Rope access: Working at heights

When working in the rope access sector of the offshore wind industry it is not only an advantage not to be sea sick but also not to have a fear of heights and confined spaces. The rope access companies not only send their workers offshore in support vessels, but they also require that their workers carry out their work in situations which would appear more like ‘acrobatics’ to most people, on the end of ropes, tens of metres above the sea, and into really confined spaces. They also require these super beings to be able to carry out specific tasks that an ‘ordinary’ engineer or technician would find demanding.

Offshore WIND spoke to 2 companies earning a good reputation at high levels about the technical and the human aspects of this sector.

REDS

The list of offshore wind clients for REDS, the UK specialist provider of access engineering solutions, reads like a “Who’s Who” list of the offshore wind aristocracy and includes Vestas, Vattenfall, MTHøjgaard, and A2SEA. The type of jobs in which REDS get involved include, construction and equipment installation, non destructive testing and blade inspection and composite repairs, which all require a high level of ability and experience.

While Reach Engineering and Diving Services, to give REDS their correct title, are justifiably proud of their position in the roped access engineering solutions they also work at depth in sub sea operations. Jurgen Burnard, the Rope Access Manager for REDS, is a leading technical authority with over 18 years of rope access experience. As multifunctional seems to be a byword in this sector he is also a supervisor, trainer, assessor and consultant.

LSB Sky-Access BV

LSB Sky-Acces BV was formed in 2007 through a merge of 2 companies, LSB and Sky-Access. LSB’s history goes back 53 years focussing on scaffolding. Through time the company broadened their activities, adding also industrial insolation and painting. Some 6 years ago they decided to include rope access to their portfolio. This is when they got in touch with Sky-Access, headed by Ronny van Baal, a technician with naval experience and experience in outdoor climbing and industrial climbing.

Today, 70% of the company’s revenue comes from offshore activities. They are especially good in yard stay activities and have, for example, been a loyal customer for Maersk.

Ronny van Baal, Director at LSB Sky-Access, told Offshore WIND that they had recently bagged their first large offshore wind related order. More details of this work will be published in later issues of Offshore WIND.

Standards and Guidelines

The first guidelines for rope access came from England where it was used already for a long time in the offshore oil and gas industry. It was here where now one of the largest industry bodies in this field, IRATA, was created in the late 1980’s. IRATA have made  guidelines for the sector which are recognised throughout the world. They were not made lightly, but by experts for experts in this exceptional sector. Although not legally binding these are now not just recognised but have become the standard in Europe.

Ronny van Baal explains that in the Netherlands for a long time working at height was restricted to the use of the so called collective access (scaffolding) rather than rope access. These activities were controlled by the health and safety labour laws and not being familiar with the use of rope access and the safety issues involved, this was not allowed. This changed in 2004 when amendments were made in the Dutch HSE labour regulations, as a result of guidelines for working at heights set up by the EEG (89|655|EEG) to improve safety at the work place, placing the responsibility back to the company when deciding whether to use rope access or not when performing work at heights.

According to Dutch law there are 2 persons needed for rope access related work and there always need to be two separately anchored lines in place, one work line and one back up line.

Training requirements

There are 3 levels of training in the IRATA guide lines but first to work in this sector you should have a minimum age of 18 years.

Level 1 consists of a 5 days course. With this certificate, which is valid for 3 years, you are allowed to work in the rope access sector.

Level 2 is the assistant level. To reach level 2 you need to be in possession of a level 1 certificate for at least 1 year and have built up a minimum of 1,000 working hours. The course is also spread over 5 days.

Level 3 is the supervisor level for which you need 1 year of experience as a level 2 worker and once again have built up 1,000 working hours. As a supervisor the activities consists of overseeing the project.

The supervisor prepares the layout and rigging of the lines. These can at times be complex if, for instance, a worker needs to move both vertically as horizontally. Once you reach level 3 you no longer need to make a minimum of working hours but you do need to take a refresher course every 3 years. For this level a first aid certificate is required.

Although not legally required, when working as an IRATA certified company there would always have to be a supervisor, level 3, person on site when performing rope access activities.

Material

As mentioned above, rope access is always done with two separately anchored ropes. The worker wears a harness to which the lines are connected. The special equipment that the climber can use for climbing and lowering is connected to the harness. A shunt has been used as a back up device commonly in the past, but is now increasingly being replaced by more modern systems because there were risks involved. The shunts and stops were activated by pressure. By pressing the devices the worker slides down the line, and stops by releasing the shunt and/or the stop again.

Practise has proven that in panic or emergency situations a worker is not always in control of himself and pressing requires positive physical action and is not automatic. A series of accidents using this system led to a temporary hold on rope access related work in the offshore industry in 2012. In the Netherlands all IRATA members choose not to work with shunts anymore.

New methods to replace the shunt and traditional stop have been introduced however. The shunt was replaced, for example, by the Petzl asap, an automatic fall-arrest device for rope. One of the alternatives to the stop is the I’D S Self-braking descender with an antipanic function.

LSB Sky-Access started with these new techniques straight away. Ronny van Baal, “I have never been a fan of the shunt and with the alternatives on the market we decided to work with these from the start.” Another new system introduced is for example an electrically driven Rope Scooter which permits ascent or descent at speeds of 20m per minute.

Preparation

Onshore the demand for rope access work is smaller due to alternative systems for working at heights. Ronny van Baal: “Offshore this is different, the demand here is much bigger.” This is good news but at the same time the requirements for rope access work offshore are different, more demanding.

Offshore the phrase ‘time is money’ is especially applicable. Preparation is the buzz word for a successful project. When Offshore WIND asked Jurgen Burnard what made a successful project he explained that it was all down to planning and competent technicians. And his answer to the ‘ten million dollar question’, what makes a successful rope access worker? His simple reply was “a healthy fear of heights”. Respect the fact that you are working at these heights and do not cut corners.

Ronny van Baal affirms that good preparation is key, “When one of our people is hanging on ropes far out at sea it could be a disaster if they were to find out that they had forgotten to bring a certain tool!” What are the risks involved with rope access? Ronny van Baal stresses that rope access is not necessarily more dangerous than other work, “We have never had an accident.”

Jurgen Burnard adds that the rigid format based on the respect for the conditions has made the sector an incredibly safe industry in which to work. With the accidents that do occur there is almost always human error involved. For example placing the ropes too near a heat source. The ropes can then burn and break.

Ropes are used from different materials, depending on the type of work. For protecting the ropes sometimes soft or steel slings are used. The lines are very strong and if thrown away it is often not due to wearing but more often due to contamination. Flexibility is therefore very important. The lines need to be very flexible and contamination makes the lines more rigid. There are several qualities of lines so the grade of contamination depends on the quality of the ropes. Take for example a line with a weight limit of 3,000kg. By tying a knot in it would already loose 800kg of its strength.

Chicken or the Egg

Jurgen Burnard laughed in response when asked if it was easier to train a good climber to be an engineer or a good engineer to be a climber. There is no easy answer; it just requires an exceptional person.

Offshore WIND also asked Jurgen Burnard from which background these people came from. “Twenty years ago we all were primarily climbers and mountaineers, or potholers and cavers, but that is not the case today.” The rigid regime required makes ex-military personnel a good source for recruiting, but for more than just because of the discipline instilled in the military. The military also train to a high degree of physical fitness. “High in the list of qualities is that the people must be fit.” The work can be very demanding physically, requiring total fitness.

Having a technical background this is a topic where Ronny van Baal has always had clear ideas on “Our clients have technical issues, and we need to offer them a technical solution. This is our strength, we prefer to take on technical skilled personnel and then train them to become skilled rope access climbers rather than the other way round.”

However, it is extremely hard to find skilled personnel, he adds. “Especially in the Netherlands where technical studies have lost ground after thorough changes in the schooling system some 20 years ago, it has been hard to find good skilled technical people. Some of our personnel come from East European countries. It is here where we do see a challenge in the years to come.”

Rope access has been used in the wind energy industry from the beginning, offering a globally recognised safe system of work. It offers a cost effective alternative to other access techniques such as scaffolding and elevated working platforms. These people are here to stay in the offshore wind industry.

Dick Hill & Sabine Lankhorst