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Health, Safety & Environmental Bulletin No 109

S Martin – 2 October 2008

Heras fencing warning signs

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At our safety time out on 25 January, all site teams were asked to cease work at
11.00am, look round their place of work and make recommendations as to what could be
done to improve the safety of anyone on their site.

The feedback was very positive and each point has now been investigated and followed
up where necessary. One issue that was raised by several people was the use of Heras
fencing on site rebrands, the difficulty of moving it and the lack of visibility to
oncoming vehicles (versus lightweight reflective rigid barriers).

Following lengthy discussions, we have concluded that securing the work area from
pedestrians using Heras fencing is much safer, but there is an issue with its visibility.

Our procedure is to always use our van as a physical barrier where possible, and to
ensure that all MEWPs or mobile scaffold towers are at least a metre inside the fencing
to protect from ‘vehicle nudging’; we do accept, however, that some site specific
situations prevent the van being used, so have procured suitable warning signs.

The signs (pictured below) are big enough to be noticed, are fitted to the fencing using
tie wraps and should be fitted to each elevation of fencing that could be impacted by a
moving vehicle. Tie wraps should always be cut off flush to prevent an associated
stabbing incident.