Mainzeal and Siemens conquer H&S challenges at Benmore project

Canterbury’s stunning high country is a mecca for tourists and outdoor enthusiasts, with peaceful isolation, hot summers and snowy winters – but those same attributes posed unique health and safety challenges for the Mainzeal and Siemens experts.

The HVDC Pole 3 project at Benmore has posed unique health and safety challenges for project partners Mainzeal, Siemens and Transpower

The two companies are working with Transpower on the massive high voltage direct current (HVDC) Pole 3 project at Benmore, which is increasing the capacity of the interisland flow of power in New Zealand. Plans to deal with everything from extreme summer heat to hazardous goods and the need for onsite serious medical response were part of a total focus on health and safety when Mainzeal and Siemens began the $672 million project.

Pole 3 involves two major work sites – at Benmore, and at Haywards near Upper Hutt – and hundreds of staff. The project got underway in April 2010 and will be commissioned in April 2012. Mainzeal expects to finish the main building works at Benmore by March, while Siemens expects to be on the site until the end of 2012.

Impeccable record

In August 2011, the project team won two categories in Transpower’s inaugural STAR awards: the ‘Best Safety Innovation’ award for solutions to several issues posed by the challenging surroundings, and the ‘Top Site’ award for Benmore.

Paul Uttley, Mainzeal’s national health and safety manager, says the main build phase was completed with an impeccable health and safety record. “That is really a tribute to the plans put in place, and then the buy-in from the teams involved. There has been a tangible sense of pride in creating a safe working environment,” he says.

The sheer isolation of the Benmore site prompted the team to install a fully equipped first aid room in the compound; the site’s ratio of first-aid-trained personnel is better than one to 10. The room’s equipment includes a defibrillator, and a height rescue kit with a competent team in place if needed. A member of electrical installation contractor Electrix’s first response team is also onsite. There is a helicopter landing pad in case of emergency.

Avoiding heat stress

The location of the project next to Lake Benmore is typically cold with little sunlight during the winter, and hot and arid in the summer. Because the site is treated like a live switch-yard, Pole 3 follows the Transpower requisites including flame-retardant overalls, safety boots, hard hat, safety glasses and gloves. “It was clear we needed to have precautions in place to help workers avoid and deal with heat stress,” Mr Uttley says.

Workers exposed to the elements are monitored by a dedicated staff member. If a person is exhibiting signs of heat stress, their core temperature is taken and recorded. They will only return to the site once deemed fit.

Operations during temperatures above 32 degrees C see workers placed on a roster to allow 15-minute ‘cool-off intervals’. They are monitored during this time. Air-conditioned areas, showers, water, sunscreen and electrolytes are available to alleviate the effects of heat stress, and an ice truck is parked in the compound on high-temperature days.

The team has found it rains more than expected, so fire-retardant wet-weather gear is made available. And during the winter months, workers were provided with natural-fibre garments suitable for the extreme cold.

Dog-box stations

Mr Uttley says a lot of the credit for the smooth running of the system at Benmore has been due to the input and buy-in from the site management team and subcontractors, in particular Ray Matts (former Mainzeal site H&S manager), and Melisa Baily and Rebecca Magee, Mainzeal’s former and current H&S site administrators.

He says it is important to hold switch-yard inductions for new workers onsite, along with courses in height and harness, and elevated working platforms, which are NZQA recognised.

“We have three environmental and safety stations we affectionately call ‘dog boxes’. They offer assistance in heat stress, first aid treatments, and information,” Mr Uttley says. Inside the ‘onestop shop’ stations are critical things such as supervisors’ contact details, evacuation procedures, an air horn to signal an evacuation, a water cooler, first aid kit including eye wash, and a spill kit.

Hazardous management

Mr Uttley says the project team recognised the need to establish a hazardous goods storage area at both Benmore and Haywards, and undertake appropriate training. Yellow cards onsite offer workers a system to easily report hazards and near-misses. They are read out in regular pre-start meetings and actively resolved.

Inside the three stations are MSDSs (material safety data sheets) for hazardous materials within the work zone. There is also a local hazard and environmental board, updated daily. Extended working hours last summer meant fatigue management was required. Dinners were catered onsite by the local hotel to support workers.

The STAR Awards judges said all aspects of safety have been anticipated and addressed on the Pole 3 sites, with facilities and practices of exceptionally high standard. Paul Uttley says: “Personal responsibility is the starting point, then that of colleagues. The remote location has led to a sense of community on the site, and the result has been a great health and safety culture.”

Company cultures

Mainzeal CEO Peter Gomm says the company’s Pole 3 partnership with Siemens and Transpower has been built on similar company cultures. “We are all leaders in our field and equally emphatic on the need for our workers to be as safe as possible during the project. It’s obvious from the pride taken at the two locations that there has been a total safety buy-in from managers and site workers.

“I understand from first-hand discussions how difficult working conditions have been, and continue to be. In the face of this, the HVDC team has achieved and set a new safety benchmark for Mainzeal and provided lessons which will be adapted across the company.” Paul Ravlich, CEO of Siemens New Zealand, says the company is acutely aware its workers on the project often operate in situations which could be dangerous without correct procedures. “The health and safety of our team members has the highest possible priority at Siemens, and we are delighted to have the awards recognise the excellence achieved on this project,” he says.