Health, Safety and Environment
Openreach – Plant Safety
14 March 2008
The CWU Executive Openreach team hold regular meetings with Openreach to discuss a range of issues regarding Plant Safety. A number of items covered recently have been the subject of conference propositions.
Overview of Plant Safety
A paper covering a number of aspects of plant safety was endorsed by the BT Board in February. A significant part of that paper addressed issues around defective poles and low dropwires. A target pipeline for removal or remedial action taken has been set for poles, low wires and other items of external plant. Low dropwires will only be removed where safety issues exist (category 1 and 2).
The significant targets are:
- all low wires in category 1 and 2 will be removed in three years,
- the target for clearing the "D pole" backlog is four years.
A lot of effort has already gone into removal or revalidating low wires. In May 2007, the total stood at 201,000; it is now 60,000.
Low Wire Policy Implementation
This concerns removal of low wires, the use of new adjustable house end brackets, and also refining the policy on "grey" areas that have been the subject of previous conference motions, i.e.: wires across driveways or gates.
A number of trials are being run aimed at reviewing the policy. These will result in revised proposals being put to the Operations Change Forum in May 2008. It is jointly agreed that one of the aims is to have guidelines on dropwire heights that are understood and adhered to by team members in the field and auditors/managers.
Pole Test Review
This review is centred on the feasibility of planning pole testing based on the actual age of poles rather than an entire exchange area. The new Quetra pole test device will be field trialled over a period in ten locations.
Managing Manhole Risk
There are an estimated 250,000 manholes in the Openreach network, many of which are of a considerable age. Whilst modern construction methods and standards will ensure the structure lasts for 150 years, the older types were perhaps not as rigorously constructed.
In a survey in 2007 around 10,000 manholes were inspected. The defective find rate was 0.08% (90 manholes). On an ongoing basis, it is envisaged that more focus will be placed on field input from Cable Gangs and Jointers.
PCP Door / Hinge Issue
This issue was the subject of a conference motion 2006. Debate centred on two aspects – the use of clamp 1A and on regular maintenance of the hinges. Of 69 incidents investigated, 36 were attributable to door / hinge failure. Openreach say that the use of Clamp 1A would have avoided / minimised the incidents.