Port Otago is installing hard barriers to eliminate 'People vs Mobile Plant' risks in depot areas.
Previously, cones offered a visual guide between trucks, forklifts, light vehicles, and pedestrians. Now, six-tonne concrete barriers create safe working zones.
The hard barriers form three sides of a rectangle, with a Spanguard net barrier on the fourth entrance/exit face. When the net barrier is up, it stops machines from entering the area and signals that people are working on the ground.
Process Improvement Leader Ben Mulvey says engineering out the risk removes the human risk factor of administrative risk controls. "When people work next to moving vehicles every day, they can become normalised to the risks," he says. "The hard barriers clearly define and separate areas, removing all options but the safe one."