Freyssinet won the Risk Reduction through Design Award for its work on Glasgow Subway at the HSE Work-Related Musculoskeletal Disorder (MSD) Summit on 21 March 2018.
HSE teamed up with the Chartered Institute of Ergonomics and Human Factors (CIEHF) to sponsor the award, aiming to highlight the important contribution design changes can make to reduce MSD risks in the workplace.
Freyssinet was awarded a £19.6M project by Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT) to repair 10km of Glasgow Subway’s tunnels in March 2014. Due to the complex nature of the working environment, Freyssinet developed a number of innovative methods to facilitate the works, and to ensure the safety of its employees, subcontractors and the general public during the three years on site.
The repair works included annulus grouting, for which 160,000 25kg bags of grout needed to be transported underground, as well as 45,000 grout holes to be drilled, with more than 28,000 of those 2 metres off the ground. The innovative solutions developed by Freyssinet included mechanical overhead conveyors to transport the grout, mitigating the need for manual handling, and a bespoke drilling rig, which could be operated from the ground, reducing the amount of working at height required and it lessening potential exposure to dust and vibration.
Freyssinet received the HSE Risk Reduction award for: ‘A submission that demonstrated a holistic approach to a problem, providing benefits throughout the duration of the work, the transfer of technologies more common in manufacturing into a construction environment, and persuasive evidence of productivity benefits.’
The award was presented to Freyssinet’s Safety Manager Darren Collinswood, who said: “Investment in the engineered solutions made perfect sense, providing both ergonomic and logistical benefits and therefore combining to increase the safety and productively of the project.”