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Along, in, over and under the tracks, contractors perform numerous ground, road and hydraulic engineering as well as rail maintenance activities throughout the year. Contractors themselves are responsible for workplace safety. Flexcorail offers contractors around the track, who are not certified for workplace safety, support in realizing a safe workplace, from project application to completion.
With safety measures, Flexcorail, one of the workplace safety companies recognized by Prorail, stops danger in the workplace. These include collision hazards from trains, streetcars and subways and electrocution hazards from voltage on the overhead line or third rail. The company also has an electrical engineering division for execution support around the track and in the field of (rail) infrastructure and streetcar and metro lines. "We offer contractors around the track support in the broadest sense of the word," said Flexcorail director Wilco Verschoor.
Together with the contractor, Flexcorail anticipates risks, both in the planning phase and in execution. In the preliminary phase, Flexcorail conducts a risk inventory of the entire workplace. It then identifies appropriate measures. "Every work is customized," explains Verschoor. "One work, such as straightening a few tiles, can perhaps be performed during the day with limited safety measures. The other work contains a lot of risk of danger, which must be eliminated with additional safety measures that completely eliminate the risk." Flexcorail implements the established safety measures during the work with safety equipment and safety officers, such as Border Guards and Supervisors Out of Service Track.
The safety measures include the disciplines of train, metro or streetcar decommissioning, which enables the contractor to carry out his work safely, and the discipline of temporarily disconnecting live parts such as the third rail or overhead wires. Before Flexcorail proceeds with these measures, they are requested from the (public) transport companies and coordinated with the rail dispatcher. Another example of possible safety measures is the grounding of the contractor's telecranes that come within falling range of the overhead line.
Verschoor: "Flexcorail goes one step further than workplace security because we have an electrical and installation engineering division. This allows us to support contractors in technical work on and around the track during construction, but also during maintenance. Suppose a contractor needs to replace lighting at a siding area where trains are parked. We take the entire work area out of service and secure it. Then we can support the construction of the lighting, for example by assisting with transportation for the fixtures. After completion, our team can then support in the maintenance of the installed lighting."
Verschoor finds that contractors return regularly because Flexcorail delivers this added value in a pleasant, effective way. "Our flexible working method is reflected in our company name for a reason!"
