Location: A Surfers Paradise High-Rise Construction Site, Gold Coast Australia
A Formworker built this work platform on top of a dodgy Guardrail around a Crane Base Penetration in order to do some Stripping and Back-Propping. Obviously he does not have the level of awareness required to work safely on high-rise construction sites. This is the result of poor training and supervision on behalf of the formwork company.
Dodgy Scaffolding and Guardrail Combination
What’s Wrong With This Scaffolding?
Firstly, some bloke comes along and erects a dodgy guardrail to prevent people and objects falling down the Crane Base Penetration, then some other guy comes along and builds a dodgy Work Platform on top of it. Criiiikey!
It is dodgy because the top Scaffolding Tube has a join with only one Post at each end and the Posts “wobble” because they are not anchored securely. This combination represents the danger of the two Scaffold Tubes separating at the join.
The Top-Rail in this situation should be one piece without any joins. When this is done on all four sides of the penetration, it makes a strong, rigid Guardrail protection for any square shaped penetration even if the posts are a bit wobbly (which they shouldn’t be).
Furthermore, the Sleeve-Coupler used to join the two pieces of Scaffold Tube is upside down. This type of Sleeve-Coupler should always be attached with the opening facing up and the bolts facing away from the user. The reason?
- Because the Sleeve Coupler is designed to be used that way.
- Because the Sleeve Coupler is stronger that way.
- The opening facing upwards provides a visual check-point to see if the Scaffold Tube is in fact inserted all the way into the Coupler.
- The bolts facing away from the user minimizes injuries.
Even if all the above corrections were made to this Guardrail, work platforms should not be built on top of guardrails anyway.