Bring safety devices and auxiliary structures shell construction under one roof

Inner-city construction requires integrality of safety provisions and auxiliary constructions during carcass construction. As a supplier of auxiliary structures for structural work, Matemco is involved in metropolitan new construction projects. Many of these projects are realized on a so-called postage stamp. A small construction site with very limited space for a crane, storage or loading and unloading area. This directly affects all issues surrounding safety. After all, we consciously want to build safely and make this safety transparent and secure. But how? And could auxiliary structures play an important role in this? Wim Robbertsen, Manager Key-Accounts of Matemco has a vision on this.

Crossroads is rising in Amsterdam-Sloterdijk. Two residential towers connected to each other under the Hemboog railroad line. The substructure is characterized by great variety, which means there is also great diversity in phasing and solutions in auxiliary constructions. At the same time, the construction site is limited in terms of space for storage and logistics. Because of the Hemboog, for example, it was not possible to use a crane to hoist in the wide slab floors everywhere, so Matemco supplied special support structures with roller conveyors. "All this is a recognizable pattern with a number of recurring ingredients," says Robbertsen. "Inner-city construction often has a lot of volume and variety at the bottom of the buildings and at the same time minimal or limited space around the building."

"During the shell construction phase, we see that, in a practical sense, the responsibility for safety provisions on the construction site is divided among more parties," notes Robbertsen. "Work is done with floor edge protection, masonry scaffolding, suspended platform installations, elevators, construction fencing, support structures, et cetera. The main contractor oversees everything, but the concrete builder, for example, makes individual agreements with the supplier for the support structures. At the same time, the main contractor may again purchase the masonry scaffolding, including balcony support. In addition, inner-city construction presents specific situations and risks due to the limited space. It is therefore important to ensure integral safety during the construction phases. Matemco therefore advocates an extra effort in that area."

The safety risks and associated safety features such as scaffolding and guardrails are already identified before suppliers and subcontractors are commissioned. This means, according to Robbertsen, that there are two ways to work on integral safety solutions. "First, it is possible to bring all parties to one table at order confirmation and seek agreement based on one demarcation list of responsibilities, along with one set of demarcation drawings. All parties sign off on this. This still requires a lot of coordination during execution and further work preparation, but at least there is clarity on 'who does what.'" A second, even better, solution is to have one partner be the supplier and engineer of all the necessary safety provisions during the shell construction, Robbertsen believes. "This way, one engineer can work out everything in one 3D model, there is overview and clarity and fewer risks of ambiguities, excess material, et cetera during construction. Especially when space is limited, the risks are many and diverse, and safety solutions consist of all kinds of auxiliary constructions, this is the way to create overview and guarantee integral safety on the construction site. A step forward towards an accident-free construction site."

"Together with our sister companies Jako and Yelloo, we are able to provide a wide variety of auxiliary structures," Robbertsen summarizes. "We see that this greatly improves safety awareness and allows us to identify risks in a timely manner. This prevents a lot of unsafety, also because there are far fewer challenges in connecting auxiliary structures and safety devices."