Wti Scaffold Blog

Two men were injured when scaffolding at the site of Hendrick Medical Center’s $86 million Project 2010 construction project collapsed Monday afternoon.

Neither man was identified, and one was still receiving treatment at the hospital as of Monday night.

Occupational Safety and Health Administration officials said they are launching an investigation into the incident at the site, which is managed by Hoar Construction.

The construction company said it employs about 100 people at the site on any given day.

Project superintendent Joey Mathews said one man, a glass subcontractor, was working on a swing stage — an aerial platform commonly used by window washers — when the collapse occurred. He was driven to the emergency room by a supervisor and was reported to be in good condition by hospital officials earlier Monday. He was released from the hospital Monday night.

Elizabeth Todd, spokeswoman for OSHA, said she could not confirm whether a complaint had been filed against the company by the end of the business day Monday.

She said inspectors had been sent to the scene from the Lubbock office and that they were opening an investigation into the incident.

“Once an investigation is opened, it can take up to six months to complete. OSHA does not comment on open and ongoing investigations,” she said.

Mathews said work on the site was suspended immediately after the collapse.

Hospital spokeswoman Lynne Bruton said work was expected to be suspended for less than 24 hours, and that no delays in the completion of the project were anticipated.

Bruton said the new addition was expected to open sometime in December or January

Mathews could not indicate how high the swing stage was at the time of man’s injury, but the apparatus is rigged to the roof of the new construction, which is six stories tall.

The other man, a framing contractor, was the only person working on the scaffold when it collapsed. Witnesses said the scaffold appeared to reach the roofline of an adjacent building, about three stories up.

An Abilene Fire Department rescue crew, working alongside construction workers, managed to free the man after about 90 minutes. He was taken to the emergency room by ambulance, and was listed in good condition as of Monday night.

In total, about 30 AFD personnel responded to the scene, according to Lt. Greg Goettsch.

Rossana Costa said she was just leaving the Hendrick Health Club when a loud metallic sound drew her attention.

“I had just finished working out and was getting in my car when I heard this sound. I looked back, and saw the whole thing start to fall. First, it started leaning, about 20 degrees or so, and then it just fell,” she said.

“It was very scary. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing,” Costa said.

The cause of the collapse was not immediately known, but Doug Eckert, spokesman for Hoar Construction, said the company would work very closely with OSHA to determine the cause.

Eckert said Monday evening that accidents like the scaffolding collapse are rare, and that the company has a strong record of workplace safety. Eckert said Hoar has received the Associated Builders and Contractors’ Safety Training and Evaluation Process (STEP) award every year since 1997.

“As a company, we’re committed to safety. We have been recognized within the industry on numerous occasions. I’ve been with the company six years, and to my knowledge, we’ve never had a safety-related OSHA violation,” Eckert said.

After the collapse, Bill Myers, an electrical subcontractor working at the site, said he attended a regular safety meeting Monday morning at which Mathews, the Hoar project manager, indicated a worker had filed a complaint with OSHA.

“He (Mathews) made it perfectly clear that OSHA did not need to be involved on this site. He said they run a very safe operation, and that you stand a good chance of going to jail for making a false report,” Myers said.

Myers said the nature of the alleged complaint was not disclosed at the meeting, and he could not say whether or not it was safety related.

A scaffold is a temporary structure that supports tools, materials, and people while erecting or repairing a building. A similar construct can be used to improve your personal productivity. Much like wearing braces to reposition crooked teeth, a personal productivity scaffold is something you temporarily insert into your daily routine to help create and establish new habits. Once those habits are conditioned, the scaffolding can be removed.

Suppose you’re having trouble staying focused at work. Your days keep getting away from you. You go to your desk and start checking email. From there you visit your favorite web sites. Then you check email again. Before you know it, it’s already lunchtime. After lunch you check email again. Then it’s back to web surfing. Perhaps you finally begin doing some real work, but only from boredom with email and web surfing. Since you’ve wasted so much time, you can only address the urgent items with no time left for doing anything remotely significant. You end your workday feeling disappointed and mildly depressed. Your evening is no more exciting. Then you repeat the process the next day.

If you don’t break such bad habits, before you know it, you’ll have wasted years of your life. This is entirely preventable, but wishful thinking and broken personal promises aren’t the answer.

When you find yourself stuck in the undesirable pattern of wasting time, it’s similar to having crooked teeth. Imagine if you kept promising over and over again, “I have to straighten my teeth! This time I’ll really do it!” Will that fix your teeth? Of course not. They’ll probably just get worse. The solution is simple though. Get yourself some braces. It will require a small sacrifice, but it will fix the problem. And it’s temporary — you won’t have to wear them forever.

A personal productivity scaffold is like wearing braces. It’s a way to redirect your time and energy back onto the “straight” course and away from the crooked one. Once you’ve set it up, it’s fairly easy to maintain, although you may still regard it as a small sacrifice.

Perhaps the most important function your scaffolding must perform is keeping your attention focused on what you want and off of what you don’t want. Who wants to waste hours a day on email and web surfing? No one that cares about having a life. But it’s way too easy to fall into this pattern by mistake, just as it’s easy to get crooked teeth.

I had to wear braces for 3 years when I was a kid, but I’m glad I endured it because my teeth remained relatively straight from then on. I’m even more grateful for the personal scaffolding that has helped me stay focused on my goals.

A sample scaffold

Perhaps the best way to understand a scaffold is to simply look at one, so I’ll share one I’ve used from time to time. To keep myself focused each day, I insert a scaffold around my workday, one hour at the start of the workday and one hour at the end. I don’t work longer hours — the scaffolding replaces what would otherwise be part of my workday. Here’s what it looks like:

Start-of-workday scaffold (60 minutes)

1.Review and update long-term plans (25 minutes)
2.Write a journal entry about what I expect to accomplish today (10 minutes)
3.Review today’s task list, and visualize a successful and enjoyable day (5 minutes)
4.Meditate and listen to any guidance that comes through (15 minutes)
5.Breathe deeply to clear and focus my mind before beginning work (5 minutes)
End-of-workday scaffold (60 minutes)

1.Record my morning workout results in progress tracking spreadsheet, plan next day’s workout (5 minutes)
2.Process paper inbox, update project/action list and calendar (15 minutes)
3.Equalize office (decluttering, filing, organizing) (5 minutes)
4.Conduct a postmortem of the day in my journal using my assessment template (10 minutes)
5.Plan next day (15 minutes)
6.Water plants (< 5 minutes)
7.Breathe deeply to clear mind and release work for the day (5 minutes)
I normally insert the morning scaffold at 8-9am and the afternoon scaffold at 4-5pm.

Your initial reaction might be, “This is way too much. I can’t take two hours out of my day for this, especially not for weeks on end.” I’m not saying you have to use my particular scaffold — this is something I created for myself, and it may not make sense for you at all. But you’d be amazed at how productive your days can be when you create your own daily startup and shutdown routine as a wrapper around your day.

The intent of the scaffolding above is to help me stay focused. I don’t always use it, but when I find my focus drifting and notice I’m spending way too much time on minor things, I return to my scaffolding and effectively straighten myself out.

The startup process gets me focused on my long-term goals and plans, so at 9am I’m jumping straight into my most important task. I feel relaxed, alert, and highly motivated.

The shutdown process is where I close out my workday, so at 5pm I’m totally done with work and ready to spend time with my family, attend a Toastmasters meeting or a kempo class, or go out with Erin.

Together these two pieces of scaffolding create a productive wrapper around my workday. In the morning I enter “work mode.” I get my work done, starting with the most important tasks for the day. Then I get out of work mode and into family mode. This works very well, and the two hours it takes doesn’t seem like much of a sacrifice at all.

If two hours seems like too much to you, you can certainly shorten it. Just a few minutes on each end can make a difference, even if you do nothing but breathing exercises. Through trial-and-error, I learned I get great results with the hour-long brackets. I am in fact getting some work done during those scaffolding periods, including planning, processing my inbox, doing record-keeping, evaluating results, and of course keeping my plants from dying. These are daily tasks anyway, so I find it useful to include them in the scaffolding.

How to create a personal productivity scaffold

To create your own scaffold, you need to identify where you’ve become “crooked” and what needs to be done to straighten yourself out. Almost always this will require crafting a process to refocus your attention. For example, you may want a morning scaffold that puts in the state of mind where you’re so focused on your goals that you wouldn’t even consider wasting your time on idle web surfing.

Design simple activities to funnel your attention towards a particular state of mind. Do you want to be motivated? Relaxed? Creative? Whatever state you want to induce should be addressed by your scaffolding.

Scaffolds work best when they’re naturally attractive to you… perhaps even fun. Think of them as bait. Ideally they should be inviting enough that you feel inclined to do them without too much resistance. By the time you come out the other end, you’re immersed in your desired state of mind, feeling you could sustain it for hours.

The best scaffolding components are those which yield an additional benefit beyond their temporary focusing effect. For example, daily meditation can help you clear and focus your mind, but it’s also known to have long-term health benefits, including a 30% reduction in the rate of death from cardiovascular disease and a 49% reduction in the rate of death from cancer (figures are from a study of transcendental meditation practitioners). Regular journaling can be hugely beneficial as well, helping you avoid problems and gain greater clarity.

Creating good scaffolding is largely a trial-and-error process. Take a stab, try something, and observe how it works for you. Every time you run through your scaffold, see if you can improve it. Was it attractive enough for you to actually complete the steps? When you came out the back end, were you in the desired state? If you do this every day, will it make enough of a difference to compensate for the time it takes?

Even when you come up with a good scaffold that works for you, it’s a good idea to mix it up every once in a while to keep it from growing stale. Reorder the steps, or insert a new activity now and then.

You can use scaffolds for just about anything, so don’t limit yourself to work-related productivity. You can use scaffolding to motivate yourself to exercise, eat healthier foods, or to psyche yourself up for selling door to door. The main idea is to create very simple, easy-to-establish habits that serve as the framework for installing much more significant habits.

Once your new habit is established, try reducing or eliminating your scaffolding, and see if you can still maintain that habit. Keep whatever scaffolding continues to be effective, but feel free to drop it when it’s no longer necessary. I frequently find myself returning to productivity-related scaffolding, but when it comes to exercising regularly, I don’t seem to need it.

Scaffolding and 30-day trials

Scaffolding is a terrific fit for the 30-day trial concept. Once you design a basic scaffold for yourself, commit to testing it for 30 days. At the end of each day, tweak your scaffolding based on your results. Consider sharing your scaffolding in the forums, and invite feedback and suggestions from others to help you improve it.

A typical scaffold used in building construction can be a rickety, ugly, paint-splattered structure, but it gets the job done. Similarly, your personal productivity scaffolding can be equally ugly to the naked eye, but if it helps you get where you want to go, you’re golden.

Commerce Parkway soon could be a flurry of new business activity. Two Ellis County manufacturing companies approached Hays city commissioners Thursday evening and requested 10-year, 100-percent property tax abatements.

Wheelchairs of Kansas is looking to expand operations at 500 Commerce Parkway. The business would retain its current operations in Ellis. A-1 Scaffold Manufacturing, a new company formed in the aftermath of A-1 Plank and Scaffold Manufacturing’s bankruptcy, would be located at 590 Commerce Parkway.

The city’s economic development policy allows for a 10-year tax abatement for manufacturing companies fixed on a sliding scale. The policy does allow full abatements for 10 years, but only for research and development businesses.

Commissioner Troy Hickman spoke in favor of considering an exception.

“These two businesses have been in Ellis County for a long time,” Hickman said. “They’ve had proven track records have been good community employers for the county. So I’m kind of of the mind, that in these particular cases, we may want to consider waiving that policy and give them the opportunity for the 10-year abatement.”

Other commissioners weren’t so sure. Henry Schwaller IV expressed concern about the precedent these exemptions could set, and said the commission established its current policy for a reason.

“I am not opposed to looking at a 100-percent abatement for 10 years,” Schwaller said. “I do think, though, that does puts the policy in jeopardy, and we have to think about what our rationale is.”

Discussion will continue at Thursday’s regular meeting, at which time the commission could set a public hearing for Aug. 26.

Wheelchairs of Kansas produces a variety of medical equipment, including bed frames and mattresses, wheelchairs, and walkers for institutional and home use. The company, which specializes in equipment for bariatric patients, now has more than 65 locations globally and is growing in Canada and Europe.

It employs more than 600 people nationwide, and 114 Ellis County residents.

While the company fully intends to invest in Ellis County, the tax abatement could prove a significant help in coming years, said Rod Taylor of Wheelchairs of Kansas.

“Over the last two years, hospitals in general have lost money. … We believe that with health care reform, that’s going to continue, at least, that’s what we’re being told,” he said. “So we know hospitals are going continue to try to squeeze all of their vendors, and of course, that includes us.”

For A-1 Scaffold, the business venture essentially will be a new beginning. The company has plans to scale down its operations, starting with 21 employees the first year of business and adding five more annually.

“From our perspective, it’s basically a re-start of what we have done in the past. We are committed to doing it; we are committed to seeing it in Hays,” said co-owner Jennifer Allenbaugh. “Our goal is to start small, start strong, re-employ some of the good people that became unemployed when our previous company closed up, and get back in the business.”

Other items set for possible action next week include:

* Labor union agreements with the International Association of Firefighters and the Fraternal Order of Police.

The city remains at impasse with its third labor union, Service Employees International Union. Commissioner Ron Mellick asked how these proceedings could affect the city’s budget process. City Manager Toby Dougherty said he has expressed concern to the Kansas Public Employee Relations Board — the state agency coordinating the impasse process — that efforts were not being made in a timely manner regarding the budget process. The commission, however, does have the authority to amend the budget after it is established.

In the future, Dougherty suggested beginning union negotiations earlier in the year. The city began talking with its three groups in March.

* Upgrades to the traffic signal at 13th and Canterbury. It’s possible that work would occur in November, but Public Works Director Brenda

Herrman said efforts would be made to accommodate Hays High School traffic.

The veil  on scaffold !Do you have any idea about this?
THE veil, the Arab cultural wear of burqas and niqabs that has become identified with Islam is being hoisted to be guillotined  not just by the French who are historical professionals in the guillotine business, but also by  a rare mixture of European, Arab and Islamic countries.

The anti-veil coalition of the willing include Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Egypt and Syria; their partners in Europe include Netherlands, France, Belgium and Spain.

The veil had played not just religious, but political roles.  In the Algerian  war of independence for instance, people in veil were conveyor belts of weapons past French security check points as the colonialists were afraid to search such persons. Soon, they banned the veil. Respected Islamic scholar, the late Hussein Fadlallah of Lebanon saw it as a clothing that does not allow men to see the woman as a sex object.

But not many agree with Fadlallah. The  most surprising to me is Syria which has banned its teachers and students from wearing  the  niqab veil  that reveals  only a woman’s eyes. Hundreds of teachers in primary schools wearing the veil have been transferred to administrative  jobs while public and private universities have been instructed not to register veil-wearing women.

It appears that Syria is trying to assert the secularity of the state, but there is a political undertone; conservative Islamism which is gaining ground amongst the poor sections of the populace may be a danger to the Syrian rulers.

The veil is the symbol of this growing conservatism or in some cases, of defiance.
But the unkindest cut is by the French whose lower house in the National Assembly  voted 335 to 1 with the Socialist party  walking out. But the walk out is not in protest against the decision, but the area of coverage. The socialists  want the ban  only in places such as public transport, hospitals and public buildings.

The bill goes to the French Senate next month where it is  likely to pass an overwhelming endorsement.  I say it is an unkind cut because in colonial times, France pursued  a policy of assimilation and had given its former colonial  subjects, their descendants and immigrants the impression that they are fully part of France. This may be one reason why with five million Muslims out of its total 64 million citizens, it has the highest number of Muslims in Europe.

Those who may be affected most are people of Algerian  descent  whose forebears had fought  on the French side during the Algerian liberation war against French colonialism. When the French under Charles de Gaul were forced to give up Algeria, many of these French loyalists fled to their adopted mother country fearing for their lives in an homestead they had betrayed.

It will be surprising, if not annoying to many of them that after over  half a century of assimilation, the French will claim that it wants to define what is French, hence the need to ban the veil.

Clearly, France is uncomfortable with the brand of Islam whose adherents had bombed civilian targets in various parts of the universe and subsequently changed the direction of world history. There was also the shock France suffered in 2005 when youths from  minority sections of the populace  engaged in bloody riots.

Clearly the move against the veil has little to do with asserting French culture; it is mainly a political one championed by the conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy with eyes on the next elections.  The French  argue that the ban has nothing to do with cultural, minority  and religious rights. As part of the attempt to live this lie, the   new law is called  the “bill to forbid concealing one’s face in public”.

They claim that  the bill affects everybody  irrespective of religion and is therefore not discriminatory. But is motorcycle helmets which also covers faces not affected? The French makes  exceptions of the helmet, health, skiing and festival masks.

Interestingly, some French believe that the ban is a move to liberate women of the Islamic faith. A legislator, Berengere Polletti, for instance, argued that women in veil are  in “prison” and that  the veil is “the sign of their submission  to their husbands, brothers or fathers”.

This faulty  thinking is reflected in the penalties. Fathers, brothers and husbands or anyone  convicted of forcing someone else to wear the veil  risks a one year prison term  and $38,000 fine. If the ‘victim’ is a minor, this penalty is doubled.  In the case of women found guilty of willingly wearing the veil, the penalty is $185. In 2004 France had banned  Muslim headscarves and other religious symbols in its public primary and post-primary schools.

The French bill is quite liberal compared to the rule in Turkey, an almost wholly Muslim state; here, even the wearing of  Muslim headscarves are completely banned. Additionally, political parties aligned to religion or even suspected to be so are banned. The military in Turkey assumes the right to overthrow any government that is seen as promoting Islam or any religion. Jordan bans the veil under the guise that armed robbers use them as masks.

Despite the various reasons adduced, the move against the veil is essentially political; a move by the majority against the minority, the ruling class against the ruled, the rich against the poor or some sense of cultural superiority, especially by the Europeans. To many of the anti-veil people, the wearing is a symbol of growing Islamic extremism.

In most of these countries, the veil is unlikely  to go down without a fight. For instance, constitution courts might still strike the ban down on the basis that it conflicts with  fundamental human rights. It is also not unlikely that the case may be taken to the European human rights court which may find it discriminatory. Whatever the outcome of such battles, it is clear that the concept of global citizenship is under attack; the stringing of the veil heralds the commencement of this attack.

There exists a lot of amazing things in the world.There ’s a woman fed up with scaffolding in crencester.

A DISABLED woman in Cirencester has hit out at scaffolding in the town centre which she says makes it impossible for her to use the pavement in her wheelchair.

Christine Brett, of Somerford Road, is fed-up with the scaffolding outside the Kings Head Hotel, in Market Place, which has nearly made her fall out of her wheelchair.

She said it is too difficult to get past the scaffolding, which has narrowed the width of the pavement, and has had to ask passers-by for help.

“I was trying to go past one day and nearly toppled over onto the road because the space you are left with is ridiclous,” she said.

“I often had to ask people for help or to move out of my way as there is just no room. I just cross over to the other side of the street now as it is unsafe for me.

“I understand that the scaffolding has to be up while work is undertaken but it annoys me how long it has been there – what’s going on?”

Cirencester’s Access Group secretary Mary Grace said she had heard from many disabled people in the town who have similar concerns.

“People are absolutely fed-up with the scaffolding,” she said. “People have to go into the road to get past – it’s dangerous, difficult and very annoying.”

Cirencester Chamber of Commerce spokesman Jonathon Davies said it would be “very desirable” to have the scaffolding taken down as soon as possible.

“It’s not very attractive but we have heard that there is work underway,” he said. “If work is not happening it would be great to have it down.”

The site is being developed by Wildmoor Properties but no one from the company was able to comment on the situation.

Cirencester mayor and district councillor Geoffrey Adams said that residents needed to be patient.”I know it does narrow the pavement width and, yes it does seem to have been there a long time but, at the end of the day it has to be there while the renovation goes on behind it,” he said.”To be positive, the newly refurbished hotel is going to be a landmark in what is increasingly going to become a very handsome Market Place.”

There are at least eight characteristics of scaffolding:

1) Scaffolding provides clear directions
Web based research units offer step-by-step directions to explain just what students must do in order to meet the expectations for the learning activity. Instructional designers try to anticipate any problems or uncertainties, writing user-friendly directions in ways that minimize confusion, place a premium on clarity and speed students toward productive learning.

The operating concept here is the “teflon lesson,” a learning experience that has been well tested in advance so that anything that might go wrong is considered in advance and eliminated if possible.

We don’t want our students wandering about like prospectors on the desert.

2) Scaffolding clarifies purpose
“Why are we doing this?”

Scaffolding keeps purpose and motivation in the forefront. Rather than offering up one more empty school ritual like the state report, the scaffolded lesson aspires to meaning and worth. Built around essential questions, the scaffolding helps to keep the “big picture” central and in focus.

“We are looking at this question because it is central to being human.”

No “trivial pursuit” here.

Students are let in on the secret early. They are told why the problem, issue or decision is important and they are urged to care about it. They do not lapse into simple collecting or gathering. They are not caught up in mindless activity traps. Their work remains purposeful and planful. Each time they act, it is in service to the thought process, the discovery of meaning and the development of insight.

Traditional school research placed too much emphasis upon collection, while scaffolding requires continuous sorting and sifting as part of a “puzzling” process – the combining of new information with previous understandings to construct new ones. Students are adding on, extending, refining and elaborating. It is almost as if they are building a bridge from their preconceptions to a deeper, wiser, more astute view of whatever truth matters for the question or issue at hand.

3) Scaffolding keeps students on task
By providing a pathway or route for the learner, the scaffolded lesson is somewhat like the guard rail of a mountain highway. The learner can exercise great personal discretion within parameters but is not in danger of “off road” stranding. Each time a student or team of students is asked to move along a path, the steps are outlined extensively. No need to wander, stray or stumble. Students may “take the curves” without fear of going over the edge.

This is more than a matter of clear directions that could just as easily be printed out on paper. The Web based lesson provides structure and guidance coincident with each step of the journey. The progression of activities is liberating yet controlling at the same time. The student moves through something like a garden, taking each Web page like flag stones. There may be more than one path wandering through the garden, but none of them leads into the jungle or a swamp or a tiger pit.

4) Scaffolding offers assessment to clarify expectations
From the very start, scaffolded lessons provide examples of quality work done by others. Right from the beginning, students are shown rubrics and standards that define excellence. In traditional school research, students were often kept in the dark until the product was completed. Without clearly stated criteria, it was difficult to know what constituted quality work.

Is it a matter of length? the number of sources cited?

Does originality count?

Does the logic and coherence of my argument matter?

What constitutes adequate evidence?

There are a dozen issues, all of which deserve attention and elaboration. As an example, consider the online rubrics for successful multimedia reports available at http://www2.ncsu.edu/ncsu/cep/midlink/rub.multi.htm

5) Scaffolding points students to worthy sources
Most educators complain that the Internet suffers from a low “signal to noise ratio” – the confusing, weak and unreliable information (noise) outweighs and threatens to drown out the information most worthy of consideration. Wary of wasting time, teachers have little tolerance for “data smog” and “Infoglut.” They want to see students putting their energy into interpretation rather than wandering.

Scaffolding identifies the best sources so that students speed to signal rather than noise. Looking for the best Web sites on Columbus, Drake or Magellan to decide which would have been a better leader, the scaffolded lesson created by fifth grade teacher, Gretchen Offutt, identified 4-5 sites for each captain.

Explorer Homeport
Knowing that the Web is filled with sites not worth visiting because of quality, bias or reading level concerns, the teacher visits 100+ sites per captain before winnowing the list down to 4 or 5 per captain.

Does this mean the student has no options? It depends upon the teacher. And it depends upon the school. In some cases, students must stick to the sources pre-selected by the teacher. In other cases, the student may use these sites as a starting point, extending further out into Cyberspace in search of something unusual. The scaffolding serves as an introduction, not as a corral.

6) Scaffolding reduces uncertainty, surprise and disappointment
The operating design concept for scaffolded lessons is the “teflon lesson” – no stick, no burn and no trouble. Lesson designers are expected to test each and every step in the lesson to see what might possibly go wrong. The idea is to eliminate distracting frustrations to the extent this is possible. The goal is to maximize learning and efficiency. Once the lesson is ready for trial with students, the lesson is refined at least one more time based on the new insights gained by watching students actually try the activities.

7) Scaffolding delivers efficiency
If done well, a scaffolded lesson should nearly scream with efficiency. Teachers and students should shake their heads in disbelief.

“It felt like we completed ten hours of work in just two!”

“How did we get so much done?”

This perception is achieved, in part, by virtue of comparison with the old kind of school research that was mostly about wandering and scooping. Boredom fed by irrelevance slowed the passage of time. It took forever to get the job done.

Scaffolded lessons still require hard work, but the work is so well centered on the inquiry that it seems like a potter and wheel. Little waste or wobbling. Scaffolding “distills” the work effort. Focus. Clarity. Time on task. The student is channelled. No mud flats, shoals or other navigational hazards.

Scaffolding creates momentum
In contrast to traditional research experiences, throughout which much of the energy was dispersed and dissipated during the wandering phases, the channelling achieved through scaffolding concentrates and directs energy in ways that actually build into momentum. It is almost like an avalanche of thoughts, accumulating insight and understanding.

In resolving the dissonance described in Chapter 4, “Students in Resonance,” the work gathers speed. The drive toward meaning is accelerated. The essential question and its subsidiary questions create suction, drive, urgency and motivation. The search for understanding inspires and provokes. One loses sleep. One awakens in the middle of the night, wondering, pondering, considering

Today security is closely concerned with everyone.Especially in western countries ,they pay a lot of attention to the security .And relative dapartment or person should be responsible for the insecurity they caused.

As the caption mentioned,a firm has been fined £4,000 two years after scaffolding collapsed on a Teesside street injuring a man.

A number of cars were also damaged when a gust of wind blew the scaffolding down in Jedburgh Street, Middlesbrough, on 18 January, 2008.

William Bedford, of B & J Scaffolding, in Redcar, admitted a health and safety breach at Teesside Magistrates’ Court.

The firm was also ordered to pay £2,500 costs. The scaffolding had been erected as part of house restoration work.

The injured man was taken to hospital but his injuries were not serious.

Significant risk
 
The hearing heard how a Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation showed that the scaffolding was not adequately secured to the properties.

After the case, HSE Insp Natalie Wright, said: “The scaffold had been used as a working platform for at least five days before the incident, by workers on site carrying out work to the house fronts.

“It could have collapsed at any time, creating a significant risk to workers and members of the public.

“This incident demonstrates how important it is for contractors to follow the requirements for the construction of scaffolds.

“Contractors need to ensure that they meet the relevant standards in their work to erect safe and stable scaffolds, so that they do not expose workers and members of the public to risk.”

As we know our life now is more precious than everything;it’s invaluable.Some immigrant workers are very poor .They exchange their power for money in order to support their family,and here there happened a work accident happened.

TWO workers were injured after falling from a scaffold yesterday afternoon .Witnesses said the two were climbing on the 3-meter scaffold when a gust casusing the scaffolding to break down.Iis details are as follows.

Yesterday 5 p.m. an accident happened on the construction in the Nanjingxilu and huashan Road .Because of a sudden gust,the moble scffold on the spot suddenly collapse.As a consequence,TWO workers were injured.

Yesterday dusk, workers were installing the scaffolding before a garage of one building  on the Nanjingxilu Road.Unpredicately,sudden gust blowed .With the bang sound,4-meter scaffold collapsed all of a sudden.At that time ,two workers were worikng high up.Then they fell down with the scaffold.The other workers called 120 immediately and the two injured workers were sent to the hospital for first aid.Now the cause is still unclear and being invesigated.Fortunately, two injured workers were not injured badly.

We should learn something from the accident that we should take the safety point in the first place.Please love your life for your be loved.

We may see saffolding around us used for buliding  or metro and things like that.But do you know the requirements of the scaffolding?

Scaffolds shall be furnished and erected in accordance with this standard for persons engaged in work that cannot be done safely from the ground or from solid construction, except that ladders used for such work shall conform to 1910.25 and 1910.26.

PURPOSE:Due to the large number of serious accidents associated with scaffolded work surfaces it is the intent of the University to provide maximum protection to all employees by the issuance of these requirements.

SCOPE:These requirements are to apply to all employees that work on scaffold work surfaces.  All scaffolds erected on University property shall be erected in accordance with the requirements of this section.

GENERAL:The footing or anchorage for scaffolds shall be sound, rigid, and capable of carrying the maximum intended load without settling or displacement.  Unstable objects such as barrels, boxes, loose brick, or concrete blocks, shall not be used to support scaffolds or planks.

No scaffold shall be erected, moved, dismantled, or altered except under the supervision of competent persons or as requested for corrective reasons by the health and safety officer.

Guardrails and toe boards shall be installed on all open sides and ends of platforms more than 10 feet above the ground or floor, except needle beam scaffolds and floats.  Scaffolds 4 feet to 10 feet in height having a minimum horizontal dimension in either direction of less than 45 inches, shall have standard guardrails installed on all open sides and ends of the platform.

Guardrails must be 2 X 4 inches, or the equivalent, approximately 42 inches high, with a midrail, when required.  Supports must be at intervals not to exceed 8 feet.  Toe board and the guardrail, extending along the entire opening, consisting of No. 18 gauge U.S. standard wire 1/2 inch mesh, or the equivalent.

Scaffolds and their components must be capable of supporting without failure at least 4 times the maximum intended load.

Any scaffold damaged or weakened from any cause shall be immediately repaired and shall not be used until repairs have been completed.

All load-carrying timber members of scaffold framing shall be a minimum of 1,500 fiber (Stress Grade) construction grade lumber.

All planking must be Scaffold Grades, or equivalent, as recognized by approved grading rules for the species of wood used.  The maximum permissible span for 2 X 10 inch or wider planks is shown in the following:

   Full thickness Nominal
   undressed thickness     lumber  lumber

Working load (p.s.f.) 25   50   75         25    50
Permissible span (ft.) 10     8   6   8      6

The maximum permissible span for 1-1/4 X 9 inch or wider plank of full thickness shall be 4 feet with medium duty loading of 50 p.s.f.

All planking or platforms must be overlapped (minimum 12 inches), or secured from movement.

An access ladder or equivalent safe access must be provided.

Scaffold planks must extend over their end supports not less than 6 inches nor more than 18 inches.

The poles, legs, or uprights of scaffolds must be plumb, and securely and rigidly braced to prevent swaying and displacement.

Overhead protection must be provided for men on a scaffold exposed to  overhead hazards.

Slippery conditions on scaffolds shall be eliminated immediately after they occur.

No welding, burning, riveting or open flame work shall be performed on any staging suspended by means of fiber or synthetic rope.  Only treated or protected fiber or synthetic ropes shall be used for or near any work involving the use of corrosive substances or chemicals.

Wire synthetic, or fiber rope used for scaffold suspension shall be capable of supporting at least 6 times the rated load.