Lesson Learned - Lifting Manhole Covers - PDF Download

Team,
Please share the enclosed mishap abstract and its lessons learned to your team.

Dear Raghu,
Thanks for the attachment.
I think this is too much to expect in Indian circumstances.
I have seen in Japan, they had special pullers for man hole covers.
Similarly in Europe there was a special lifting fixture developed by the workmen there, who even had a patent for his design.
We have to be proactive.
Thanks & Regards,
Sudhir

Thank you Raghu for the sharing. In the 3 pictures in the presentation, first one is that of manual lifting. Has it been included to show the normal practice only OR it has anything to do with the present incident? From the pictures and the text I understand that it shows only normal practice.Pl.explain

Dear Raghu
Thanks for sharing... Availability of such magnetic lifting machine for man holes was new thing for me... Thanks and keep on sharing...
@PTRC
Dear Sir
The first picture shows the traditional manual method using for lifting such man hole covers.. Thats what I understood from the write up...

I think there should be a wrong X and right mark besides the pictures first pic is wrong if am not wrong , and it should be avoided, second and third pictures are right,, raghu pls confirm

Dear PTRC,
The first picture shows the ‘’crow bar’’ which were using in our work place to open manhole covers instead of new equipments; it’s not related to this accident. Yes, Your right its show only a normal practice.
Now a days the engineering design was changed for manhole covers in our camp. Manhole cover must include two lifting point so the contractor or customer can lift/move the covers safely.
[IMG]http://www.pakuya.com/upload/20111103/SMC_Watertight_Square_Manhole_Cover.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://in.all.biz/img/in/catalog/102025.jpeg[/IMG]
Dear Raghu and all others, we know that steel / iron manhole covers are very lightweight in comparison to cement /. concrete manhole covers in our flat for overhead tank we have a iron , steel manhole cover which is easy to lift but in parking for underground tank we have concrete manhole cover which is square in shape but exactly like the one in the pic, so to lift such heavy manhole covers we use a rope or plastic tube and run it across the embedded steel / iron rod and pull the cover, which can cause strain of back, legs as its heavy work, but in residential apartments , that too small apartments who will buy costly equipment, so in our flat if required we use a rope and open the tank cover ... not daily but sometimes monthly or once in three months.

Dear Ravi,

Nice to see you after very long time in our forum. In residential apartments they are not going to spend a money for such kind of equipment even in Small scale construction company not ready to invest money on those kind of equipment.

In our camp more than 15 to 20 contracts working in various projects none of them having such equipment they're using always ''crow bar'' or using forklift to move the manhole covers with help of sling and shackles. It not mean its unsafe most of them are developing a Activity Hazard Analysis to control the Hazard and implement the same in work place.

When were not able to control specific hazard then we suppose to buy such type of equipment. For example if we have a specific contract in site which is related to manholes and we have specific task to work on manholes daily basis means surely we need to buy those equipment instead of using another methods.

If we don't have much work on manholes just we need to implement the AHA and train our employees on the specific task, Monitor while they performing the task very closely etc.,, Now just calculate the Hours we spend for training, Monitoring etc its for one day finee... If its goes daily just calculate the hours we spend into INDIRECT COST surely management will buy the equipment.

However its very hard to implement in Residential house's but we need to take care of our self while performing any work.''Make safety a part of your work'' its not a matter whether its home or office.