Rapid rail safety on track

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Rapid rail safety on track

October 20th, 2009

$Track construction workers collect training \'badges\' on their hard hats, like these on SH&E manager Gert Visagie\'s hat. LED headlights are used, switched to red and turned backwards when leaving a tunnel. Single white reflectors are worn in front, and three red reflectors on the back.$ Two and a half years ago, before construction on the Gautrain railway lines started, Isithimela Rail Services SH&E manager Gert Visagie inducted the multi-national team of the new joint venture into the South African Sheq legislation related to railway operation, track construction and maintenance, and a new safety management system based on the Railway Safety Regulator (RSR) Act, 16 of 2002.

“Sheq remains a day to day job, despite standard operating procedures, criteria, responsibilities and performance measurement formats having been in place since induction day”, Visagie told Sheqafrica.com editor Edmond Furter during a site visit.

Isithimela line managers and supervisors accept global safety benchmarks as part of working life. Management set the example and expect no less. Workers actively participate in Sheq management, and use a ‘buddy’ system to keep one another from harm.

Isithimela had appointed an approved inspection authority, National Air Pollution Assessment Services, to manage ventilation and occupational hygiene monitoring during tunnel work. The consultant stared their work with a fire risk audit and an occupational hygiene and ventilation audit, prompting some adjustments.

NAPAS now perform weekly checks and reports on air quantity and quality, temperature levels, personal exposure levels to dust, noise and other stressors, as well as tunnel safety. Isithimela also use five Altair 4-in-1 gas meters for continuous gas monitoring in the tunnels.

Keeping a clean site

The accredited hazmat company Drizit Environmental responds to diesel or oil spills. Chemical and oil spill kits are supplied on all vehicles, trucks and track equipment, while staff are trained in spill response and clean-up procedures.

Isithimela’s management adopted a comprehensive waste management procedure and a set of minimum requirements for work sites, based on the principals of ‘Avoid, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Recover, Dispose’. The procedure addresses all construction waste types, including general, hazardous and fluorescent glass tubes waste.

Water quality monitoring is done monthly, assisted by Oil Separation Solutions and the Rose Foundation at Isithimela workshop’s oil separator. Water samples are analysed and certificated at ERWAT Laboratory Services, accredited to SANAS.

Environmental management issues are discussed and reinforced at regular pre-work briefs in the form of environmental toolbox talks.

Learn and teach

Work stoppages and immediate investigations are a matter of course, practiced as a ‘stop and fix’ approach. Understandably, the venture had never lost time due to a general site stoppage.

Seeking to sustain a safety culture in off-the-job issues, Visagie led the Isithimela approach to teach and demonstrate life skills along with job skills. “Risk assessment should become a lifestyle, practiced as much with appliances and substances at home, as at work. We confirm learning by asking learners to demonstrate what they have learned,” he explains.

Hard hat stickers reveal the various training modules needed in this multi-skilled venture: Viaduct Induction, Tunnel Induction, Bombela Concession Joint Venture operations, Flush Butt Welding, Main Line work, Track Awareness, Electrical and Mechanical, Full Operations (including rolling stock work), and Metro Rail Linkup.

The narrow rail tunnels are legally considered confined spaces, adding yet another set of specialised Sheq procedures to the venture, and requiring workers to have ‘red cards’.

Emergency drills

Visagie’s team consists of five rotating safety officers and one environmental specialist. The safety team is trained in incident investigations.

Work teams start each job with a method statement, risk assessment, prerequisites, and work permits graded into five classes, with Class Five being emergency work. Every minor injury triggers a structured process known and understood by everyone.

Among the rail construction emergency plans in place, is a set of communication links and simulation exercises in conjunction with neighboring authorities, like Ekurhuleni metro. A simulated toxic leak at a rail-over-rail viaduct near Kelvin power station was run and analysed in a debriefing in October.

From Park Station in Johannesburg to the Midrand depot, 22 rendezvous points have been developed, each with road and air access for helicopters. The current emergency system already forms the basis of Gautrain operational systems.

Two-way radios remain the primary mode of communication, since cell phone reception along parts of the Gautrain route is patchy.

High and low tech

Access control and traffic control is highly sophisticated, while construction jobs use a mixture of new and old technology, including hooters and flag men to protect rail work teams from traffic, and name tags on an in-out board.

Concrete pours usually proceed in 200-metre sections, on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. The largest risks here include materials handling, materials quality, and modifications, which are approved by the senior track engineer and detailed in all procedures and standards updates.

Audits are run weekly and the risk profile, including environmental aspects, is updated weekly. Isithimela and its sub-contractors are currently 98% compliant, according to a global benchmark. Two quality assurance technicians keep a close watch on concrete mixtures, while welds are tested at Transnet laboratories.

“There is no room for cowboys here,” comments plant and workshop manager Gavin deZylva, an Australian.

The low staff turnover confirms that Isithimela had managed to build and maintain its corporate culture almost from the first day on the job. That culture includes open plan offices, with the short row of enclosed offices having unbarred windows and open doors. Friendly banter all round demonstrates that two-way communication is part of work culture.

Reputation

The venture has acquired a reputation for a seamless culture across its sites and sub-contractors. “We are known for our safety priority, zero tolerance of deviation, immediate response to deficiencies, and two-way communication about Sheq issues”, Visagie says. Incidents and some potential incidents are reported, recorded in writing and often in photographs, and discussed in a format named ‘incident recall’.

Visagie’s personal motto is vigilance and pro-activity. The management team is known by name to everyone on site. Managers make a habit of reading risk assessments done by foremen, and signing their RA books.

One minor incident that workers recall, confirms to me that Sheq is a culture in this venture: a security guard had stopped workers from crossing a railway while a workshop was being energised. The workers were not in danger, but the guard knew that lockout should include stoppage of pedestrian movement near the workshop, and acted on a Sheq impulse.

Another visible sign of the safety culture is the bay for unserviceable equipment, each tagged and scheduled for repair. Even new lever bars pass through this bay to have remnants of their grease coating removed before they are issued to workers.

World class construction Sheq seems to be setting the tone for next year’s Gautrain operations launch.

* Isithimela’s tunnelling and rail construction project approach was reported in Miner’s Choice in 2009 Oct-Nov. A report on additional Gautrain rail safety measures appears elsehwere on Sheqafrica.com

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Comments

africas top masters consulting (2009-10-29)

Hi
please send me a full email book through my email adress. The topic of interest is health and safety at workplace.
wycliffe

Edmond Furter (2009-11-2)

Dear Wycliffe, yes you can subscribe to the Sheqafrica.com monthly newsletter by following the link in the green block, it appears to the right of the introduction to the report. There is no printed version, Greetings, Edmond Furter, editor