Safety

Safety Bulletins

RIVER RESTRICTION  (09 January 2008)

The River Master HEREBY GIVES NOTICE that:

Alfred McAlpine will be removing the disused railway bridge over the River Tees adjacent to Surtees Road Bridge.

Therefore the river will be closed around this area on the following dates

29th February between 1000Hrs and 1400Hrs
2330 Hrs on 01st March 2008 to 0730 Hrs on 02nd March 2008

Vessels affected by this closure may make use of the waiting facilities at the Tees Barrage, which can be contacted on VHF Channel 37 or by telephone on 01642 633273.

Alan Slater River Master

North Shore Footbridge Update  (13 October 2007)

Update on North Shore Footbridge available via link:

Click Here

Notice To Mariners 6 - BRIDGE CONSTRUCTION  (19 July 2007)
(No 6 of Year 2007)
19th of July, 2007
River Tees ‘Upstream River’
Tees Barrage, Blue House Point, Stockton

BRIDGE CONSTRUCTION

The River Master HEREBY GIVES NOTICE that:

To enable bridge construction works to take place a TEMPORARY JETTY will be installed in the River Tees Upstream of the Tees Barrage.

From the 16th August 2007, there will be a RESTRICTED AREA around the temporary jetty on the south side of the river between University Campus and Progress House marked with yellow buoys, (as indicated on the map below).

Alan Slater
River Master

Notice To Mariners 7 - RIVER RESTRICTION - 17 Aug   (19 July 2007)
(No 7 of Year 2007)
19th of July, 2007
River Tees ‘Upstream River’
Tees Barrage, Blue House Point, Stockton

RIVER RESTRICTION

NORTHUMBERLAND and DURHAM COUNTIES ASA OPEN WATER SWIMMING EVENT

The River Master HEREBY GIVES NOTICE that:

The open water swimming event will take place on the River Tees between the Princess of Wales Bridge and Victoria Bridge adjacent to the Castlegate Watersports Centre on Saturday 17th August 2007.

Safety boats will be strategically placed to warn any other river craft using the course of their presence.

Vessels approaching the area are requested to slow down and take instructions from the safety boats.

Vessels affected by this closure may make use of the waiting facilities at the Tees Barrage, which can be contacted on VHF Channel 37 or by telephone on 01642 633273.

Alan Slater
River Master

Notice To Mariners 8 - Promenade Construction  (19 July 2007)
(No 8 of Year 2007)
19th of July, 2007
River Tees ‘Upstream River’
Tees Barrage, Blue House Point, Stockton

PROMANADE CONSTRUCTION

The River Master HEREBY GIVES NOTICE that:

Highways Construction will commence construction on the promanade around St Marks Basin, Teesdale, Thornaby from the Millenium Footbridge to George Stephenson House on Monday 30th July 2007. Works will take approximatley 12 weeks to complete vessels are requested to keep clear of the south bank during the construction period.

Alan Slater
River Master

Notice To Mariners 04/07  (17 March 2007)

Details of river closures are detailed in the attached "Notice to Mariners"

SAFETY BULLETIN #9 - LEARNING FROM EVENTS  (15 August 2006)
Learning from events

The following advice stems from a number of incidents that have happen at Tees RC over the past few months. Please take the time to read this bulletin and please heed the guidance.

Signing out

We are moving to a modified signing out procedure – same information in a diary rather than on a blackboard. The diary will be on a lectern at the western end (river end) of Bay 6. The diary will give us a record of who was out when and in which boat. This will help in future analysis of boat usage.

Potential for collision

Collisions are rare but they have the potential to cause significant and painful injuries.

• Remember to keep to your side of the river at all times – for safety’s sake stay out of the middle. This is particularly important on bends and under bridges. Here, small misjudgements of steering can put you in the path of other crews.
• Please use the signing out procedure to gauge how busy the river is and to plan your outing accordingly.

Potential for capsize

• Please use the signing out procedure as a way of telling others that you are on the river.
• As a coxswain OR rower, you are not happy with how the outing is progressing, e.g. weather is deteriorating, the boat is unstable, boat is too low in the water, then you should ask the crew to stop. You should express your concerns and ask the crew to return to RTWC.
• Abide by the Safety Code in terms of finding out the river flow and judging the weather.
• Ensure your boat is properly equipped for the outing – heal restraints set correctly (3” movement), bow ball present, buoyancy functional if fitted, blades in properly and gates done up firmly.

New crew formations

If you are forming a crew for a scratch outing, please make sure everyone in the crew, including the cox, is aware of the experience of all the crew members and of any limitations or conditions they may have.

Regards

Steve Vaslet
Safety Adviser, Tees Rowing Club

Surtees Bridge Replacement  (28 July 2006)

The A66 road bridge, known as the Surtees Bridge is being completely replaced. The work is well advanced and should be completed during Summer 2007.

The new bridge is being built in four phases:

• Dismantle the southern third of the original bridge
• Build the southern half of the new bridge
• Transfer traffic to the new southern half and dismantle the remainder of the original bridge
• Build the northern half of the new bridge

All of the work will have some effect on the river but there are some particular milestones that we need to be aware of:

• Scour Protection works started on 24 July and will finish at the end of August. This will involve placing rock carpet onto the river bed using a floating excavator and attendant rock barge. Divers will be in attendance. They will do the area around the 2 railway bridges first. The main bridge won't be done until it is virtually complete. The Safety Boat will control any river traffic as necessary. Please follow the instructions below:
  a. When boating upstream, to wait by the safety boat which should be positioned downstream of the A66 Bridge. You will then be guided through the bridge.
  b. When boating downstream to wait by the yellow buoy positioned upstream of the A66 Bridge. The safety boat will then guide you through the bridge.
  c. If no safety boat is evident, proceed as normal.
  d. Divers, when working, operate 7am to 7pm.
  e. In the meantime please proceed with caution through the bridge.
  
• The new supports for the new bridge will be built from now until September.
• The first sections of the new bridge will be installed in September. At best they will crane in sections complete with the concrete decking units. At worst, they will crane in the girders first and place the concrete deck units and in-situ concrete second. They have promised appropriate controls for either solution.
• Dismantling of the northern portion of the existing bridge will follow.

For your information, the current work is to provide a working platform for the cranes that will be used for the construction of the new piers and the bridge structure. They are temporary features!

The drawing below is a rather busy one showing the old and the new bridges. As you can see the new bridge only has two piers which are much further apart than the current ones. This should help with navigation under the road and rail bridges in the longer term.

The Highways Agency has a Customer Care contact for the work on the bridge. If you have any safety issues and you can’t get in contact with me, then please contact Ged Allison on 01642 673 357 (Customer Care) or by email ged.allison@edmund-nuttall.co.uk

Steve Vaslet
Issue 3
26.7.06

Notice to Mariners  (25 June 2006)

River Tees ‘Upstream River’
Tees Barrage, Blue House Point, Stockton

CONSTRUCTION WORK A66 SURTEES BRIDGE

The River Master HEREBY GIVES NOTICE that:

• Major construction works in progress at the A66 Surtees Bridge which includes construction of temporary jetties within the River Tees. Operations will generally be between 07.30 to 19.00hrs Monday to Friday and 07.30 to 17.00hrs Saturday and Sunday. Lifting operations involving cranes will be taking place on both river banks and temporary jetty structures. Barges and pontoons may be operating within the navigable channel but passage past will be provided.
• Use central channel beneath Surtees Bridge only. This will be marked by signage and an arrow at the extremity of the available navigable channel which will be approx 20m wide.
• Obey all instructions from safety boat. Safety boat may temporarily prevent passage beneath the Surtees Bridge for safety reasons during a lifting operation close to the navigable channel.
• Pass through the works at slow speed.

The dates and times of other operations involving divers or requiring river closures will be notified to you separately so that a specific notice to mariners can be issued

For further information contact Tees Barrage on VHF Channel 37 or by telephone on 01642 633273.

Alan Slater
River Master

Safety Bulletin 8  (22 October 2005)

A few safety messages:

1. Travelling under the A66 bridge

As some of you may be aware, in July there was a collision between a coxed four and a sculler under the A66 Surtees bridge. We have discussed the implications of this accident and other similar ones at committee and have arrived at the following advice:

Boats and crews travelling upstream and approaching the bridge, should aim to steer the corner as wide as possible thus giving them a good line of sight under the bridges. They should enter the bridge carefully, stopping if necessary. They should be prepared to give way to any downstream crews as appropriate.

Boats and crews travelling downstream should be very vigilant when travelling through the bridge. They should generally do this at light or half pressure even if this breaks into a piece of work. The only exception is if a boat/crew are doing a LDS distance timed piece. In this case they should steer a course tight to the inside of the bridge.

Fortunately the accident in July only had minor consequences but it could have been significantly worse. There have also been a number of other nasty collisions in this area. We considered the use of the two outside arches but this was dismissed on the grounds of the fishermen, potential underwater debris and the difficulty of lining big boats up with the outside arch.

2. The use of launches between near the Kellington

The piece of river between the Princess of Wales bridge and the Endeavour is easily disturbed by launch wash and seems to take a considerable period of time to settle down. I have been through there behind motor boats and felt some very unusual boat movements. Launch drivers will recall that their exclusion from the speed limit only applies when they are coaching crews. I have said before that if crews leave RTWC ahead of their launch, then the launch must not speed to catch up but that the crew and the launch must meet at an agreed point upstream, the far side of the A66 bridge for example. I would like to reiterate this advice because the stretch of river in question is the worst stretch to capsize into by far and this must be avoided if at all possible.

3. Millennium Footbridge

Please use the main arch of this bridge as this avoid interfering with the anglers that tend to fish under the inside arch. The outside arch is sufficiently wide to accommodate boats in both directions.

4. Cold Water

Remember that winter is drawing near and this will result in lower water temperatures than we are used to. The tragic death of Leo Blockley is fresh in our minds and this has created lots of discussion about the affects of water on capsized rowers. The basic facts are that reducing temperatures increase the risks and everyone should take this into account when planning their outings. Controls that you can use include not going out, going out with others or a launch, wearing a lifejacket and wearing a number of thin layers with a windproof garment on the outside. I will be placing additional information on the Safety Notice Board in the near future.

5. Signing out

With regard to the above issue, please make sure all crews sign out and back in again at the end of their outings. It is important that all crews adhere to this and we have not been particularly good at this recently.

Regards

Steve Vaslet
Safety Adviser
Tees Rowing Club

Safety Bulletin #7  (05 May 2005)

Attention all Club Members:

Today (Tuesday) saw a large number of boats on the water with crews honing their skills for Durham. A lot of the boats were using the Barrage Straight and a good number were racing, either starts or pieces. It was a fine evening and the sun was bright and low in the sky. As some of my company's American Human Performance coaches would say - it was an error likely situation. In the end the situation resolved itself and some crews moved upstream.

I guess the message is to think about the potential for congestion and collision on the Barrage Straight. Even with a well understood and used circulation pattern, we can still end up with boats moving in the same direction but at significantly different speeds. Further more some of us choose to row in coxless boats!

As an aside, we were using the straight even thought it wasn't our evening. In approaching the other clubs (Jetski and Waterski) for other reasons, they have been very accommodating of our needs. To me this suggests that they have no objection to us using the water when they are not, but would expect us to promptly move aside should they turn up. I propose to confirm this with both clubs and with BW.

For clarity, we have the straight on Wed (1200-1800), Thurs (1800-2200), Friday (1200-1600), Saturday and Sunday (1000-1200).

Thanks

Steve

Safety at Regattas & Heads  (05 March 2005)
Some safety information for Regattas and Head races.
Download File Here

Safety Issues  (14 September 2004)
Dear All,
Can I raise three safety issues please:

Victoria Bridge

You will recall that I wrote out on 12th July informing you of work on the Victoria Bridge. The Notice To Mariners (06-04) stated "Due to the repainting of Victoria Bridge between the dates 02nd August 2004 and 24th September 2004 the outer spans will be fully scaffolded around the arch profiles, making them closed to navigation. The central span will remain free of scaffold throughout." Whilst this has not been the case in terms of scaffold, tonight there were two substantial wires hanging down from the span, with two large weights at a rowers head height.

I advise you to avoid using the outer spans and to use the centre span with extreme caution. As you can see I have copied this to the Barrage to ask them to ask the painting contractors to avoid the current situation of obstacles hanging from the bridge.

Dusk

Please note that the recent EGM changed the Bylaws to prohibit the use of club boats after official lighting up time (dusk). The TRC Safety code requires private boats to show white lights fore and aft.

Stone Throwing

Please be aware that there have recently been instances of youths throwing stones from the Thornaby bank upstream of the A66 bridge.

Thanks
Steve Vaslet
Safety Adviser
Tees Rowing Club

Power Cable Removal - River Closure  (21 July 2004)
The river will be closed between Jubilee Bridge and Preston Park to allow NEDL to remove the 33kV overhead line west of Jubilee Bridge between 1000 Hrs and 1100 Hrs on the above date.

Safety personal will be posted upstream and downstream to warn passing vessels.

Safety - Victoria Bridge Painting  (21 July 2004)
Due to the repainting of Victoria Bridge between the dates 02nd August 2004 and 24th September 2004 the outer spans will be fully scaffolded around the arch profiles, making them closed to navigation. The central span will remain free of scaffold throughout.

Safe Conduct on the River  (23 June 2004)
SAFETY BULLETIN #6 - JUNE 2004

Several recent events have prompted the need to re-iterate some rules and expectations regarding our behaviour on the river. These specifically relate to the course people are navigating and to the speed at which launches are being driven.

Course

As you should all know, the Rules of the River are there for all our protection. They require all craft to keep to the right hand side and well over where possible. This rule exists so that other users can predict your movements and therefore we should follow it at all times. I know that on occasion some other users don't follow this rule but that does not give us the right to ignore it. Also, it's particularly important that we move in a predictable manner around the Teesside Princess.

Launch Driving

The 'River Tees Barrage and Upstream River Byelaws 1993' states, under Byelaw 23(2), that the maximum speed of a powered craft on the river is 8kpm or about 5mph. Byelaw 23(3) goes on to say that 'the maximum speed limit shall not apply to power-driven vessels directly engaged in safety duty, training, coaching or umpiring of vessels powered by oar...'. In the opinion of the River Master the key word is 'directly'. To him and to me, this means that the coaching launch must be along side or close behind the boat being coached. If they are separated by any distance then the coaching launch must move at a maximum of 5mph (which is very slow - i.e. just above walking pace). I would suggest that a 'distance' would be in the order of 5 boat lengths. If the two do become separated, then in order for coaching to resume, the boat being coached must slow down of stop and await the coaching launch.

Further, coaching launch must slow down for all other boats and vessels, e.g. sculling boats and boats working on the Tees.

Conclusion

The use of the river is a granted to us through the Byelaws. It is up to us to abide with these Byelaws to maintain the levels of access that we currently enjoy. I commend you all to abide by the rulings and guidance provided above.

Thanks

Steve Vaslet
Safety Adviser