counterweight off directly into the cab of the oncoming truck. The passenger, 60, simply climbed ... more
If you think tending to your garden is bad enough, spare a thought for National Trust workers who spend 10 weeks trimming a hedge This is one job where you definitely need a hedge for heights. National Trust workers are swapping shears for hydraulic platforms as they get stuck in to the mammoth task of taming the hedges at a country house. Gardeners are busy pruning the mighty 400-year-old ... more
Construction is now under way of what is claimed to be the world's first commercial airport for use exclusively by drones. The Aerodrome is working with the city of Boulder City to build the droneport and teaching facility in the city in the US state of Nevada. The developer said that, unlike other similar planned projects for unmanned aerial systems (UAS), its Eldorado Droneport has already bro ... more
The GMB union says that Transport for London should abandon its plans for a new footbridge across the Thames to link Pimlico and Nine Elms. It says the crossing is only being built to satisfy property developers in the Nine Elms district and there are much greater priorities for public money, including new crossings in east London. Transport for London (TfL) is planning to build a new Thames cro ... more
A man who ran a skip operation illegally on behalf of a company whose licence had been revoked has now been banned himself. Thomas Ryan, the director of Greenford-based Euro Skips Ltd, allowed his licence to be used by Liam Moloney Plant Hire Ltd after it had its own licence revoked in September. Nick Denton, traffic commissioner for London and southeast England, said that Thomas Ryan was effe ... more
Construction workers who lobbed sacks of rubble out of a fifth floor window landed their firm in the dock. Coalville-based JA Ball Ltd was contracted to refurbish former offices into flats at Allied Place, 44 Abbey Street, Leicester. When workers were spotted chucking big bags of debris out of the window – by officers in the police station across the road – the Health & Safety Ex ... more
Driver killed by badly strapped load A construction delivery driver was killed when a concrete panel fell from his lorry onto him. Three companies have been prosecuted for safety failings that contributed to the incident and together must now pay out close to £500,000 in fines and costs. Derby Crown Court heard last week how on 11th January 2011 Mr Travis Hale, 45, was employed as a drive ... more
Spotted in Northern Ireland, an electrical contractor using a self-propelled boom lift as a crane to install a golf ball light on the sea front. While this is not the correct use of a work platform, an increasing number of platforms do offer a hook attachment option, and to be fair there are no men in the platform of the UpRight AB46 which is doing service as a crane, and the load is almost cer ... more
