Higher, faster, stronger and safer

The London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games had billions of sports enthusiasts across the globe following the action as sporting superstars were crowned and glorious achievement celebrated. Away from the athletic challenges of the Olympic Park however, was another story, in which Latchways Fall Protection played its part in delivering one of the biggest construction projects in Europe, completed without a single fatality.

The Olympic Park is now known as Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and has been transformed into the country’s brightest, newest hub for culture, technology, leisure and world class sporting events such as the Rugby World Cup and the Athletics World Championships in 2017.

Taking centre stage at Queen Elizabeth Park is the former Olympic Stadium, a building designed to be environmentally sustainable and one that will be reborn next year (2016) as a world-class multi-use arena, home to one of the UK’s top football clubs, West Ham United and the national competition centre for UK Athletics. Many spectators around the world will recall the spectacular opening ceremony of the Olympics, an event staged by Oscar winning film director Danny Boyle, where each of the 14 lighting towers around the central stadium that reached up to a height of almost 230 feet had been fitted with Latchways ManSafe® vertical systems. 

Back in 2012 over 100,000 hours of live action were broadcast from the Press and Broadcasting Centre which is now known as Here East. Today it is home to one of the UK’s top sports broadcast stations and a technology and creative nucleus for East London. However, a considerable amount of remodelling and restructuring was necessary to transform the building from a temporary base for the world’s media to a permanent home for a host of leading companies including BT Sport, which broadcasts 24/7 from its 80,000 square feet production hub.
In charge of safeguarding working from height during this transformation is Matt Lines, Area Manager for HCL Safety (acquired by Latchways in 2001). The company was responsible for installing the fall protection systems on many of the Park’s buildings and structures. He lifts the lid on the logistics of keeping workers at height safe on one of the country’s most famous parks: “The main challenge of the project was that a number of extremely large air handling units were sited on the plant deck of the building, and had to be removed. These were absolutely colossal - each as big as a house - and with more than 20 of them situated across the plant area, the danger was that the workforce removing these air handling units were exposed to a fall hazard during the process of the dismantling and removal.

“The solution was to install Latchways’ Single Span systems however, the span exceeded the standard 62m, so after consultation with the Latchways’ technical department, additional wire supports were installed. The system can easily accommodate changes in direction and three users, so was the natural choice for this application. For us, although it was a bespoke system, it was fairly straightforward and we were able to fit the complete solution in a couple of days which meant the contractors could continue seamlessly with the building works.”

Jonathan Seymour is Head of Sales for Latchways in the UK and Ireland and has been with the company for over 20 years: “At Latchways we treat every single project - large or small - with the same careful consideration before recommending the most appropriate solution. We’ve gained our trusted reputation as not only do we manufacture above and often beyond safety dictates, but also as we have practical solutions that cater for non-standard situations. Everyone knows, projects aren’t constrained by what’s ‘normal’. Of course it’s exciting to be involved with headliner projects like the Olympics and know you’re helping to keep those workers as safe as possible. It’s good to look at the Olympics, the O2 or the brand new Birmingham New Street Rail station in the knowledge that Latchways products are up there 24/7 providing the same level of unbeatable fall protection as the day it was installed.”