If true, this is surely a breach of Reg 11(3)?!
http://www.dailymail.co....rope-daredevils-job.html

I hope the SSoW includes a safety net!

LB

Should also say that no doubt the Clowns will be in attendance.!!

Like the responders above - and also some of the people who added comments below the Daily Mail internet article - I would have thought that high reach 'cherry pickers' of the sort mentioned by boblewis at #2 would have been eminently suitable for accessing the lights to change their bulbs.

The article includes the following extract from the quoted manager's e-mail to employees: "Various things have been investigated in the past five years (eg gondolas and high-level cherry pickers), but for a number of reasons, none of these was practical or safe." Do any forum users happen to know of and be able to share the reasons alluded to by the manager?

It seems daft if proper consideration during the design stage was not given to how the high level lights in a 21st century building like Heathrow Terminal 5 would be maintained. As an aside, my former employer's buildings include a sizeable Town Hall completed in 1908 (coincidentally a century before T5's completion) incorporating a large ballroom with a high vaulted ceiling from which are suspended a number of sizeable chandeliers. The architect or someone in his team evidently thought about how safe access could be had to the chandeliers for changing the numerous bulbs mounted on them - each chandelier is suspended by its own winch in the loft space above the ceiling and thus can be lowered almost to floor level. On a historical note, employees and visitors to the building in its early years would have been impressed by the fact that it was built with electric lighting throughout - new technology which provided clean, instant and remarkably bright light compared with that from the gas and oil lamps still commonly used in most buildings in Edwardian times.

p.s. As "high-wire artists" are to be engaged to change the bulbs, perhaps the Daily Mail article comprises part of the onset of a "media circus" about the matter! :-)

p.p.s. Did the gondolas investigated as a means of access include ones held aloft by helium-filled balloons or forming part of a mini-airship? Sorry if this question leaves any forum users in a state of...suspense! :-)

achrn

My first two words were 'if true' to acknowledge that the report is in the DM and may be overblown.

LB

Bob makes a very good point (as always) if the method of installation can be re visited to do the work why consider anything else.

No it was after when the final relamp was done - it was a contract requirement as I understand it for a complete re-lamp at final handover.

Everlasting light bulbs anyone?

And in the CDM Regulations review the designer will be undertaking the duties of the CDM-c?????

Although, that could be seen as an endorsement of HSE policy - make it their legal duty and then they (those few that think that way) won't be able to say they leave it to someone else. That, to my mind, would be an improvement over bolting on an additional external party - the system we currently have.

I have worked on many projects where under floor heating has been installed, and if the correct sequence of construction has not been followed, it is difficult to gain access onto the floors with any heavy access or lifting equipment after the event. However, it is still possible if the floor is boarded out with a material that can spread the load. In engineering, anything is possible, anything. If someone says it can't be done, they are either not an engineer, or they should have stayed at home.

achrn
Your response is somewhat amusing, particularly your comment 'I think you aren't being asked hard enough questions'.
One of the projects that we recently completed was to refurbish a 19th century cast iron bridge over the River Tyne, which was considerably more technical that strengthening a single beam, and working within the same constraints in respect of listed building controls and appearance.
The company that I work for regularly build sub sea tractor ploughs to lay cables in the sea bed, and other interesting projects including launch and recovery systems for under water ROVs.
To put the original post into perspective, we are talking about changing some light bulbs, something that should be quite simple to resolve, for a positive thinking engineer.
I will leave you to design your staircase to Mars etc...

Can you supply a ROV that will lay a cable to Mars? Presumably yes, because you are certain that in engineering anything is possible. The cable needs to have a signal transit time of less than 2mS. Can you do that? I seem to recall that anything is possible in engineering, so a signal travelling at ninety thousand times the speed of light shouldn't worry you.



I am talking about the assertion that in engineering anything is possible and that anyone who says otherwise is not an engineer.

Also, I need three perpetual motion machines soonest. Do you hold these in stock, or will you need to manufacture them? Since anything is possible in engineering, I assume you can supply perpetual motion machines.