PS1

Basic Health & Safety / General Stressing Awareness

To provide a general awareness of safety issues relating to work in a prestressing environment

PS1 should be delivered in conjunction with the specific unit relating to the employees’ job role. It is not aimed at training in isolation for any of the sections below. However, there are some employees where it might be taken as a stand-alone unit.  Examples are office personnel who are required to access the factory floor.

Objectives

At the end of the course, participants will be aware of both the company's and the individuals’ responsibilities concerning the Health & Safety at Work Act and relevant statutory provisions:

Background to Prestressing

• Live-end/Dead-end

• Grips - Barrels - Wedges

• Jack

• Abutments

• Tendons

• Calibration

• Button Heading

• Ferrule

• Prestressing

• Multi-stressing

• Pre-tensioning (prior to multi-tensioning)

• Piab system (crane and pulleys)

• Isolation

• UTS - Ultimate Tensile Strength

• Extension

• Hazardous area

• What happens if a tendon flies - video

• High level of stored energy

Types of Hazards Associated with a Prestressing Plant

Non-Machinery – these relate to the environment in which the work is carried out and the hazard/ risks associated with each of the following:

• Tendon breakages – what could happen?

• Damage to abutments

• Problems associated with tendons and coils

• Button end malfunction/damaged

• General housekeeping

• Oil on beds

• Hand tools/equipment (PUWER regulations)

• Slips, trips & falls

• Slippage on barrels of wedges

• Manual handling

• Noise

• Accidents, injuries and occupational diseases

Machinery

• Overstressing - use of jacks

• Lock-off systems

• Multi stressing

• Hot work on or near tendons

• Machines used in stressing/manufacture/moving machinery

• Hazards associated with work at live stressing end (factory specific)

• Noise

• Vibration whole body, vibration white finger (vwf), tools associated with this.

• Guarding of machinery

• Why use guards?

• Different types of guards including Live-end/Dead-end guards

• Rules around guarding including Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations (1998)

Danger of Exclusion Zones

• Exclusion zones during stressing – Live-end/Dead-end

• Rules for access to stressed beds

• Specific areas to be avoided

• Rules around using a platform to cross a bed

• Position of personnel to include operatives and visitors when prestressing operations are underway

• Authorisation

• What to do when hearing or seeing the audible & visual warning system

• Rules for visitors to the site

• Safety around tendon payout & management area

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)

• To raise awareness of the PPE required by the site rules and any relevant requirements concerning Risk Assessment or Safe System of Work (SSOW)

• Importance of wearing, maintaining and storing PPE correctly

Risk Assessment (RA) & Safe Systems of Work (SSOW)

• Awareness of Risk Assessment and SSOW

• Legal responsibilities

• Where the RA and SSOW are kept (site and job-specific)

Safe Access (entry) & Egress (exit)

Warning Audible and Visual

• What is a warning?

• What Audible and Visual systems are in place

• Are they manually activated or automatic?

• Duration of warnings

• What Each warning means and what you should do

Work in Progress

• What the sirens mean

• The post-stressing period

Power Failure

• What to do if power fails

• Considerations - is the bed stressed, part stressed

• What to do

This module is assessed through a multiple-choice questionnaire.