Safety System Upgrades at Drury Block Plant
Stevenson Group is committed to ensuring a healthy and safe workplace across all the divisions of our business. One example of our dedication to safe work practices is the safety system upgrade project recently completed at the Drury Block Plant.
We own and operate at Drury a plant that makes cast concrete products. The three separate block manufacturing trains that make up the plant include a wide range of potentially dangerous machinery. Each had some safety control systems in place to protect workers, but safety standards have changed in the more than twenty years since the newest plant was installed. In 2005-06, we decided to upgrade the Drury Block Plant safety control systems to meet current best practice.
The first step was to assess the risks in order to define the scope of the upgrade. To do this, the project team, which included a cross-section of Drury Block Plant team members, looked at the frequency of exposure to electrical and mechanical hazards as well as the potential consequences of this exposure.
The second step was to introduce a range of electrical safeguards, including state-of-the-art laser light curtains around some machinery (if someone steps through the laser curtain, a message is relayed to the machine, which shuts down automatically). Other measures include extra gates, fencing, signage and emergency stops. In addition, all electrical safeguards now have back up systems.
These improvements have made the working environment safer for Block Plant staff and we have been pleased to see a reduction in the number of serious harm incidents as a result. There have been no serious harm incidents since July 2006.
