The morphology of the archaeological monument, and the complexity and number of consolidation interventions – planned and underway – entail a need for particularly careful health and safety management in accordance with the most stringent current legislation (Italian legislative decree no. 81/08, no. 106/09 as amended).
In the past – up to 2006 – when a visitor route through the Domus was open to the public, the coordination of health and safety also involved managing interference between visitors and open conservation worksites, developing protected routes in order to limit the risks to the public.
Although the monument is currently closed to visitors, the opening of numerous worksites made possible by the funding available for the consolidation and structural rehabilitation project requires particularly careful and continuous health and safety coordination aimed especially at those working inside.
The simultaneous presence inside the monument of different companies – engaged in consolidation work on structures and decorations – alongside the management team and the professionals in charge of analyses, monitoring and recording, require careful health and safety coordination aimed at containing interferences and work-related risks.
The Domus has become a special worksite: in contrast to the simple construction of a new building, this is a monumental complex that in itself presents numerous variables and environmental and logistical difficulties.
We therefore need to continuously ensure that safety requirements are met in the various worksites with interventions on the part of health and safety officers and coordination meetings between the various companies and professionals involved in the project, aimed at sharing the numerous issues linked to the safe execution of works and coordination in the various rooms of the Domus.
Spatial and temporal management in the form of planning interventions (WBS) and specifying the location of the worksites in the various rooms of the Domus (LBS) ensures control over interferences and work-related risks. We try to apply the law with maximum care and guarantee the correct and continuous updating of the state of progress of all those present in the worksite(s). The main tool used for this task is the so-called DUVRI (Consolidation Document on Interference Risk Evaluation: Documento Unico di Valutazione dei Rischi da Interferenze in Italian) drawn up by the Client. This key document coordinates interferences between worksites, external and internal activities, technicians and professionals. A significant portion of the document is applied by identifying shared and dedicated routes.
The coordination of safety is entrusted to several professionals and each individual project (or worksite) has its own specific safety and coordination plan. Here health and safety officers must set out, among the contents specified by Italian legislative decree no. 81/08, measures in keeping with the complexity of the interventions to prevent or minimize health and safety risks to workers, considering that they operate primarily in an underground environment with humidity and temperature levels that do not allow them to work continuously and that, for some tasks, always require the worker to make constant use of specific individual protection devices.
Organizing the worksites – planned and underway – is a dynamic and constantly evolving process and it is therefore both essential and time-consuming to constantly update the DUVRI and individual safety plans in a coordinated way to ensure that they reflect the actual state of locations and works. There are currently 14 open worksites, monitored by three different health and safety officers.
Current Italian legislation (Public Procurement Code, Legislative Decree 163/06 and the Consolidation Act on Safety in the Workplace, Legislative Decree 81/08 and Legislative Decree 106/09 as amended) attributes responsibility to the project managers for verifying the technical and administrative suitability of companies, as set out in Schedule XVII of the aforementioned decree. They are assisted in this delicate task by specialized professionals (health and safety officers) who plan and check that the worksites are operating in perfect safety to safeguard the health and safety of the workers and technicians employed in executing the works.
Numerous companies and professionals are currently engaged in consolidation work on structures and decorated surfaces, entailing a need for careful management of health and safety coordination to contain interferences. This involves – for example – identifying access points and routes for workers inside the monument, isolating the various workplaces, correctly positioning signage, identifying escape routes and specific work-related risks.
The general coordination of health and safety carefully and constantly monitors that the safety regulations adopted for the various tasks are met through regular meetings between companies and professionals aimed at sharing the various problems encountered.
Fundamental for this process is the constant updating of the Gantt chart, a tool that visually represents periods of possible interference between 2 or more companies or work phases that are more delicate and/or risky for workers. It is therefore also essential when drawing up the PSC (Safety and Coordination Plans: Piani di Sicurezza e Coordinamento in Italian) for a correct analytical estimate of health and safety costs (Schedule XV legislative decree 81/08). The current health and safety officers in the Domus Aurea are: Enrico Del Fiacco (architect), Alberto Parboni Arquati (architect) and Andrea Nardiello (surveyor).