The best-selling writer of fantasy fiction, Terry Pratchett was once asked by a young boy, ‘Where do you get your ideas from?’ The author, known also for his matter-of-fact attitude to his own brilliance, replied in an instant and in a manner the lad would understand…..’Ideas Are Us!,’ he said.
Nobody of Pratchett’s calibre acquires his skill by buying that craft off a shelf and those who first considered that the use of ropes - in a style borrowed from the sporting world of climbing an caving - as a work solution in the complex world of high and difficult access were not guessing, or buying a perfect packaged item. The reason why the growth in the use of rope access in the industrial scenario has been so substantial, diverse and global is down to individual ingenuity, personal adaptation and imagination and the ability of highly-skilled people to refine and train the necessary skills.
Today, industrial rope access is chiefly managed by the Industrial Rope Access Trade Association (IRATA International) in that this Association alone boasts member companies in every continent and over 9000 active rope technicians registered in more than fifty countries. In less than twenty years IRATA has led this new means of access to a dominant role in the petro-chemical/offshore industry and then brought the same work processes onshore to tackle a vast array of work projects that have seen its members work on iconic buildings such as The London Eye, the CN Tower in Toronto, the Sydney Opera House, Big Ben. The Luxor Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, the Eden Project, Canterbury Cathedral, and the Burg Al Arab Hotel in Dubai amongst many others.
Where height or difficult access presents a problem rope access can often prove to be the perfect solution, and it is the simplicity of the method that stuns so many people when they see it in action for the first time. Other access solutions require a large ground area to operate from, or machinery set high on the roof of a building, or their means of access are semi-permanent obstacles to traffic or pedestrians, are environmentally unfriendly or involve risks to security, personnel or bystanders; rope access, on the other hand, requires no such facilities, poses no such problems and, above all, offers a proven, safe system.
IRATA International trains all its own technicians via its own training member companies around the world (more than forty in the UK alone) working to a set syllabus that ensures common standards wherever IRATA operating member companies are at work. These training companies and their facilities are regularly independently audited and the technicians can only satisfactorily complete their courses after being independently assessed. This diligence in the pursuit of excellence is also personified in the regular re-training that technicians have to undergo and the three levels they can attain. Although the rope access methods used by IRATA have an unrivalled safety record, new technicians entering the system at Level 1 are restricted in the work they can undertake and only Level 3s can manage a worksite.
All IRATA member companies are able to quote a Unique Membership Number and potential contractors, other clients, safety officials and the like can always use this to check on the credentials of the rope access company they are dealing with. It is IRATA that has developed the industry and it is this Association that safeguards the crucial safe working standards and the pursuit of trustworthy and reliable service.
In the work-at-height industry IRATA rope access is admired for its consistent reporting of accident statistics for its work around the world. These figures, published annually and independently-audited, are not only able to tell a story – zero deaths on ropes during the lifetime of these reports and an incident rate that is minimal by comparison with other means of high or difficult access – but also bear testament to the quality training and responsible work ethic that IRATA insists upon. The reports are also a means of IRATA maintaining its standards as each batch of statistics are analysed in order to identify any weaknesses and work quickly on them.
IRATA International is growing at a rate in excess of 25% a year and it is those who wish to work to its demanding standards that are bringing that growth. Some companies, for reasons of their choosing, decide to work outside the IRATA system; they are unable to quote a Membership Number and even their occasional use of IRATA-trained personnel cannot offer the assurances of complete audited processes and management that IRATA members provide.
Those who are caused to consider using rope access for the first time will need to focus on various safeguards since, by so doing, they will ensure they are using the safest access method available and benefiting from a tested system –
- 1. IRATA rope access operates a two-rope system whereby the rope technician uses one rope to move up and down the location whilst being clipped onto a second rope that is in position solely as a non-working line to prevent a fall and/or assist rescue. The ropes do not move once secured to the necessary anchor points and the rope worker can work up and down and across a position and do so at heights other means of access cannot reach and in a safer manner.
- 2. IRATA rope access teams consist of trained and assessed technicians who require to safely complete a documented amount of work before being allowed to undertake extra training with a view to move up to higher grades. All rope access sites will be under the supervision of a Level 3 technician and all these men and women carry their cards validating their qualification.
- 3. IRATA rope access teams can arrive, occupy and then leave a site with the minimum of disruption and environment inconvenience. The teams need no mechanical means to gain access and can remove all their equipment at the end of every day. No overnight or downtime security risk exists and they can evacuate a site in a fraction of the time needed by other means of access.
- 4. IRATA rope access teams will be working to the Association’s published Guidelines that define its methodology. Some non-member companies will acknowledge the value and purpose of this document but fail to meet the Association’s requirements in respect of internal controls, management and operational principals or a willingness to submit to regular audit.
- 5. IRATA rope access companies have a membership number that verifies their attachment to the Association; rope access companies that cannot supply this detail will not be members.
- 6. IRATA rope access teams are problem solvers. They can work beneath overhangs, above water, amongst lattice work, on cliffs and steep slopes where ground access is not possible, on delicate constructions that cannot accommodate semi-permanent access frames, and on many of the peculiar shapes introduced by 21st century design.
Indeed it is ironic that the solution to the cleaning, repair and renovation of some of our most modern and extreme designs is best undertaken by the simplest means of access ever devised.
IRATA, as a global association that has advanced standards in working at height, has aims and ambitions brought about by the status it has gained and the certainty that many elements of several industries look to it for leadership. It has been a leader in drawing up standards and regulations for work at height and takes this responsibility seriously. The primary commitment is to safe working brought about by an excellence of training and a diligence in the work place. Its international growth reflects the same concern and an awareness that the IRATA code is one that can bring higher degrees of safety to nations that have not enjoyed this to date. It is a Trade Association that is open to all who share the same ideals and look to advance the use of rope access as a viable international work solution.
