BAM Construction, which is building the new Academic Buildings for the University of York, deliberately erected a scaffold with faults designed in to challenge its employees and sub-contractors to discover them. A prize is given to those doing best. Matthew Garnett, project manager for BAM, says, ‘Our safety team came up with the idea as part of a course. The exercise has been very successful in raising safety awareness, around 60 people in nine groups of sub-contractors having had a go.’ The scaffolding test is no cake-walk, however, concealing 37 faults and with participants given just ten minutes to locate them. The best score so far is 32. Matthew has even challenged BAM’s directors and local construction lecturers. He adds, ‘Some of the faults are easy to spot, such as the existence and placement of vital railings and supports. Others are very well concealed and would take an expert to find.’ The prize for the different groups on-site has been a £20 voucher. BAM's innovative approach is just one of several safety features that helped its management of the ongoing University project to score a maximum 5 out of 5 for safety on its inspection by the Considerate Constructors’ Scheme. Among the other measures Matthew and his team have put in place are an IRIS recognition systems to control entry to the site, a hazard of the day system to highlight dangers on site, and weekly safety meetings to share best practice methods. Since the scheme started over ten years ago it has conducted over 55,000 visits and only around 5 per cent of sites have managed a score of 37 out of 40 or more - the score achieved by Matthew and his team at York.
The CCS inspector, Philip Hughes, said, “A lot of excellent initiatives are in place on this site.”
Last year BAM – which has one of the best safety records in the construction industry - became one of the first companies to insist that its scaffolding sub-contractors be members of the National Access and Scaffolding Confederation (NASC).
