Construction cage collapses on workers, company fined
March 27, 2017 | By MRO Magazine
St. Catharines, ON – Anchor Shoring & Caissons Ltd., a company that designs and installs soil retention systems and caisson foundations, pleaded guilty and has been fined $50,000 after two workers were injured when a reinforcing cage collapsed with the workers in it.
The company had been retained to undertake construction of a foundation for a new hydro tower at 88 Niagara Boulevard in Fort Erie and on November 13, 2015, two workers were working inside a cylindrical cage made of reinforcement bars (rebars). Earlier, workers had used a crane to remove the cage from a flatbed truck.
The cage, which was about 25 feet long and 11 feet in diameter, was positioned horizontally on the ground. The workers were standing within the cage, removing some of the internal braces which made up the cage. Once prepared in this way, the cage would be raised by the crane into a vertical position, and then lowered and inserted into one of the 11-foot in diameter caissons. The cage was intended to reinforce pumped concrete.
The two workers had removed a number of the braces and handed them to their supervisor situated outside the cage. At that point, the cage collapsed, trapping the two workers. As a result of the cage’s collapse, the two workers each suffered minor injuries.
Ontario Regulation 213/91 – the Construction Projects Regulation – states that any part of a project, including a temporary structure, “shall be adequately braced to prevent any movement that may affect its stability or cause its failure or collapse.” Anchor Shoring failed as an employer to ensure that measures and procedures prescribed by the regulation were carried out on the project. This was also contrary to the Occupational Health and Safety Act.
The company was fined $50,000 by Justice of the Peace Kelly Visser in St. Catharines court on March 24, 2017.
