For more on how one savvy owner delivered a smart solution for his hospital in Bruck, Austria,
read this interview with Ronald Strasser founder of
Strasser Safety
Systems GmbH
.
Question: Ronald, your project in
Bruck involved a hospital
where the roofs had to
meet updated safety standards. What details of your
experience on the project
can you share with us?
Ronald: This was a very challenging project. In 2015 the
Austrian government introduced new regulations for
rooftop safety systems. All
owners and facilities managers are required to bring their
properties into compliance
with the new regulations.
Q: How are the new Austrian
regulations different from
previous regulations?
R: The new regulations require
that all commercial roofs, regardless of function, must have
a rooftop fall-protection safety
system installed to keep visitors
and workers safe. Plus, all rooftop fall-protection systems must
be inspected at least once a
year to ensure the systems are
functioning as designed.
Q: Wasn’t that always the
case?
R: Previously, the definition of
what constituted a “safe environment” wasn’t clear. The
new regulation clarifies what
type of safety system is required, as well as what level of certification the system
needs to achieve. This was
our first project challenge; the
existing anchor points were
old and the certification level
of the system was insufficient.
The second challenge was
the extremely high cost of reengineering the existing system to make it compliant with
the new regulations. The final
challenge was finding a creative way to successfully penetrate the roof and reseal the
new anchor points. The overall project posed many challenges, but fortunately we already were familiar with the
Diasafe system. The unique
benefits of a self-ballasted
safety system solved most of
the problems.
Download the whole interview about the project
here .