Access

How does Access work, step by step?

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   Step 1: Ask what the work actually needs

   Access is selected from the work, the height, the duration and the number of people, not from habit. A short inspection at height, a fortnight of facade repair and a six-month cladding contract call for different answers. Duration is the strongest driver: powered access is efficient for intermittent work and expensive for continuous work, and scaffold is the reverse. The number of people and the quantity of material also matter, because a platform that has to carry stacked material is a different platform from one carrying an inspector with a torch.

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   Step 2: Work down the hierarchy honestly

   The preference is to work from the permanent structure, then from a designed platform with edge protection, and only then from arrangements relying on personal fall protection. Applied honestly this changes designs - a roof detail that can be installed from inside, a facade sequence that follows the floor slabs, a plant layout that puts maintenance items where a platform can reach them. Applied dishonestly it becomes a paragraph in a method statement. The best access decisions are made at design stage by removing the need to work at height at all.

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   Step 3: Have scaffold designed, erected and tagged

   Anything beyond a basic standard configuration is designed, and the design covers loading, ties, bracing, foundations, sheeting and any openings or bridged sections. Scaffold is erected by trained scaffolders to that design, handed over with a tag and an inspection record, and inspected at the required intervals and after anything that could have affected it. The recurring failure is alteration by other trades - a tie removed to get a window in, a board lifted, a guardrail taken out - and the control is that only scaffolders alter scaffold, enforced rather than merely stated.

4. 4

   Step 4: Use towers and podiums as they were designed

   Mobile towers are erected by people trained in the specific method, with the stabilisers deployed, on ground that is level and firm, and climbed internally rather than up the outside. They are not moved with people or materials on them. Podium steps cover low-level internal work with a gated platform and are far better than a stepladder for anything more than a moment's work. Both are inspected before use and after being moved, and both are misused often enough that supervision of their use is worth real attention.

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   Step 5: Operate powered access on ground that will carry it

   Scissor and boom lifts are operated by trained and authorised people who are familiar with the specific machine and its emergency lowering controls. The ground is assessed for the loads the machine imposes, with slopes, soft ground, basements, culverts, service covers and floor loadings all considered by the temporary works designer where required. Boom lifts bring a specific trapping risk against structures overhead, which is planned for in the way the work is arranged. Overhead lines, other plant and pedestrians below are all controlled before the machine is used.

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   Step 6: Install cradles and rope access as engineered systems

   Suspended cradles and rope access rely on anchorages and roof arrangements that have been designed and checked by the structural engineer, with records. On existing buildings this is a survey exercise, because roof rigs, davits and eyebolts are often old, undocumented and in worse condition than they appear. Rope access is carried out by trained and supervised technicians working to a defined system with redundancy, and it suits inspection and short works on tall structures. Both need a rescue plan that has been thought through and can actually be executed.

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   Step 7: Plan the rescue before anyone goes up

   Whatever the method, the project decides in advance what happens if somebody is stranded, injured or suspended at height - who does what, with which equipment, in what time. This is required for powered access, cradles and rope access and it is sensible everywhere. Relying on the emergency services alone is not a plan for a person suspended in a harness. The arrangement is briefed to the people doing the work and the equipment it depends on is on site and maintained, not described in a document.