Posted By pschu Hi, I am a safety officer in foundation works especially for bored piling construction for several years. Owing to existing construction work culture in my country, bored piling construction site are full of water came from the air lifting and the soil grabbing operation. The lifting gears, such as slings, shackles, chains and so on, always leave on the ground, thus, their ID and Safe Working Load marking always disappear quickly as they always rub with the ground. How can such marking be lasting longer time? Is there any new technology regarding such issue? Regards, PS

Posted By Ken Urquhart PS. Hi there PS and a Happy New Year to you. I too am based in HK and know exactly what you mean. The real solution is to get the Piling Contractors to properly manage the site water and the waste water in the first place, but you and I know that this requires a significant culture change and it will take some years yet here in HK to achieve that degree of change. Perhaps the activities and the rccomendations from the "Tang Report" and the current activities of The Constrution Industry Review Committee will start to influence things more.(You can download a copy of the report fom The Works Bureau Web site) In the meantime one simple solution is to have your site team make up Sling Storage Racks. This takes the form of a simple "A" shaped frame with projecting brackets on which you get the Piling Crew to hang the slings and shackles immediately they are finished with them for the sliging/rigging/lifting operation. It takes a bit os educating and requires consistent supervision and support from the front line foremen and superviser, so train them first, (and get your Senior Managements support first of all - Have them check out the inititive and dmonstrate there support for your efforts by joining you on a special sling and lifting gear inspection once you have launchd the scheme) but once you get the guys doing it, it works. They hang the gear on the frame and it is up, off the ground and out of and fre from contaminants and mud slurry. Also it preserves your markings and colour codes, and prevents Mechanical damage to the slings which when they are buried and lying around in the mud slurry get run over and compressed by tracking Plant, Machines and vhicles and are liable to failure under lift use condiions as a result. (Do an audit of the purchase of Slings and Lifting tackle/Gear for your project sites and see just how much NEW kit your company buys - This will give you an indication of the amount that is being buried, lost and sent of site in unsuitable waste being tken to authorised tip). This is another reason why a simple storage frame system will pay dividends other than in pure Safety terms. Another way to idetify the Slings and Lifting Gear is to use NYLON Container Seal Tags. You record all the sling or lifting gear data and test and insption dates etc on the label, insert it ino the seal pocket and affix the seal to the Sling or the item of lifting gear. As you can get these seal tags in various colours you can also match them to your Colour Codes. Hope this is of some help to get you startd. I am sure that other forum members however will also have contributio to make. Regards. Ken Urquhart