Harbour bridge work wins top safety awards

Work on strengthening the Auckland Harbour Bridge has won Total Bridge Services two top Safeguard Health and Safety awards — the Supreme Award and the Department of Labour’s Award for the best initiative to address a health hazard.


The company was presented with the awards by Minister of Labour Kate Wilkinson at function last night at the SKYCITY Auckland Convention Centre.


The company has held the maintenance contract on the Harbour Bridge since 1998. In 2008 it began work on a two-year project to strengthen the Bridge’s box girders.


“Working conditions on this project were about as tough as they get and innovation and comprehensiveness are stand-out features of the way the project was managed,” says Department of Labour Chief Adviser for Workplace Health and Safety, Dr Geraint Emrys.


“Total Bridge Services looked at the big picture and came up with some really clever innovations. We need this sort of imaginative approach to health and safety - for best practice you need to think outside of the square and not just do things by rote.”


These innovations included staggering shifts during the hottest months, providing mandatory ear protection gear for all conditions, installing portable ventilation and fume extraction systems, developing new paint removal systems to minimise lead absorption and reducing manual handling by using two electric trains to deliver hundreds tonnes steel to installation points along the bridge’s box-girders.


Dr Emrys says the project exposed Total Bridge Services’ 150 workers to a formidable range of health and safety hazards including high temperatures, harmful fumes, high noise levels and the manual handling of tonnes of steel.


Much of the work was carried out inside the box-girder extensions and temperatures inside can range from 40C in summer to 10C in winter. When welding and sand blasting in these confined spaces workers were routinely exposed to large amounts of dangerous fumes and dust. With 165,000 vehicles passing over the bridge every day traffic noise also constituted a constant hazard.


The Department of Labour worked with Total Bridge Services throughout the project and Health and Safety Inspector John Proffitt says a relationship developed between Total Bridge Services and the Department that proved beneficial to both parties.


“They wanted to have a good safety culture on site. So they involved us in the planning stages. They showed us the problems and we could make suggestions. That was great.”


Mr Proffitt was invited to monthly healthy and safety meetings where he was kept abreast of significant issues. “The relationship has been very, very co-operative. If everyone worked like that it would be great.


“Over the length of the contract we’ve seen a positive change in the safety culture on the bridge, with a drive to include employees and contractors in the management of health and safety issues and challenges. This is just the sort of approach that is needed and we hope it will become a model for other operators,” says Mr Proffitt.


As winner of the Supreme Award for the best overall contribution to improving health and safety in New Zealand, Total Bridge Services topped 11 other category winners selected from 120 high-calibre entries from throughout the country.


The other two finalists in the Department of Labour Best Initiative to Address a Health Hazard category were Kiwi Rail and Air New Zealand.


Kiwi Rail’s Tranz Metro Wellington workshop developed a new orbital sander that is safer and more efficient than conventional sanders. It reduces dust emissions by 90% and can sand a one-metre-square flat panel in one minute 30 seconds as opposed to five minutes and 30 seconds with a conventional sander. The new sander was developed in-house for around $3,000.


Air New Zealand spent $5 million on flexible mobile conveyor belt system to load and unload bags directly into the holds of the airline’s domestic Boeing 737 aircraft. The system has both speeded up baggage operations and reduced serious back injuries amongst staff from around 40 a year to only one or two.


The Supreme Award is sponsored jointly by the Department of Labour and ACC. The Department also sponsors the Department of Labour Best Initiative to Address a Health Hazard Award.


Please note that health and safety services, formerly referred to as Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) should now be referred to as the Department of Labour.