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Posted By Chris Pope
Calling all civils H&S specialists
On Thursday I watched an old Blaw Knox get set up to lay base coat and I had to admit to the driver that apart from the hazards of reversing lorries, getting scalded or having a fire I hadn't heard of much that goes wrong with these things as they are usually only driven by experienced drivers. Is there a code of practice on safe use or some guidance material that would be useful for preparing a generic risk assessment ?
Chris Pope
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Posted By John Caboche
Chris, I don't have anything specific on these machines, other than the hazards you have picked out I would only add mechanical hazards like crushing or entrapment.
Sorry I can't be more helpful
John
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Posted By John Webster
I trust you will get a reply from somebody with actual knowledge of this area, but I understand road paving workers are at increased risk of various cancers from the fumes, which makes control of asphalt temperature important. Also increased risk of skin sensitisation which can increase susceptibility to skin cancer from sunlight.
I suspect there could also be issues around noise and vibration.
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Posted By RP There are training courses available from various highway training centres on these paviors. There is also a requirement for gas safety training. As for health risks, these do exist as previously indicated. The fumes, however are subject to the type of materials being laid, HRA Dense Base, SMA mixtures. Not forgetting that they also need to be safely loaded onto trailers. Try http://www.bituchem.com
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Posted By Stuart Nagle Chris. Obviously, TarMcAdam is laid hot, and the viscosity of the binder (the tar to keep it simple) determines the temperature used to lay the materials. generally the harder and less viscous the binder the hotter the material has to be, so there is a risk of burns to skin from the material and contact with certain parts of machines. In addition to the above, the most dangerous part of the 'paving machine' are generally the 'screws'. These are used to distribute the materials from the heated hopper across the laying width of the machine, and always used to be exposed (within a trough like metal structure). If an accident is going to occur this was usually the place, where men 'assisted' the machine with their shovels and is has been known for feet and hands ect to get 'entangled' in the screws, although this was not that common. Gas cylinders are I believe used to heat the machines parts that need to be hot to facilitate the prevention of material sticking-up, so gas cylinder safety etc needs to be observed also, if this type of heating is employed. the Binder (the tar) can be either oil based or water based (cationic or anionic). If oil based this is a recognised carcnogen (me thinks thats spelt wrong!) and contact/exposure is a known cause of skin cancer. Also, the practice of 'dipping' tools to prevent materials sticking-up on them used to be practiced, by dipping in either diesel or parafin or similar. This obviously also may be a hazard... The other main hazard is rolling, with an eight tonne or heavier roller, either as a sit-on or mechanically propelled hand operated type. men have been 'rolled' and feet were usually the subject of the injury with rider operated rollers - or worse, whilst backing into objects (like lamp columns and trees) used to be the main problem with hand operated machines, but I think the controls have been improved to almost prevent this happening now, but it's worth checking out. Signing and guarding for temporary road works must meet the requirements of Chapter 8 of the road traffic regulations, get a copy of the New Road and Street Works Act 'Red Book' which gives simple instruction for signing and guarding of road works (can be downloaded from the internet - http://www.streetworks.fsnet.co.uk /redbook.htm) Regards... Stuart
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Posted By steve e ashton
And if the machine is being operated 'in convoy' - so the aggregate is being loaded from a tipper lorry whilst moving along the road - watch out for overhead power lines. A raised tipper lorry hopper can be surprisingly high, and there was an incident in Shetland some years ago when one of the road crew, walking beside the Blaw Knox was lucky to escape with his life. Remember the equipment does not need to actually touch the 11kV overheads to cause arcing....
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Posted By peter gotch
Chris,
re health risks see on the internet....
Inhalation and Dermal Exposure among Asphalt Paving Workers
M. D. McCLEAN1,*, R. D. RINEHART2, L. NGO1, E. A. EISEN1, K. T. KELSEY1 and R. F. HERRICK1
1 Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115, USA; 2 Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Washington, DC 20210, USA
Among paving workers, inhalation and dermal PAC exposures varied significantly by task, crew, recycled asphalt product (RAP) and work rate (inhalation only). Asphalt mix containing high RAP was associated with a 5-fold increase in inhalation PAC exposures and a 2-fold increase in dermal PAC exposure, compared with low RAP mix. The inhalation PAC exposures were consistent with the workers' proximity to the primary source of asphalt fume (paver operators > screedmen > rakers > roller operators), such that the adjusted mean exposures among paver operators (5.0 µg/m3, low RAP; 24 µg/m3, high RAP) were 12 times higher than among roller operators (0.4 µg/m3, low RAP; 2.0 µg/m3, high RAP).
Regards, Peter
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Posted By Keith Oakes
Chris,
Everything that stuart has mentioned is correct.
All road pavers (as is their name) are issued with an operator training manual as machine models differ in their configuration and use. Maybe you can obtain guidance from there for your assessment.
Operator training is provided by 3rd party organisations such as CSCS.
Not all of the above types of machine use propane as a heating medium. There is such a thing as the 'electropave' where the tarmac is heated on electric plates as it is layed. Thus gas safety is no longer an issue and fumes are reduced.
Do you also have road planers or sprayers in the vicinity? These would present similar hazards (without the heat).
I am unaware of any ACOP or published guidance.
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Posted By Keith Oakes
Chris,
I have e-mailed an example of a operators manual for a paving machine.
Keith
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