Case Study: Crossrail

23-10-2018

The Challenge

During the prestigious Crossrail project a number of Joint Ventures were formed, comprising some of the world’s leading construction companies, forming civil engineering partnerships of excellence.

Crossrail is a £14 billion project to build a major new railway under Central London, which will link Berkshire and Buckinghamshire via Greater London to Essex.

The JV’s needed to find a suitable solution to inform workers of the latest equipment status throughout the project, in the challenging conditions due to visibility, dirt and debris (sprayed concrete to name but one) and high pressure washing to name another!

The Solution

We worked with the Plant Managers to produce custom designed equipment tagging for concrete pumps, lorry loading cranes, mobile elevated working platforms (MEWPs), ride on rollers, road sweepers, excavator, telehandler, forward tipping dumper (FTD), Shotcrete Robot, shotcrete pump, shotcrete sprayer, drill rig, grout and drilling pumps, overhead gantry and muck crane, crawler crane, tracked excavator and tracked loader, Concrete pipe cleaning/wash operation key issues, tunnel concrete mixer, weldset/gen, compressor, lighting set, plate compactor, wood working, bar cropper/bender, ride on roller, Schaef.

When checks were too many for a standard insert, we created some A4 checks for plant with a corresponding A4 permit wallet customised to show the ‘do not use’ on the back section. When requested, we also customised the material for PolyArt allowing for the checks to be completed in biro but not compromising on the durability of the inserts.

Each tag ensures that the operator carried out specified pre-use daily inspections on the plant and clearly notified if the plant was in prohibition or repairs needed to be carried out.

The tags feature Scafftag’s unique holder and insert system. The inserts, detailing the pre-use checks, slot into rigid nylon holders. The inserts and holders are specifically designed to suit each type of machine being used on site. The system is very effective because it allows for personalised tags to be produced for new plant entering the site, which can be a regular occurrence on an active project.

Additional solutions were found for HAV’s identifying daily use targets:

• Excavations, Temporary Works, Hoarding and Fencing tags were also utilised
• Weekly Emergency Equipment checks (omnitag) for inspection of Fire Points, First Aid and Spill Kit.

Pipe marking – we designed a 2 tier solution here which would identify; compressed air, fire protection water, waste water out, diesel, grout line (under pressure), accelerator, concrete pump line (under pressure)...but knowing the pipes would be too dirty to allow for adhesive we made these out of polypropelene, affixed with cable ties and made a duplicate ‘clear’ marker to be affixed over the top. This ensured additional protection through the thorough washing processes, but also allowed for the top clear marker to be swapped out when too dirty / concrete splattered thus improving the longevity of the solution.

A Hot Work Permit was also created in PolyArt offering much more durability than paper, but also allowing the user to write on with biro.

The Results

The plant equipment and asset tags used on site are ideal as they complement existing permit to work systems and other control procedures. The tags ensure that the latest status is instantly visible at the point of use and that any maintenance issues are flagged and promptly addressed. In challenging conditions, where instant visibility of either checks required or confirmation that they’ve been completed, Scafftag is the ideal solution.

Feedback from Plant Manager(s) ‘We make sure that at the start of each shift the operator carries out all of the prescribed safety checks and signs the tag.

If the machine has any defect, the operators must report it to the supervisor and reverse the card to display a clear ‘do not use’ sign and identify what the issue to address is. When the engineer arrives, he then knows where to start looking. If the card is removed completely, the holder clearly states ‘do not use’ thus no one can operate the machine until the fault has been fixed.

The implementation of the Scafftag tagging system has significantly simplified our inspection process and made it clearly visible.’

The tags were met so well on site, they’ve transitioned with the staff to projects that they’ve moved onto since their Crossrail JV has concluded. Utilising the design, using as a benchmark for best practice and just amending logo’s and/or specific terminology. Further confirming that the system makes compliance and visibility easier.