With 2012 approaching many of the City’s World famous landmarks are undergoing full refurbishment. London needs to look its best.
The work has involved a lot of painting! Tower Bridge, Southwark Bridge, Canary Wharf Pier and HMS Belfast are all currently undergoing major refurbishment works which will take not months, but years to complete. All these landmarks have something in common, as well as being refurbished for the Games, they are all on or over London’s most famous and important landmark, the River Thames. Where working over water is involved there are obvious health and safety implications for the contractors carrying out the refurbishment work.
Scaffolders have woven intricate webs of metal walkways around the structures, all just meters from the waters of the tidal River Thames. Innocent and beautiful in appearance at certain states of tide the river becomes a mix of vicious tidal flows and rips, particularly around structures such as bridges and piers where the contractors are working.
Scaffolding surrounding the HMS Belfast and North end of Tower Bridge
Landing in water from a low height may seem more attractive than concrete or even earth, but it is not the landing that is the problem. The river is definitely not somewhere you want to be when the tide is flowing in or out. With the river rising and falling by up to 7 meters twice daily an awful lot of water moves in and out of London with each tide.
Contractors such as Pyeroy and Abwood Marine Services take great care of their workforce employing marine safety experts to provide safety boat cover at the sites they are renovating. In this case the safety boat is only there to provide emergency cover as every reasonable precaution is taken to prevent someone actually falling into the water in the first place. Prevention is better than cure!
A safety boat comprises a fully licensed workboat, RIB or other small craft, a licensed and trained Captain and also a similarly qualified Mate. With regular drills, which have included human dummy’s being dropped into the Thames, the safety team are kept on guard should a situation happen for real.
Livett’s Launches are providing safety cover for the four landmarks mentioned in this article, but there are many other exciting and dangerous activities happening on the River Thames that they also get involved with, some even requiring diver teams. As one of London’s most respected marine experts another example of safety work on the Thames is where Livett’s coordinate work on marine filming stunt sequences. Marine safety cover is much more active than covering the renovation of landmarks! In this case you are guaranteed to have to recover someone from the water when it is part of the planned sequence. Examples include stunt people jumping, driving or falling off boats or bridges!
The renovation of London’s landmarks is all moving ahead safely and on schedule.
Other stories of interest:
Safety boat at Canary Wharf Pier works
Safety boat cover for the renovation of Tower Bridge