Suttle Projects uses SiteZone

Suttle Projects were undertaking works on the historic landslip next to a major railway line in Hampshire. Works began in October 2017 on a failed railway cutting as it could have caused serious disruption to the Waterloo line at Winchfield.

Ten workers were on site and operating in a confined area with several items of plant, including excavators and dump trucks.

Plant operators often report that they can’t see around large vehicle blind spots, so there was a need to ensure workers weren’t straying too close to working vehicles.

Suttle Projects were also keen on reducing the number of banksmen on site, whilst maintaining sound protection and safe systems of work for their site employees.

Liam Tucker, Director at Suttle Projects, identified that the SiteZone proximity warning system was a proven, reliable system that would solve the safety challenges they were experiencing.

SiteZone uses RFID (Radio Frequency IDentification) to detect collision risks when plant and people are working closely together.

With support from the SiteZone Safety team, Suttle Projects equipped ten workers with the SiteZone proximity warning tags and installed a SiteZone EasyFit and Dumper Advance systems on the relevant machines.

SiteZone Safety carried out toolbox talks, informing the workers how SiteZone works, and how it should be applied according to their requirements.

The decision to deploy the SiteZone system on site had numerous safety, personnel and cost-saving benefits, including:

• Over time there were fewer proximity breaches detected by the SiteZone system
• Removing the banksman had significant cost saving benefits and reduced another point of risk
• All the Suttle collision-related safety targets were met on the project site
• Over the duration of the project, there were no collision-related injuries or serious near misses reported
• Personnel felt that safety had been enhanced on the site
• Suttle Projects gained a top award for their repair, welfare and overall sustainability as their principle metrics on the Winchfield project
• The project was Network Rail’s highest scoring site for the month regarding safety and was awarded a ‘Gold’ standard

Having had such a positive experience on this first ‘test’ site, Suttle Projects now use the SiteZone proximity warning system on other projects, where they are keeping its use cost effective for short-term deployments by hiring the system from ESS Safeforce.