Geotechnical News • March 2018
55
GEOHAZARDS
Safe work on dangerous slopes
John Duffy, Marc Fish, and Colby Barrett
Prologue
In 2013 a group of engineering,
geologic and geotechnical
consultants, contractors,
manufacturers and stake
holders came together to form
the Association of Geohazard
Professionals (AGHP). The
concept was a diverse body
that could promote material
and application standards, best
practices, safety practices, and
knowledge transfer in North
America. The association has
grown steadily since, with much
of its activity focused around
committees dealing with various
aspects of the industry such as
debris flow mitigation, geohazard
monitoring, anchor design and
testing, material testing and
dangerous slope access and
safety.
The Rope Access Committee is
one of the first committees to
have formed. John Duffy (Yeh
and Assoc., formerly California
Department of Transportation)
and Marc Fish (Washington State
Department of Transportation)
are the committee co-chairs,
having a combined total of 50
years working on and around
dangerous slopes. The committee
consists of representatives
from government, academics,
consultants, contractors and
geohazard system manufacturers.
.
Introduction
The mitigation of many geohazards
involves the movement of people and
machinery on or within the affected
areas of steep, unstable slopes (Figure
1). The very nature of the work means
that lives are being put at risk at every
stage of mitigation, whether it is in the
course of preliminary site investiga-
tions, during construction, or carry-
ing out inspection or maintenance of
mitigation measures. Such activities
are by no means a new phenomenon,
but as the geohazard industry has
progressed over the years, there has
never been a widespread adoption of
rope access protocols specific to the
unique requirements of the industry.
Instead, geohazard professionals have
been left to draw on safety procedures
and training originally developed for
other applications such as recreational
climbing, search and rescue, arborists,
security, avalanche control, and man-
made structures. Other than the fact
that all these activities share the use of
rope systems for mobility, they differ
greatly in practice. The skills, tech-
niques and equipment that make one
activity safe cannot simply be trans-
ferred to another with an expectation
of the same results. The Rope Access
Committee is trying to establish rope
access protocols and cultures that will
fill make the industry safer, while at
the same time allow professionals to
work efficiently.
Rope access best-practice
Social acceptance of exposing
employees to hazardous conditions on
a worksite has reduced dramatically
over the last century and employers
are increasingly focused on protecting
the worker from harm while carry-
ing out their tasks. Safety standards
are frequently set by State/Provincial
or Federal public agencies, however,
these policies can be absent, vague,
Figure 1: Scaling operations along Highway SR 410 in Washington.
