Netting urged for construction sites

An industry safety committee has come up with a series of recommendations to stop objects from falling off Calgary's highrise construction sites.

One of the recommendations is to shroud buildings under construction with netting.

Netting could cover any surface area. It could be stretched below the floor under construction or vertically between floor levels.

Bob Richardson, co-chair of the safety committee, said netting can't solve every problem, but in certain circumstances it could be very useful.  He said cost isn't really an issue.

"You know an investment in netting is pretty small. It's a no brainer when it comes to what it can prevent. So netting, to a large part, is a good solution," said Richardson, past president of the Calgary Construction Association.

He said, where appropriate, he would like to see the use of netting as a requirement to obtain a building permit.

Dave Smith, executive vice-president of the Calgary Construction Association, said his group wants a copy of the guide sent to every commercial construction site superintendant in the city.

There have been more than a half dozen incidents involving falling work-site debris since three-year-old Michelle Krsek was killed last summer by a piece of corrugated sheet metal that blew off an 18-storey building under construction at 112 Ninth Ave. S.W.

In the latest construction site incident this week, several cars were splattered by fire retardant liquid. The vehicles had been in a parking lot at the corner of 9th Avenue and 5th Street S.W.