Redundant Pharmaceutical Factory Demolition Wins National Safety Award

Phil Black - PII Editor 05/12/2015

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ABB Consulting and GSK’s Ulverston antibiotics site have jointly won a RoSPA award following the demolition of a redundant section of the pharmaceutical company’s Cumbrian factory.

The award comes after GSK appointed ABB Consulting to carry out the project which involved the demolition of the West Site as part of a major site restructuring programme.

Following the successful completion of the project, ABB Consulting and GSK jointly received a silver accolade at the RoSPA (Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents) Awards 2015.

Steve Andrew, Demolition and Remediation Manager at ABB Consulting, explained the challenges surrounding the GSK demolition: “This type of project always brings significant challenges as it is a pharmaceutical production area so controlling dust was paramount.

Other challenges included the need to identify any hazardous materials, the location of live equipment and the interface with live process plants. Managing both the general public and traffic within the residential area was also a crucial part of the project and required robust health and safety planning.

“Overall, once these challenges were overcome, the demolition was able to run smoothly and efficiently. We are extremely proud to receive the award and to be recognised for our work in this way.”

Pat McIver, the GSK senior manager who led the project, said: “The demolition project presented GSK and ABB Consulting with a number of complex challenges which had to be analysed in detail and carried out with care.

“When removing a redundant chemical plant priority has to be given to the safety of everyone involved, both those working directly on demolition activities or elsewhere on the site.

We also had to ensure that neighbours were not put at risk or inconvenienced and that any impact outside of the factory was kept to a minimum. The project was well executed without incident and GSK are proud to be a joint recipient of the RoSPA Award.”

David Rawlins, RoSPA’s awards manager, said: “The RoSPA Awards encourage improvement in occupational health and safety management. Organisations that gain recognition for their health and safety management systems, such as GSK and ABB, contribute to raising standards overall and we congratulate them.”

Representatives for both companies attended a national awards ceremony at the Hilton Metropole Hotel, Birmingham.