How the site assessment helps you to prevent unauthorized access to your scaffold

How the site assessment helps you to prevent unauthorized access to your scaffold

As adults, we tend to pass by building sites and scaffolding relatively unimpressed - but for children, for example, they are a real adventure playground. When they climb a scaffold for fun, accidents can easily happen. It is therefore important to make your scaffolding as safe as possible, not only for your own work, but also to prevent unauthorised access.

In fact, scaffold users are often obliged by safety regulations, such as the German TRBS 2121, to protect the scaffold against unauthorised access. What these safety measures must look like can be seen from the results of the site assessment. Read this article to find out which points are taken into account.

What does the site assessment involve?

A good site assessment is the first step in protecting both the site and your scaffolding from unauthorised access. Both the location of the site or your scaffolding and the type of work being carried out will determine the safety measures you need to take to protect your scaffolding from unauthorised access. For example, to significantly reduce the risk of unauthorised access to your scaffolding, consider the following when assessing the site:

1. Location of the scaffolding

• Where should the scaffolding be located?
• Are there residential areas, schools and other public places nearby?
• Should the scaffolding be located in a public area (e.g. a pedestrian zone) or in a non-public area (e.g. a non-accessible construction site)?
  
  

2. People in the vicinity of the scaffold location

• Are there people in the building where you want to work (e.g. in case of a residential building or an office building)?
• Are there times when there are no people in the building (e.g. at night, on weekends or holidays)?
  
  

3. Accesses to the scaffold  

• How many access points should the scaffold have?
• Are the entrances to the scaffold passed by many people or are they quietly located?
• Are the entrances to the scaffold easily visible or hidden?
  
  

4. Safety precautions at the scaffold location

• What safety measures are already in place or planned at the scaffold location? Are there patrols, CCTV, motion detectors or similar?
• Is the scaffold site protected from unauthorised access, e.g. by site perimeter fencing?

There are a few more factors as well but this is just a brief example of what you should start considering. Click here for more information on how to do a site assessment.

Once the site assessment is complete, you can move on to implementing the necessary safety measures. Stay tuned for our next blog, to read more about the concrete measures you can take to prevent unauthorised access to your scaffolding.