Ruminations

Blog dedicated primarily to randomly selected news items; comments reflecting personal perceptions

Monday, August 16, 2010

Calgary Has A Problem

Construction projects in Calgary appear to be taking their toll of the population, unaware that they may be in mortal danger when they drive close to, or walk by areas where high-rise construction is in progress.

Evidently, there has been an inexplicable rash of accidents occurring in the city in the last while. Everything from vehicles being dented because of falling construction debris and unsecured tools, to the death of a three-year-old little girl, killed when a piece of metal unaccountably fell from the 18th floor of a hotel under construction.

Inadequately secured scaffolding has fallen from a great height to the street below the 19th floor construction of a building, and a two-metre high glass pane also fell from a tower under construction.

More recently a three-metre-long metal piece fell from a construction site, and it fell upon a SUV, not a soft, warm body of flesh and blood. But this occurred during a morning rush hour, and anyone could have been hit and killed by the large piece of metal.

Gusts of wind blowing large pieces of plywood to the street, wrenches falling from the 45th storey of a skyline showpiece, smashing into the window of police headquarters below.

Construction companies have been charged with violating safety rules, but it would appear that incidents of carelessness and accidents keep occurring. Construction workers on a condo development were filmed tossing tools to one another over an open gap between scaffolds.

Just some good-hearted fun, a release from the tensions of high-rise construction. And the chance taken that there would be no one below who might suffer the consequences of the fun.

Some of this inattention to safety is attributed to companies taking short cuts or simply not enforcing basic safety rules, and some to novice construction workers, not well schooled in safety practices.

There's a simple enough solution. Do as is done in Japan. Over the scaffolding, spread huge nets to encompass both building and scaffolding, securing safety. It's more costly, more time-consuming, but it is effective.

Plenty of things are done differently in Japan. Roadwork is never done during the day in Tokyo; rather it is done at night, when the roads are clear of traffic.

Perhaps someone at Calgary City Hall might take a trip to Tokyo and check out their best-practise methods.

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