final-report-of-the-advisory-committee-on-falsework-bragg-report - Flipbook - Page 37
3
Procedural Inadequacies
In the previous chapter we described various technical
features of falsework which contributed to failure or
collapse. In the following sections we consider why
these technical faults occurred - what were the failures
in procedure or communications or inspection that
allowed them to happen.
The failures may be considered from two aspects. The
first is failure of communication: the designer was not
given a proper brief by the client; or the designer's
drawings were inadequate or liable to misunderstanding; or there was no feed-back to the designer when
conditions on site were found to be different from
those assumed. The second is failure of inspection: the
design was not checked by a competent authority; or
the structure was not inspected after erection.
From the evidence we received it is clear that failures
of communication are some of the most important
contributors to falsework inadequacy. Good communication is vital in the proper control of a sub-
stantial falsework in view of the range of disciplines
involved, the number of organisations involved and
the diversity of procedures and practices which exist.
We are of the opinion that if adequate and proper
attention were paid to communication of information
which is already available somewhere, this could
possibly be the greatest single contribution to improved standards of falsework construction.
Design Brief
It is of fundamental importance that the client indicates in his brief any special features or constraints
to which the falsework is subject. We have examples
where of underground cables, sewers, pipe-runs
or gas mains, whose existence was not known
to the designer, have necessitated alterations to falsework. In some cases the alterations were undertaken
without reference back to the designer resulting in the
remaining props becoming an incoherent system: what
had been a deliberate redundancy at certain points
was eliminated and the remaining props became
Protection provided at an access opening in falsework to prevent accidental damage by traffic
38
