McAllisters Recovery & BJG Solutions Win

IVR Bill Jackson Award - Recovery of the Year 2011

At this years Institute of Vehicle Recovery AGM and dinner, we jointly won the Bill Jackson Award for Recovery of the Year 2011. This was a great honour, in particular because it was one of the most challenging jobs we've ever undertaken but also that it was one in partnership with BJG Solutions. Below is a summary of the photos and incident report that won us the award. Thanks to all the team for the hard work and professionalism on what was a very long tiring day.

This shot shows the size of the scene of the dangerous recovery of a highly toxic chemical tanktainer that had fallen off a gantry crane on its side, damaging the frame.



How toxic you ask? Well in its dilute form its apparently the most commonly used liquid in chemical based suicide or put another way will probably kill all marine life in the thames if its spilled into the drains...



The frame was compromised in several positions meaning that we couldn't rely on it and need to close the tank into it to hold it all together



View from the bottom of the frame which is still intact



The other side of the top frame, the result is that the tank is completely flat and imbedded into the tarmac.



Getting as much of the rigging and strops into place before we start to pull it and need to don all our chemical suits / respirators:





There were three operators who were working within the inner cordon, Alan, Scott and Lee. Myself and Darren were supervising the operation from the outer cordon which was difficult concerned for different reasons (for all of those who like to dive in a help on a job you'll know what I mean). The suits and masks can only be used for half hour at a time before having an enforced water break.



We tightened up the winches to see what gap we could get under the tank to begin with whilst monitoring for leaks. Thankfully no spillages, but also no gap so we had to go to work with the high pressure mats to try and block a gap.





We rigged the top boom using three strops on one winch rope. This would give us an even pull and allow us to use the other winch as a restraint. For failsafe redundancy the truck was supported by air cushions pushing and catchbags restraining as well - just in case.



We ran into a bit of a problem where a strop that had got caught was longer than the other two. As the tank was back and confirmed safe at rest we removed the inner cordon restriction whilst we shortened it down. You can see it here on the right of the picture.



Shorterned it down using an endless loop and a shackle.



As we had had some slight sliding issues to start with and the lack of space (room for error was about 6 inches) we made two adjustments to our original plan. We fashioned some pins that were banged into the tarmac to help the fulcrum point and also rigged our back up smaller truck off the rear legs of the Scania to help pull the top frame down a bit and help with the righting motion.



Ready to start the final pulling onto the catchbags.



Almost there.



Now upright and we've just got to winch in again a little bit to remove the bags.



All done - time to pack up and get home!

Its very humbling to be recognised by your fellow professionals and of all the jobs over the years this was the one that worried the most (because of what could have gone wrong) but also that I was most proud of our lads working hard on the ground in very difficult cirumstances.

Thanks to all those involved and for the award it will be in pride of place once BJG have had it for the first six months.

Best regards,


Mark McAllister
Managing Director
McAllisters Recovery Ltd