HEALTH & SAFETY ALERT

Alert No.029 Page 1 of 2 Date: 18 February 2014

Safety Lifelines for use with Harness and Lanyard.

Increasingly across various sites in Qatar, there is evidence of companies giving the task of
setting up and securing safety lifelines to individuals with no formal training or experience in this
field of work. Consequently several situations have arisen over the past few months where work
has had to be stopped as a result of poor safety lifeline installations.



The lifelines are either randomly secured / anchored to whatever is available at the time, be that
scaffold guardrails, rebar, or individual scaffold standards. This is done without any thought to
weight loadings. There is also the issue of testing / identifying, or not as is generally the case,
the horizontal deflection and loading should a user fall. There should also be specified the
maximum number of individuals allowed to be connected to / use the lifeline at any given time




Therefore, these lifelines need to be designed / planned, installed, and used under the guidance
of a competent person who is capable of identifying the load requirements, what the fall arrest /
restraint requirements are, and can stipulate the maximum number of individuals who can be
attached to the lifeline.

Wire rope lifeline, poor condition, not
enough clamps to secure it.
Crosby clamps in wrong position,
and there should be three clamps.
HEALTH & SAFETY ALERT


Alert No.029 Page 2 of 2 Date: 18 February 2014



As a minimum, the following applies to the setting up and use of horizontal lifelines on site:

The lifelines must be planned or designed by a competent person,
The plan or design can be a standard one or site specific,
The plan should show how the system will be set out, including anchorage points,
Clearly state the number of operatives that can be safely attached at any one time,
Identify any design loadings,

As a guide, for fixings, see below:



Recommended proactive actions:

i. Identify and establish on site who are the competent people for planning and installing
lifeline systems,
ii. Ensure there is an inspection regime in place for the lifelines and fixings used,
iii. Check the solidity and robustness of each anchorage point,
iv. Request evidence that the supervisors / foreman, and engineers in charge of work at
height where lifelines are used have been trained in the use of lifelines, fixings, PPE, use,
and site specifics for the area they are managing,
v. Ensure the contractor has a drilled and effective rescue plan in place,

This Safety Alert should be displayed on all Safety Notice Boards and discussed at Tool-
box Talks & Safety Meetings. Thank you, KEO H&S Dept.
Open leading edges with no lifelines
installed.
Rule of thumb dictates, at least 3 crosby
clamps (although it can be 2 if the rope size is
below 12.5mm), and minimum 150mm rope
return (doubles as soon as rope size exceeds
12.5mm)