SHEQWs Newsletter August

SHEQW 

Safety, Health, Environment, Quality, Wellbeing 

Newsletter August 2016 

Site Security 

Systems 

Perimeter Intruder 

Detection System Ltd

Contents 

3. What we could do better 

Virtual Trial Holing 

4. Movement of Plant 

We reflect on how we can control the 

movement of plant following an incident 

(not on eight 2 

O) 

5. In the Courts 

Looking at inspections and Latest 

environmental prosecution 

6. Topic of the Month 

Working on previously developed land 

10. xx 

xx 

10. In the spotlight 

Ecologists go surveying for Great Crested 

Newts 

12. What’s been happening 

We look at the raft race, notice boards 

and HAVS workshops last month 

14. Site security 

We look at how one project has 

optimised their site security 

15. SMB reporting 

Latest SHE statistics 

16. Safety alerts 

Latest safety alerts for dissemination 

What we could 

do better 

Use of BIM: 

Virtual Trial Holes 

What are Virtual Trial Holes 

Trial holes can be carried out 

without accurate knowledge of 

what lies beneath the ground, 

leaving operatives open to risks of 

contaminated ground,un-mapped 

underground services, side wall 

collapse and many other health and 

safety concerns. 

Virtual trial holes can eliminate these 

concerns and even the requirement 

to break ground. 

GPR (Ground Penetrating Radar) 

surveys can be carried out at ground 

level and the results can then be 

analysed by design. 

REMEMBER - this does not eliminate 

the requirement for soil analysis 

if ground needs to be broken in 

potentially contaminated land. 

Benefits of this method 

• No digging 

• Reduced costs (e.g. excavators, 

banksmen, permits etc.) 

• Reduced time 

• Increased safety 

Watch virtual trial holes 

video 

Page 2 | August 2016 SHEWQ Newsletter 

SHEWQ Newsletter 

August 2016 | Page 3

Controlling the movement 

of plant 

Remember the following 

when managing 

machinery on trailers; 

• Leave the trailer attached to the 

vehicle where possible 

• Use chocks (wooden stoppers) 

underneath wheels of trailer 

• Park trailer in a safe place 

• Ensure hand break is on 

• Be vigilant of the location/ risk of 

unhitching trailers - e.g is it on a 

slope, is it a safe location etc. 

Incident Example: 

Uncontrolled movement of 

plant, Nottingham 

Whilst delivering a mini digger for 

deep excavation works, an operative 

unhitched the trailer with the mini 

digger still loaded. The trailer became 

uncontrolled and free wheeled down 

the incline. 

After travelling for approximately 

25-30m down the incline, the trailer 

struck a parked vehicle causing 

damage. 

Action taken; 

• Trailer made safe 

• Supervisor informed 

• SHE team undertook 

investigation 

In the courts 

Water Company & 

subcontractor fined 

almost £1 million 

A water company has been fined 

£600,000, its contractor £333,000 

and additional clean up costs of 

£45,262 after polluting a brook. 

The contractor was carrying out 

works on a treatment works, which 

involved emptying and removing 

a tank used to store sodium 

hypochlorite. Sodium hypochlorite 

is used in the water purification 

process and is also the principle 

ingredient of household bleach. 

In 2013, the majority of the contents 

of the tank had been removed, but 

up to 300 litres of the highly toxic 

chemical was left in the bottom 

awaiting emptying. The Environment 

Agency stated that instead of 

pumping the remaining liquid out, 

a hosepipe was used to dilute the 

sodium hypochlorite with water. 

The hosepipe was then left running 

unattended overnight, letting it flow 

into a bunded area. This was carried 

out without any risk assessment or 

method statement. 

Neither company had surveyed the 

drainage to identify faults in the 

drainage system. This meant that the 

diluted toxic chemical entered the 

surface water drainage system and 

discharged to Bradshaw Brook. 

Two days later the Environment 

Agency were alerted that a 1.7km 

stretch of the brook was so badly 

polluted, killing virtually all aquatic 

organisms, including up to 900 fish, 

shrimp and earthworms. 

This case should bring home the 

message to all company directors 

and shareholders that environmental 

offences are taken seriously both by 

the regulators and the courts. 

(The Environmentalist, 2016) 



July 2016 | Page 5

Working on Previously Developed 

Land 

What is previously 

developed land? 

• Land which has been previously 

been built on or used by 

industrial processes (brownfield), 

or land which in the past has had 

imported materials on it (made 

ground). 

• These may be contaminated 

with substances that are harmful 

to humans or the environment. 

Contaminants can be in solid 

(e.g. asbestos), liquid (e.g. oils) or 

gas (e.g. methane) form. 

• Contaminants can be discovered 

when they are not expected 

and so it is important to remain 

observant when excavating. 

How does this work on 

eight 2 

O? 

• During design an Environmental 

Assessment/ PE3PA is completed 

which gives land quality 

recommendations. This may 

stipulate the need for soil 

sampling or the need for the site 

teams to undertake a watching 

brief during works. 

• Soil sampling reduces the risk 

of finding contaminated land 

unexpectedly, but if these do not 

occur, we need to ensure that we 

are vigilant of any finds. 

Why do we need to monitor 

this? 

• Avoid Environmental harm: 

working in contaminated ground 

without the proper controls 

may result in pollution or the 

spread into surrounding land or 

watercourses. 

• Avoid prosecution: pollution 

escape can lead to prosecution 

• Reduce health hazard: exposure 

to certain contaminants may 

cause skin and/ or respiratory 

irritation, cancer or birth defects. 

Wearing the correct PPE can 

reduce these risk. 

• May result in incorrect 

classification of waste which is a 

prosecutable offence. 

How to identify 

contaminated land 

• Look out for changes to the type 

of material; 

• Differences in colours or texture 

• Presence of rubbish or other 

objects 

• Differences in smell 

• Fumes 

What to do if you find 

contaminated land 

• Stop work, make the area safe, 

cordon off and inform your 

supervisor 

• DO NOT allow anyone to enter 

area, unless authorised by a 

Supervisor 

• SMB Site Agent to report on BB 

Hotline/ CA schemes to Capture 

• Call your Environmental Advisor 

who will contact the land quality 

team to arrange soil sampling 

and ensure adequate disposal. 

• Inform your H&S Advisor who 

will inform you of any safety 

requirements. 

• Always wear full PPE for potential 

contaminants 

• Wash hands and exposed skin 

after working in excavations 

• Prevent soil runoff into drains 

and watercourses 




In the spotlight 

Ecologists go surveying for Great Crested Newts 

SMB ecologists Gareth 

Lavery and David 

Macknay have been 

especially busy over the 

spring survey window 

undertaking newt surveys 

in potential breeding 

ponds and ditches, in 

order to inform design 

and/ or apply for a licence 

on various projects. 

Results of this year’s 

surveys: locations with GCN 

presence 

• D339 Newbury STW 

• D339 Carterton STW 

• D339 Moreton-in-Marsh STW 

• C946 Faringdon to Blunsdon 

pipeline 

• D018 Goose Green 

• D332 Stewkley STW. 

How to identify the 

presence of Great Crested 

Newts (GCN) 

Four surveys are required to 

determine the absence of GCN, with 

at least 3 of the 4 survey methods 

being utilised. These are; 

• Bottle Trap - placing traps in the 

pond and leaving overnight 

• Torching – searching for GCN at 

night via torchlight 

• Egg Search – searching leaves for 

signs of eggs 

• Netting – net used to search 

perimeter of pond 

If whilst undertaking these four 

surveys GCN are discovered, the 

survey number increase to six, in 

order to get a population count. This 

is normally 6 bottle tap and torch 

surveys. 

New Technology - EDNA 

eDNA water samples identifies GCN 

DNA. This year 73 eDNA kits were 

used on 22 upcoming project sites. 

The benefits of this new 

technique are: 

Major cost reduction over the AMP 

(estimated at c. £500,000) 

Reduced health and safety risk to 

personnel as less night-time work in, 

and next to, water 

Early identification which helps 

reduce programme delays, 

aid Project Managers and helps 

understand potential impact on 

VOWD (Value of Work Delivered) 

What happens if GCN 

presence is confirmed? 

If identified during design, the 

environmental team will work with 

the design team to attempt to 

“design out” the issue by locating 

new works to avoid their habitat 

(scrub, established grassland, 

woodland edge etc.) 

If Ops identify GCN onsite, the 

ecologist will undertake a visit 

to determine this. For example, 

at Chesham STW, Ops identified 

GCN, but after a visit, our ecologist 

identified these as non-protected 

smooth newts. 

On Thames Valley Mains Rehab Year 

2, SMB have the luxury of dropping 

schemes that have confirmed or 




What’s been happening across 

eight 2 

O 

Thames Water Raft Race 

This year marked Thames Water’s 

20th Annual Raft Race for 

WaterAid. Over the next four years, 

eight2O and Thames Water will be 

working together with WaterAid 

to transform lives in two towns in 

Malawi - the world’s poorest country. 

Currently in Malawi, 10 million 

people have no safe place to go to 

the toilet and 1.7 million people have 

no access to safe, clean water. 

In light of this, in July, 7 eight2O 

rafts, including 2 from the SHE Team 

entered the annual one mile raft race. 

34 carnival themed rafts battled it 

out on the River Thames. Each team 

designed, built and decorated their 

raft and wore fancy dress based 

around the theme of carnival. 

SHE Ream populate RKC 

notice board 

In July the SHE team populated the 

notice board in F2 RKC. 

This is a Thames Water initiative, 

pushed by Richard Blake to ensure key 

messages are being received by all 

staff. 

After many hours of discussions, 

meetings and deliberation we decided 

that the SHE message would be “ SHE 

in the Planning stage”, through a game 

of 

SHE Snakes and Ladders and the 

Pillars of SHE Genga. 

If you didn’t get to see it and would 

like to, get in touch. 

Occupational Health - 

HAVS workshops 

The Occupational Health Team have 

been busy doing workshops to raise 

awareness of the causes, symptoms 

and prevention methods of HAVS, 

across a number of sites. 

It has been acknowledged that a 

large percentage of the workforce 

do not understand exposure points 

and permitted times for tool usage. 

Additionally, it has been identified 

that exposure records are not being 

kept correctly and many were 

occurring after the activity had 

happened. . 

If any sites would like this workshop 

carried out, get in contact with the 

occupational health team or speak to 

It was a spectacular day & no eight2O 

team sunk!! 

If you would like to donate, 

please do so, click here. 

If you want a copy of the 

comic, please email us. 




July’s SMB Reporting Figures 

The OneView app effectively replaces cumbersome stat packs with a cloud-based document management/viewer 

system. And the photo-driven Corona app provides real-time H&S reporting and the backbone for the Works 

Management System. 

98% 

51% 

Site Security System 

Perimeter Intruder Detection Systems Ltd 

The PID system was first introduced 

on the CAJV by Trant Engineering on 

the Cirencester STW Investigation 

project, due to plant damage over a 

weekend period. 

The PID System triggers any 

disturbance and alerts a manned 

centre. This includes a bespoke 

site specific protocol to ensure 

authenticity. Depending upon the 

activity witnessed via the cameras, 

this can be escalated directly from 

the monitoring station to the nearest 

police station prior to notifying the 

designated site contact. 

The benefits of this system 

are; 

• Audible warning 

• Flashing lights 

• Camera which photographs 

(to provide notification and 

evidence) 

• Notification to 24hr manned 

centre 

Success! - Once this system was 

introduced it had a 100% success rate 

and no further incidents occurred. 

“PID Systems is a market 

leading supplier of bespoke 

security products designed 

to meet the unique 

challenges of the civil 

engineering construction 

100% 

Diversion of Excavated Material 

from landfill vs Target 

51 

3 

Noise 

Asbestos 

Trip or slip hazard 

1 

1 

2 

90% 

Recycled aggregate use 

It is the responsibility of the construction team 

to ensure that our subcontractors are using 

facilities which maximise recycling. 

Every month reporting data is extracted from 

Safeguard and the BB Hotline. 

Whether a service strike, incident, near miss or 

hazard, it is all incredibly important to us. 

Near miss - utility 

Completed H&S Inspections 

170 

Please ensure that you are completing your 

inspections on safeguard. These are crucial in 

identifying hazards and reducing the risk of an 

incident on site. 

We are getting better ... but we are not 

reaching our target yet! 

Page 12 | August 2016 




SAFETY ALERTS 

LIFTING & 

EXCAVATORS 

POWER SUPPLIES 

TO CABINS 

Select each safety alert to download to your device. If you 

are briefing out to your colleagues download DW01F04, fill 

out and return to the H&S safety team. 

DW01F04 

SA 11KV CABLE 

STRIKE 

LIFTING & 

EXCAVATORS 2 

SHE LESSONS 

LEARNT 

CHOLSEY 

UNSAFE CABLE 

CUTTING 

CHLORINE 

GAS DISCHARGE 

SHE LESSONS LEARNT 

PROTECTION 

Page 14 | May 2016 Take care 

May 2016 | Page 15

Passionate about everything we do

SHEQWs Newsletter August

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