Fishermen’s Energy presented the new type of access ladder aiming to increase safety during the crew transfer from boats to wind turbines and vice versa last week.
In cooperation with Keystone Engineering, Fishermen’s Energy contracted Gulf Island Fabricators in Houma, Louisiana – the same fabrication yard that built the Block Island Wind Farm foundations – to build a full-scale mock-up of the new ladder.
Representatives from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), U.S. Coast Guard, American Bureau of Shipping, Siemens, and Alstom gathered at Gulf Island Fabricators in Houma, Louisiana to test out the new system first hand.
“Unlike traditional ladder access where the worker steps from the vessel forward across a gap to the ladder, our innovative ladder is rotated 90 degrees so that the vessel deck can be placed as close as possible to the ladder rail and allow the offshore worker to safely side step onto the ladder,” says Stan White, Program Director of Fishermen’s Energy. “If the offshore worker were to accidentally fall, the worker won’t be pinned between the vessel and the ladder but, instead, the worker would fall in a clear space protected by the fender system.”
OffshoreWIND staff; Image: energy