final-report-of-the-advisory-committee-on-falsework-bragg-report - Flipbook - Page 90
The new provisions also permit the Health and Safety
Commi ssion to adopt codes of practice which will
have the same standing in law as codes of regulations,
with some variation in the defence available in the
event of legal proceedings. We hope that the British
Standards Institution Code of Practice which will follow
the publication of this Comm ittee's report may provide the basis for early approval under this proce dure.
The Factories Act 1961 and its subordinate four-fold
Code of Construction Regulations will continue in
force until replaced by legislation made under the
1974 Act. The number of regulations dealing specifically with falsework is small in comparison with the
number relating to general construction operations,
which include falsework. Regulation 49 of the Construction (General Provisions) Regulations, 1961 is
one of the few which do relate to the construction of
temporary structures. It is a general requirement
which gives little or no guidance on particular standards and merely states that "any temporary structure
erected for the purpose of operations or works to
which these regulations apply not being a scaffold or
other structure to which Regulation 11 of the Construction (Lifting Operations) Regulations, 1961
applies, shall (having regard to the purpose for which
it is used) be of good construction and adequate
strength and stability and shall be of sound ma terial,
free from patent defect". We are aware that proceedings have been taken under this regulation after
a falsework collapse resulting in death and injury,
and also where falsework has failed to comply with the
conditions of the requirement even though no actual
collapse has taken place. The acce ptance of a code of
practice for falsework will increase the safeguards.
We would however suggest that any of the proced ures
recomm ended in our report which are not covered in
the code should be adopted in future approved
standards.
There is also some confusion as to whether a falsework
which is also used as a means of access constitutes a
scaffold or not. If it does, then some of the regulations
on inspection for example, are much more strict than
those applying to falsework itself. We do not see the
desirability of producing a code of statutory regulations applicable exclusively to falsework. We do
recomm end, however, that in any revision of existing
codes or in any new construction codes made under
the 1974 Act, the requirements relating to overall
tructural stability and load-bearing capacity of
caff olding and temporary structures in general, which
apply in a wide range of constructions, should be
made equally applicable to falsework. This would be
in addition to the adoption of an approved code of
practice for falsework itself.
BSI Code of Practice
Our terms of reference required us to draw up interim
technical criteria for use in advance of the publication
of a British Standard Code of Practice together with
such procedural guidance as the committee might
consider appropriate. This injunction has led us at
all stages to pay attention to the work of the British
Standard Code of Practice Committee. Our interim
report made recommendations on the steps which were
immediately necessary and gave provisional guidance
on technical factors pending the production of the
code of practice.
In the course of our deliberations various draft
technical codes on falsework have been produced and
been examined by us. We paid particular attention
to the 66 page note of guidance produced in 1973 by
the American Association of State Highway Officials
with the title "Construction Manual for Highway,
Bridges and Incidental Structures".
In 1973 The Bridge Department of the State of
California produced a valuable work on standards
entitled "Bridge Falsework". Towards the end of
1974 the Canadian Standards Association produced a
fourth draft of their proposed Canadian Standard,
entitled "Falsework for Construction purposes". This
was based on extensive experience of falsework construction and of the effects of the state regulation and
procedural requirements which were introduced as
a result of failures of falsework structures. We have
also received information from other authorities
preparing standards which are applicable to standards
in falsework: these include DIN standards from
Germany and various treatises from France such as
the records of the Technical Institute of Building and
Public Works, which has produced a work entitled
"Recommendations for the execution of Falsework".
We have also consulted the works of various organisations involved in technical studies: these include
the Building Research Station, Garston and the
Stichting Bouwresearch, Rotterdam which have produced relevant technical reports such as Study No B 18
on adjustable steel struts.
We commend all these reports, which are included in
the appended bibliography, to those involved in
drawing up new codes of practice. The existing
British Standards specifications on related matters
have, of course, also been consulted.
Throughout the proceedings of this committee we
have been fortunate to have as one of our members
the Chairman of the British Standards Falsework
Committee and we are confident that our ideas and
arguments have been made available to that Com91
