AEC was selected to survey all university owned & managed properties, provide asbestos registers, and to assist in compliance with regulation 4 the duty to manage.
Much of the work was programmed during the summer vacation, when residences had low occupancy, but the university operates on a full-time basis as a business, as well as full-time students & staff living-in, and research projects in laboratories being in progress full-time. The properties included parts of a hotel, a nightclub and field centres.
The tender requirements dictated that all survey staff had to be P402 qualified, which was easily met by AEC as part of our UKAS accreditation to ISO17020.
In addition, the University, under its OSHAS 18001 accreditation, operates a permit-to-work system for all properties, requiring up-front risk assessments, in addition to confined spaces trained survey teams (3-man) for all duct work – all of which was easily met by us.
AEC assigned its project manager to keep up to date on progress, produce risk assessments, ensure permits-to-work are issued, keys allocated, and liaison with internal departments (facilities, estates, safety, student liaison, and specific academic departments).
This resulted in a smooth running of the project, allocating 2 survey teams over the period, and issuing a programme so building tenants were informed of days / dates of survey.
Since the survey project, the University & AEC have worked together to ensure that the University’s asbestos management plan is in place, and we have worked together to ensure the visible on their own database system.
The University has since employed AEC to project manage several asbestos removal projects in the University’s buildings, working closely with licensed asbestos removal contractors, and ensuring that the electronic registers are kept up to date.
We have also supplied asbestos training to the University whenever updates to the regulations of guidance has been published.