If Height Is The Problem, Rope Access Is The Solution
Architects the world over are engaged in an endless competition to produce the tallest
, the most unusually shaped, the most innovative buildings that they can. Whilst personal kudos is partly to blame, the main drivers behind this competition are the need to maximise space within cities, the enhancing of the image of a city and increasing pressure on green solutions. This green pressure has seen architects in the past few years experimenting with devices such as planting high rise window boxes to aid cooling, recycling rainwater and adding curves and fins to buildings to aid energy saving.
When you add these tall and unusually shaped buildings to other structures such as onshore and offshore wind turbines, oil rigs, radio masts and bridges, it becomes clear that worldwide we have created a range of maintenance challenges.
Rope access can be the cost effective solution to these challenges. Rope access works by permanently attaching the technician to the building using two separate ropes anchored to two different points. This ensures the safety of the rope access technician and allows them to access any point on the structure. With the freedom of movement provided by the dual tethering technique it is easy to see how rope access allows work to be performed anywhere on a structure, even if that structure has a challenging shape.
As far as safety goes, all equipment is either tethered to the technician or is suspended from a separate rope. This eliminates the risk of tools dropping to the ground and potentially injuring someone or causing damage to property. By tethering the tools separately the technician doesn't have to worry about holding tools all the time and their hands can be kept free to concentrate on the immediate task.
Most rope access technicians have undergone IRATA rope access training before taking up their jobs. IRATA is the worldwide industry body for rope access workers. IRATA's training follows strict rules and trainees have to pass written and practical exams before being certified at the basic level. Further qualifications require a minimum of a year's high rope work plus further training and exams.
Key elements of IRATA training include team work and health & safety. This has resulted in an accident rate which is far lower than in comparable industries with only one fatality in the last two decades.
Whilst the list of applications for rope access is ever growing, rope access projects can mainly be divided into five broad areas. These are surveying, painting & cleaning, maintenance & repair, installation & engineering and geotechnical.
Surveying - The ability to regularly survey structures for potential risks is taking increasing priority in today's health & safety conscious world. With the need for risk prevention solutions increasingly coming to the fore, rope access allows quick, thorough and safe building inspections. This can lead to early identification and repair of potential problems and therefore to reduced downtime and increased safety. Structural surveying using rope access techniques is used for a range of applications, including oil platforms, shipping, buildings, wind turbines and cliffs.
Painting and cleaning - Rope access techniques can be used to provide solutions as diverse as high rise window cleaning, bridge cleaning, and even statue cleaning. It is vital for structures which incorporate delicate equipment to be cleaned regularly to prevent a build up of dirt from damaging the mechanisms. Rope access also allows high rise painting to be carried out on a flexible schedule and with minimal disruption to normal operations
Maintenance & repair - is essential if you are to minimise disruption from faults. Because rope access technicians require no scaffolding or other bulky ground equipment, they are extremely cost effective. This means that regular maintenance can be undertaken on tall structures. Rope access technicians can be quickly deployed so that any faults that develop can be quickly repaired, minimising disruption and increasing safety.
Installation & engineering - Rope access technicians tend to bring other skills to their work. These include electrical qualifications, engineering and technical experience. Technicians are therefore invaluable in installing and maintaining equipment such as satellite dishes, microwave antennae and radio masts.
Geotechnical - Whether we are looking at man made cliffs at the sides of roads or natural cliffs overlooking the sea, sooner or later the question of stability arises. Authorities have a duty of care to review and make recommendations on the stability of cliffs and steep drops. Rope access techniques are invaluable in both the review and in carrying out stability measures. These could include netting, spraying concrete, anchoring rocks or soil fixing.
Rope access work is extremely cost effective. Because there is no need for scaffolding, teams can be deployed quickly. Faults can therefore be corrected at an early stage and with minimal disruption. Not only will you save the cost of scaffolding, because of the way the technicians and tools are tethered man hours are reduced thus saving further costs. In addition the level of training required by IRATA means that the rope access contractors are highly skilled and this reduces accidents and increases speed.
So there you have it, rope access, the solution to working with all tall structures, whatever the architects dream up.
Copyright (c) 2010 Filton Kingswood
by: Filton Kingswood
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