The Health and Safety Laboratory provides technical back-up for the Health and Safety Executive, a remit that includes exploding trucks full of fireworks and body piercing. And it now has a 拢56m PFI base in Derbyshire to work out of. We found out what it does 鈥� and how it was built
High up on a bleak moor in the middle of the Peak district, staff at Britain鈥檚 leading health and safety test lab are moving into a brand new building. This is the home of the Health and Safety Laboratory, the technical arm of the Health and Safety Executive. HSL scientists are responsible for investigating the technical failures behind Britain鈥檚 worst disasters, and also carry out work on behalf of commercial organisations. Because of the diverse nature of the HSL鈥檚 work, it needs a rather special facility. 鈥淚t is quite a complicated, technical building,鈥� says David Buchanan, the HSE鈥檚 chief executive (see 鈥淗ow the HSL was built鈥� for more on this).
The HSL is called in to examine any accident where workers or members of the public are injured and technology is in some way implicated. Its responsibilities have included major accidents such as the Ladbroke Grove train crash in October 1999, when 31 people were killed. 鈥淟adbroke Grove was a very complicated investigation,鈥� says Buchanan. 鈥淭here was the collision followed by a fire. Diesel is actually very hard to ignite so we had to look at why that happened. And human behaviour comes into it, we had to look into why the driver went through the red light.鈥�
The HSL also makes recommendations on how to improve safety: it reviewed the safety of the 1950s rolling stock involved in the 1988 Clapham rail disaster and, to the annoyance of hard-pressed commuters, suggested safety modifications that enabled the trains to stay in service. The HSL鈥檚 remit also includes occupational health issues and construction accidents. It investigated the Canary Wharf crane collapse in May 2000, when three crane erectors were killed, and the failure of a maintenance platform at Costain鈥檚 Avonmouth Bridge, which resulted in four workers losing their lives.
But the HSL only becomes involved in investigating accidents if there is a technical element, as Buchanan explains: 鈥淨uite often, if people fall off a building we aren鈥檛 involved. But if someone fell off a building through a safety net, we would look at that.鈥�
The HSE will first visit a site and decide whether it is necessary to involve the HSL. If there is a technical element, the HSL鈥檚 photography unit goes to site and documents the situation, then HSL engineers make an initial visual inspection. Next, the physical evidence is taken to the HSL鈥檚 Peak District site 鈥� anything up to and including an entire set of railway points has to be transported. 鈥淕etting stuff up here is not always a trivial issue,鈥� laughs Buchanan. Once at the site, metallurgical, chemical or other analysis will be carried out. If the HSE decides to prosecute, its staff will appear in court as expert witnesses.
The HSL site occupies a massive 222 ha site just outside the town of Buxton in Derbyshire. The vast area is essential because of the E E scale and nature of its testing work. In the past, tests to replicate the circumstances of accidents have included heating up shipping containers packed with fireworks until they explode. Then there are full-size tunnels where disasters such as the King鈥檚 Cross fire can be recreated. It also has Europe鈥檚 largest impact test track for crash testing trains. The HSL also has to store all the evidence it collects during an investigation. 鈥淗aving all this stuff littering the site is quite a big issue as we can鈥檛 chuck it away until the case is concluded, which can take a very long time,鈥� says Buchanan.
There has been a test facility at Buxton since the 1920s, when the forerunner of the HSL was set up to investigate coal mining accidents. The HSL鈥檚 work now covers all areas of the public and private sector except the air travel and maritime industries, which are handled by separate agencies.
Until now, it has operated from more than 100 single-storey buildings dotted around the Buxton site, and a second facility located in Sheffield. The old buildings were expensive to heat and maintain, and two separate sites made communication and liaison difficult, so the HSL decided to procure a new PFI facility.
鈥淔or the first time in our history it will bring everyone under one roof with all the efficiencies that will bring and provide a modern, up-to-date test facility,鈥� says Buchanan. 鈥淚t will give us better communication between staff and make us more flexible in accommodating changes.鈥�
Construction went smoothly, and without any embarrassing hitches. 鈥淗ealth and safety was quite an issue here,鈥� he says.
鈥淭here were no major accidents 鈥� that wouldn鈥檛 have been very good publicity for us.鈥�
Project team
Clients Investors in the Community (Buxton), PFI consortium consisting of Rotch Property Group, HSBC Infrastructure, Shepherd Securities and Interserve Investments
Architect DLA Architecture
Main contractor Shepherd Construction
Structural engineer Carl Bro Group
M&E engineer SES
Planning supervisor Monaghan Partnership
Project manager Davis Langdon
Quantity surveyor Gleeds
How the hsl was built
Shepherd Construction was responsible for building the 拢56m, 22,000 m2 PFI laboratory, starting work in the summer of 2002. The main building sits on a raft foundation and has a steel frame with conventional cladding. Its most striking design feature is the drystone walls up to first floor level. These were chosen to help the building blend a little more sympathetically into its bleak moorland setting. Initially, gabion cages were considered, but in the end Shepherd opted for traditional construction. "Getting people locally who could do the work was not problematic," says John Bowman, project manager for Shepherd Construction.
Before the contractor could get to the construction stage, it had to complete complex enabling works. "Originally the site was used as a mortar testing range, so we had the bomb squad in for the first six months while we were doing the excavation works. We found quite a lot of First World War mortars but they were all dead," says Bowman.
As the buildings set for demolition supplied services to other buildings that were being retained until the new lab was finished, Shepherd had to spend 拢1m on putting in a new service ringmain before demolition started. Excavations for the services and foundations were also difficult because 1 m below the surface of the moors was solid limestone.
But the project's main challenge was undoubtedly the series of specialist laboratories, used for tests such as noise and blast measurement and controlled atmosphere facilities for assessing the effect of volatile substances on human volunteers.
"The specialist rooms were new and challenging as these were all one-off situations we hadn't done before," says Bowman. "We have had quite a time to test and commission these to the client's requirements. You can't design this out of a book 鈥� you have to design something that was workable."
For example, one lab is a foam padded anechoic 鈥� that is, echo-less 鈥� acoustic test chamber that is so effective that it eerily sucks all the sound out of your voice when you speak. "The requirements for the anechoic chamber were plus or minus half a decibel," says Charlie Kemp, Shepherd Construction's M&E co-ordinator.
The site also includes the UK's largest universal test bed, which is used for testing the compression and fatigue characteristics of large engineering components. Heavy steel girders are set into concrete flush with the floor and are used as the test bed.
"The hard part was putting in the reinforced concrete, as it's 3m deep and goes right into the rock," explains Bowman.Rooms dedicated to "Sem and Tem" 鈥� or scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy, used for finding trace contaminants 鈥� house electron microscopes that must be completely isolated from vibration. "We used a block of concrete sitting on air springs. These keep the floor dead level and isolate the microscopes. It took nine months to develop," says Bowman. Shepherd built around the installation while it was developed, then inserted it into the lab. "It wasn't so difficult to construct; the main thing was the time needed to develop it."
Other unusual facilities include a laboratory for testing biological agents. This lab has its own dedicated plant and filtration system. It features complex airlocks at each entrance and is kept negatively pressured to prevent any contaminants escaping into the wider laboratory.
A electrostatics laboratory is completely lined with metal foil to prevent external electromagnetic interference. "We couldn't punch any holes in the wall, so we used a double wall system," explains Bowman. This room is earthed using an earth rod that goes 50 m deep into the rock below. This is used to investigate the electrostatic ignition of gas or explosives.
Other laboratories are used for blast testing, and testing personal protective equipment. Occupational health is an important test area for the HSL and there is a whole suite of laboratories for testing occupational issues including stress, violence at work and the effects of shift working.
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