Career Advice Please - Highrise Buildings

[canadacivil]

Hello All:

I am looking for some advice regarding a position I am debating on accepting. I will be working on the field for a general contractor building highrises. Even though they have the best safety record in the business, I am currently rethinking the whole thing.

I am a fairly young guy with little experience. I am concerned about my safety. Are there dangers in working in such an environment. Would you work on highrises?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks!

 

[canadacivil]

I also wanted to add, that I have the option of accepting a project coordinator position as well. Is this a safer option?

 

[ACtrafficengr]

Anywhere you work, there will be certain dangers. Mechanical engineers in factories must watch out for moving machinery. Chemical engineers have to know the materials they are working with. As a traffic engineer, I must always be aware of moving vehicles as I work alongside, or sometimes in, busy highways. At least you will be working in closed sites, where everyone there should be aware of how to act in a work zone.

If you are atill concerned about your safety, ask to talk to the company's employee safety officer. Ask whether you will be trained in fall-protection techniques(the answer had better be yes).

"...students of traffic are beginning to realize the false economy of mechanically controlled traffic, and hand work by trained officers will again prevail." - Wm. Phelps Eno, ca. 1928

"I'm searching for the questions, so my answers will make sense." - Stephen Brust

 

[BigH]

At least you won't be in Iraq or Afghanistan! If you follow the safety rules/requirements as set forth in the projects EHS manual and in accordance with government regulations, you will probably be hit and killed in a car accident before such happens to you on the job site. Guess you wouldn't like underground jobs? Even working for a sewer contractor is dangerous and probably more so than high-rise (typically about 50 deaths per year in cave ins in the USA).

 

[bimr]

It depends on what country that you will be working in.

For example, the US has a quite regulated and litigious construction environment that will tend to minimize the risks. Driving to work is probably more hazardous than being at work.

If you are working in the third world, the value of a life is not as great.

 

[emanc]

If the company has a very stringent safety program and the management fully support such program then risks on the construction site will be minimized. All construction sites have risks wether high rise bldg or not but we can always do something to identify the risks and do the control measures to avoid accidents.

I have just one tip in case you chose to accept the position - PRESENCE OF MIND at all times.

 

[BigH]

I take it from the handle that he is in Canada - same as US on the requirements. As I said - there is always risk. On my current job we have the constrution risk - but I can assure you that the tortuous drive we have to make on a mountain road to get to the site from home is a hell of a lot more riskier than anything I'll face on the site.

 

[HgTX]

As an engineer, you won't be required to walk high steel or anything like that, though I thought the same thing when I started engineering school.

Although safety is everyone's responsibility, the people on site will feel responsible for keeping you from getting yourself killed (unless they really hate you) and will do their best not to let you do anything dangerous. They have to fill out way too much paperwork if anything happens to you.

Hg

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[DarthSoilsGuy]

i can't see any reason why you would be walking bare steel beams.

you WILL be walking around pre-slab and "flat" roof areas where the perimeter of the building would be tied off with steel cables (like handrails), beams would be set, and decking would be welded and screwed down. (i'm assuming it's similar to USA practice)

to feel better about the safety, hang out with the steel inspector and steel erection foremen and ask them about how you can tell when the decking is secured and when it is too damaged to support concrete. if you learn how to do a steel inspection (bolts, welds, shear studs, puddle welds, lap screws, stair erection, and general steel layout), you will have a better feeling for when something may not be safe. you should learn how it's done anyway since you would probably have coordination roles and nothing stops a concrete pour as quick as steel problems.

i feel safer on high-rise construction than i do on 1, 2, or 3-story construction. reason being that the construction type (especially for stuctural masonry) for smaller buildings might mean that there are 3-stories of exterior ladder-type scaffolding to climb instead of a central core stairway.

 

[emanc]

Working in building construction is like crossing a pedestrian lane, if you go out of the site office and before entering the construction site you have to stop, look and listen. The only difference is you look not only to your left and right but you must also look up if something will fall.

 

[HgTX]

The first thing I was taught in grad school was "Don't be under the crane."

I think we might have also learned about two-way reinforced concrete slab design and stability of steel structures and stuff like that, but mostly I remember not to be under the crane.

Hg

Eng-Tips policies: faq731-376

 

[emanc]

You can never be under a crane if the company strictly implements safety standards in lifting. Normally, the lifting zone around the crane will be barricaded with no entry or red tape to prevent people from entering the area under the crane boom.

 

[canadacivil]

Thanks everyone for your help! Well said! I ended up taking the job by the way. I really look forward to starting in 3 weeks time since highrises are my passion!

 

[BigInch]

Never walk backwards! Did that ONCE. No sides on the building and I was on the 11th floor. I was looking at the ceiling above and stepped backwards about 3 feet or so to get a better view and my heels went into a depressed area in the slab made for postitve draining of the lavatory rooms or something. That was the deepest 3" of my what I thought was going to be a very short life.

http://virtualpipeline.spaces.msn.com

 

[graybeach]

Good luck canadacivil,
In the States we can take what is called an OSHA 10 hour course for General Construction Safety. And there are others specifically for fall protection, confined spaces, etc. They are very helpful and informative. Most likely there are Canadian equivalents.

 

[HgTX]

emanc--most of my experience has been indoors with smaller cranes (and I've known workers who were fired for going under the crane load), but I have to say I've never seen a barricade set up around a lift zone on a highway construction site either. On the other hand, I'm sure if I were stupid enough to try to get into that area, someone would chase me away PDQ.

Maybe the difference is because there's not a whole lot of simultaneous activity on a bridge erection site, so they can keep a much closer eye on the goings-on without setting up physical barricades. When a lift is happening, that is pretty much THE show. I've never been to a building construction site during a lift.

Hg

Eng-Tips policies: faq731-376

 

[emanc]

Hg-
I am into construction projects inside an existing cement plant. The compound is very wide and lots of people wandering inside the plant, contractors, operators and other plant personnels and also visitors. It is our standard safety procedure to enclose the lifting area with red plastic tape marked bold letters "danger". No body can enter the area even the contractor personnel itself except when a rigging person need to do something inside the danger zone.