Why is ISO important?

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Addressing the last lifting operation where personnel are positioned below a suspended load
Pouring concrete using skips is a popular methodology in the industry due to its efficiency, cost savings and productivity. However, it’s the last remaining process where personnel are stood directly beneath a suspended load during this process. We just knew that there must be a safer way to lift skips and pour wet concrete that avoided putting operatives at risk.

Between Summer 2023 and into Autumn 2024, we have worked with large Tier 1 and plant contractors, Balfour Beatty and Select Plant Hire, part of Laing O'Rourke, to design, manufacture, test and trial a new set of accessories to improve the safety standards of column/tremie skips, in order to:

01/ Remove the last lifting operation in the industry where a person needs to stand below a suspended load to operate the equipment.

02/ To aid the more accurate directional pour of concrete, removing all personnel from underneath the skip.
Our New Innovations
This month we have released a range of skip attachments that improve safety and productivity. They can be used individually or in conjunction with each other, accommodating any site-specific application.

So, what led up to these industry-leading innovations?
Extended Flow Gate Handle
Working with the onsite Balfour Beatty engineering team, our engineers worked with our customers’ site teams to develop a longer handle for the flow gate, providing the same functionality as the standard flow gate handle but moving operatives away from under the skip during the pour.
Hose Guide & Insert
The next challenge was finding a solution to control hoses up to double the length of a standard 3-metre discharge hose.

Conquip used feedback at a further trial to develop the Hose Guide, a 2-person attachment with hooked ends that can guide the hose without personnel stood underneath the skip. Extendable handles allow the Hose Guide Attachment to be adjusted for differing site conditions. For applications where access around the hose is restricted, tag lines can be attached to the hose insert to position the hose, rather than using the Hose Guide.
Bauer Connection
One of the safety issues with tremie skips is when the tremie hose has been refitted badly. If the hose clips are not torqued to the correct setting, the hose can come unattached during a pour. This is particularly prevalent when using longer hoses (over 3 metres) as the flow pressure increases with the additional height. This attachment provides a secure quick-release solution for attaching longer hose lengths (up to 6 metres) to the skip without having to remove the hose clip. Its slide-on, slide-off functionality makes it simple to attach and detach varying lengths of hose with minimal downtime and improved safety.

You can find out more about these upgrades and how to buy them with our Concrete Skips or to retro-fit them to your existing Conquip Concrete Skips here.
Building on previous safety innovation
Conquip first released a Concrete Skip Without Bale Arm in 2017, following some safety-related incidents on-site. This version featured lifting chains providing an alternative, two-point lifting option.

In the last 18 months to 2 years, many Tier 1 contractors have specified against the skips with bale arms; although both are is use in the industry.

We know the market is moving increasingly in the direction of skips without bale arms as the best practice method. Our Concrete Skip Without Bale Arm is available in 500 litres to 4000 litres capacity and features two inverted lifting points to ensure a balanced lift every time.
What’s next?
We work closely with main contractors to continually improve our best-in-class equipment and provide resources and technical support to ensure they’re used for the right purpose, by competent, trained operatives.

We’re excited to do all we can to ensure the safe use of concrete pouring equipment and welcome any comments from our customers as they start to use these new attachments."
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Concrete Skip innovation - new attachments

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  string(7002) "It was a pleasure to sponsor and have a member of our team speak at the Ground Engineering Basements & Underground Structures event, with over 200 attendees there the event also ran adjacent to 'Smart Geotechnics'.

Project highlights

One of the most interesting sessions was Jacobs, which presented their work with Balfour Beatty on the complex Marine Works section of work at Hinkley Point C. TBM Tunnelling took place 2019 to 2021 with two intake tunnels and an outfall tunnel to support the subsequent sub-sea shaft connections. Conquip has been privileged to work at Hinkley Point C since 2019 so it was fascinating to see and hear about the temporary and permanent works carried out at another part of this vast mega energy infrastructure project.

We then went on to hear about the modular construction approach at the Carnwath Road shaft on London’s Tideway super sewer project - another complex energy project that Conquip worked on recently (at the Greenwich Pumping Station).

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Conquip featured in the conference programme

At the last session of the day, Adam Hicks, our Director - Strategic Partnerships and Major Projects, participated in a panel session with Helen Gregory, Head of Proposals at Balfour Beatty Ground Engineering, Martin Feakes, Head of Engineering at Mace and Christos Christou, Project Technical Director at Skanska. Focusing on enhancing supply chain synergies, the panellists gave their perspectives on how best to introduce more innovation with early collaboration on projects, to enhance viability and efficiency.

The panel touched on the risk-reward dynamic, how Tier 1 contractors can best work with larger suppliers, holistic planning, project viability and programming.

Across these topics, here are the comments that really stuck with us:

 	
On innovation and design standards...

Martin said: "Good innovation is about assessing risk and reward, then achieving both scale and speed - following the ideas up, making them business as usual."

Helen said: "[Success] starts with the contract and it’s having the right people involved."

"Project based innovation is about problem-solving and brining delivery integration partners and suppliers in earlier on, mitigating risk. It’s hard to innovate if a contractor is on board late in the day. I’m a great believer of the right people at the right time - and sharing successes." said Christos.

Adam was asked about pre-construction phases and whether standardised design can hinder innovation. "What is innovation? To us it’s coming up with ideas and collaboration to make, what can be highly technical projects, better at an earlier stage. We can't do it on our own, and lack of collaboration can hold back innovation. Contractors hold back for fear of losing competitive edge."

Christos said: "Innovation doesn't sit within certain industry standards. To innovate you need to go outside of these, using standard design as a starting point. Innovation is outside of established standard practice. The UK has become very risk adverse when it comes to design. Standards are constraining innovation."

 	
On risk-reward...

Helen said: "Target-based contracts place responsibility and benefits with the main contractor - it’s far more positive than cost-based contracts."

Adam commented: "We are seeing a change in the industry. Geotechnical, piling, propping and other temporary works specialists working together. It’s a trend towards a JV type model perhaps - taking shared responsibilities in tender stage and delivering value engineering to the client."

Helen said: "Risk principal is a challenge. The attention should be on speeding up innovation on site, therefore allocating appropriate risk to parties involved."

Martin queried: "Do contractors get an appropriate share in the benefits of innovations? Turn the question on its head, it’s not just about whether there are enough benefits for contractors, but perhaps looking at reducing the disbenefits. i.e. equability of risk."

Helen added: "When looking at the lump sum, the risk to the contractor is to NOT innovate or they won't get awarded the job/win the contract."

 	
On partnerships

Martin said: "The environment for the best innovation is partnership and longevity and creating pseudo frameworks.  The industry sees projects coming down the pipeline, so we can therefore start to think early on about how to tackle challenges. Build up long-term partnerships to work together to tackle these."

Christos continued: "Behaviours, mindsets and transparency are key to fostering trust in the supply chain. For example, with National Highways, we have an open book approach. It built collaboration and trust."

Young engineers

Towards the end of the day, the Mott McDonald team presented the Early Careers Challenge output. It was a three-month project with a constrained ‘similar to real-life’ scenario, tasking teams to create a concept basement design guided by industry mentors. It was encouraging to see high profile investment in the next generation of engineers who will be designing and problem-solving for structures and infrastructure to come.

Interested to work with Conquip in the pre-construction phase of projects? Contact us at twengineering@cqegroup.com."
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Basements and Underground Structures - best practices event report

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