Safety and safety planning - Tunnel Engineering: Basics and Additional Services for Design and Construction - page 317

and serve in combination with the German health and safety law (ArbSchG) to implement
the already mentioned EU directive into German law.
The duties of the employer and employees according to the ArbSchG and other regula-
tions remain unaffected by these regulations. In addition, the BaustellV has introduced no
new technical regulations for the health and safety protection of workers. Only the duty
of documentation has been clearly regulated to create safe conditions without impairment
of health on each site.
As initiators of a construction site, clients bear the responsibility. They therefore have a
duty to introduce and implement the occupational safety measures laid down in the Baus-
tellV, both during the design phase and through the coordination of construction works.
The BaustellV supplements German health and safety law with the following duties for
clients:
- Consideration of the basic principles according to §4 ArbSchG in the planning of the
construction of the project.
- The work is to be organised so that danger to health and safety is avoided as far as
possible and the residual risk is kept as low as possible.
- Dangers are to be countered at source.
- The measures have to consider the state of technology, occupational medicine and
hygiene and proven discoveries of ergonomics.
- Measures are to be planned with the objective of linking technology, work organisa-
tion, other working conditions, social relationships and impact on the environment
in an appropriate manner.
- Individual protection measures are subsidiary to other measures and specific dangers
to groups of employees who are particularly in need of protection are to be consid-
ered.
- The employees are to be given appropriate instruction.
- Prior notice of larger construction projects to the responsible authority two weeks be-
fore setting up the site.
- Appointment of one or more health and safety coordinators, when employees of more
than one employer are active on the site.
- Production of a health and safety plan, if either a prior notice is required and employees
of more than one employer are active on the site or particularly dangerous works are to
be performed and employees of more than one employer are active on the site.
- Particularly dangerous works as defined by the BaustellV are:
- Works, in the course of which employees are exposed to the danger of sinking or be-
ing buried in a construction excavation or in a trench with a depth of more than 5 m
or falling from a height of more than 7 m.
- Works, in the course of which employees are exposed to substances or compounds,
which are potentially explosive, highly flammable, carcinogenic (category 1 or 2), ge-
netically altering, hazardous to reproduction, very poisonous according to the hazardous
substance regulations or biological agents in risk groups 3 and 4 according to the direc-
tive 90/679/EEC of the Council from 26 November 1990 on the protection of workers
from risks related to exposure to biological agents at work (ABI. EG Nr. L 374 S. 1).
- Works with ionising radiation, which requires the provision of control and monitor-
ing areas according to the radiation and X-ray regulations.