Background
At nearly 200 tons, with a grinding surface nearly 10 feet tall and treads as tall as the average American man, the track trenching and surface mining machines built by a Midwest company aren’t easily disrupted by obstacles in their path. Building those machines, however, was creating a series of problems that were getting in the way of safely producing them.
The Problem
It doesn’t take long before the assembly reaches a point where its workers were at an elevated risk, and the safety conscious company was well aware of the problems they faced. The company sought a permanent overhead fall arrest system, but quickly realized that most permanent solutions to protect the workers from falls would become obstacles for the cranes delivering components to those workers.
The Solution
In order to provide the most fall protection coverage without obstructing the crane movement, they installed four Tether Track fold away fall arrest systems. The systems feature dual track rails so that each track can support two workers. Two of the systems are 100’ long and two are 150’, and they are supported every 50’ by wall cantilever style jibs. One jib per Tether Track system is motorized so that it can either be easily positioned at any point in the jib’s 180‐degree coverage areas, or folded flat against the wall. The systems were installed on opposing walls, which allowed full rectangular coverage beneath the overhead bridge cranes.