£30,000 fine following pile rig fall

HSE Press Release: E070:04 - 20 May 2004

On 18 May 2004, two construction companies, Morgan Est PLC (Morgan) and Vinci Construction Grand Projets (VCGP), working on the Channel Tunnel Rail Link (CTRL) project were, fined a total of £30,000 for breaches of health and safety legislation.

The prosecution followed an investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) into an incident on 12 May 2003 when a piling rig fell cross the London/Tilbury/ Southend passenger and freight railway lines at Aveley viaduct, Thurrock, Essex, during construction works on the CTRL.
Morgan and VCGP had formed a joint venture to build Contract 310, the section from Thurrock to Dagenham.

At Aveley, the ground is very marshy; a critical geotextile membrane was relied upon to prevent the stone being displaced into the peat.

To remove an obstruction the construction companies dug a trench in the piling platform, which damaged the critical geotextile membrane. The trench was then poorly backfilled. When the rig crossed the trench the ground settled under one side causing the piling rig to overturn across the live railway lines, bringing down a 25,000 volt overhead catenary at about 9.00am.

A passenger train had passed some 2 minutes earlier, fortunately there were no injuries, however, the railway line was closed for 3 days.

HSE's Construction Division inspector John Underwood, who led the investigation, said:

"This prosecution results from an incident that could have caused a serious train crash.
"Senior construction managers knew how critical the piling platform was and expected junior managers to tell the engineering department about the need for repairs. The HSE investigation found that junior site managers were not aware of this procedure and did not understand how critical the design was.

"Better communications, including explanation of safety critical parts of the job and better monitoring of the work would have prevented this incident."

Both Morgan and VCGP pleaded guilty at City of London Magistrates on 18 May 2004 to a breach of duty under Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, in that they failed to ensure that persons not in their employment were not exposed to risks to their safety.

Morgan was fined £15,000 and ordered to pay £2,514 costs. VCGP was fined £15,000 and ordered to pay £2,514 costs.

Notes to editors

1. Section 3 (1) of HSWA states: "It shall be the duty of every employer to conduct his undertaking in such a way as to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that persons not in his employment who may be affected thereby are not thereby exposed to risks to their health and safety."

2. The maximum penalty in a Magistrates' Court for an offence under Section 3(1) is a fine up to £20,000.

3. The court took into account that the joint venture companies had already paid a substantial amount to Network Rail, the owner of the railway infrastructure, and the owner of the piling rig for the 3-day closure of the railway line and repair of the piling rig.

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