Safety in Maximum Space; an approach to Ironworking around other trades

Contractors in order to meet project goals and scheduling deadlines are continually trying to minimize the site utilization and space of ironwork operations to allow other trades into these areas to meet their trade goals.

Can you keep other tradesman safe while also minimizing the site utilization of ironworking operations? The only available answer is no, if safety and efficiency are of any concern then all efforts to give ironworking operations the maximum available space needed to complete their work should be the standard always adhered to by contractors and customers. The capricious nature of ironworkers alone should lead a smart man to the decision of keeping them separate from other trades as much as possible, yet safety can easily be dismissed by contractors if it means getting ahead.

Whatever the task being performed, ironwork is so vastly different than the work performed by other trades that it leaves those tradesmen at a huge disadvantage for knowing what hazards and situational dangers to be aware of. Swinging rigging, dropped objects, equipment and materials constantly moving in and out make for a dangerous situation even while operations are running smoothly. Falls, hit-by/struck-by, and pinch points make up 60% of deaths on jobsites according to OSHA and are ever present on an ironworking job. These fatal four dangers cannot be affectively mitigated while trades working in too close a proximity to each other. While the red tape barricades are not an invisible forcefield keeping people safe from the ground to the sky. A dropped bolt can bounce off the steel on the way down and land 50 feet from where it fell, easily causing a medical emergency. A crane malfunction or rigging failure can send iron crashing to the ground well outside of the work zone. No trades should have to work on top of each other but in the case of ironwork other trades should not even be working close by. Maximum allowable space must be given to iron workers in order to keep everyone safe. As ironworkers and ironwork contractors we must demand these conditions in ord3r to protect ourselves and others.