Lack of adequate lift hoardings crazy in this day and age

Lack of adequate lift hoardings crazy in this day and age

Approximately two years ago, Dunedin based engineering firm Farra Engineering entered the lift installation market. Installing lifts requires team members to be suspended down hoarded off lift shafts, with access only from the top or bottom of the lift shaft. Farra realised immediately that this level of safety didn’t meet their standards of doing everything they could to ensure their team got home safely each day.

“We researched internationally and found that a high percentage of lift maintenance injuries could have been avoided or less severe had the worker been able to get out or raise the alarm more quickly.”, explains Mervyn Maskill, Farra Works Manager. “It seemed crazy that in this day and age one of our guys could lie in a lift shaft injured unable to get out, without anyone able to hear him, it’s just a hugely unsatisfactory level of care.”

Farra is known globally for engineering solutions for building maintenance equipment. Their gear can be found from London to Sydney, scaling the sides of some of the world’s tallest buildings – which means safety and quality are absolutely paramount.

This same engineering philosophy has been applied to the Farra Lift Hoarding, which was one of three finalists in the Kensington Swan Best Initiative to Address a Safety Risk category at the recent NZ Safeguard Health & Safety Awards.

The Farra Lift Hoarding controls this risk twofold, by having the ability to have a quick exit system on the door (not requiring keys from the inside), and by having the top and bottom hoarding door’s situated 600 mm from the shaft exit itself, allowing someone to stand between the hoarding door and the shaft entrance if required.

The hoarding is modular, light-weight and easily portable by one man, without creating manual handling hazards. Ventilation and natural light were key considerations in the design, which is lacking in the current industry standard.

The Hoardings are a steel fabricated frame with light-weight opal plastic panels in the two sides and the door. This allows light to enter the lift shaft, and prevents potentially curious by-standers from disrupting the work that is being undertaken. These opal panels also provide a solid barrier to control the risk of construction debris from entering the shaft and falling onto a worker.

Three of the Farra Lift Hoardings are being used on Leighs Construction’s BNZ Centre site in Christchurch. “The hoardings are a great invention, especially considering how safety critical being harnessed down an isolated lift shaft is. We are constantly striving for zero harm, and applaud inventions such as this that contribute towards ensuring the safety of our contractors and everyone onsite”, says Leighs Construction managing director Anthony Leighs.

Farra are also investigating other uses for the hoardings, which due to their portable and secure access nature could be used for controlling access to permit areas such as roofs, hazardous areas onsite, as well as general key access to construction sites through mounting to hoardings.

ENDS

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