The Critical Role of Working Platforms and the Consequences of Poor Design

Every lift, drill, or piling operation relies on a properly designed working platform. When that platform performs as intended, projects stay on schedule and equipment operates safely. When it doesn't, the consequences can include delays, unexpected costs, equipment instability, and serious safety issues.

Risky Business

While working platforms may be temporary, the ramifications of poor performance can be anything but. In fact, 88 percent of U.S. contractors surveyed identified inadequate working surfaces as a major cause of overturned cranes and drill rigs. That's why working platforms are far more than a temporary layer of aggregate—they're a critical part of creating a safer jobsite.

Why Better Design Matters

Despite their importance, working platforms haven't always been designed using a consistent engineering methodology. Historically, developing a universal design approach has been challenging because every project presents a different combination of soil conditions, groundwater, equipment types, axle loads, outrigger pressures, and construction activities.

For many years, engineers relied on experience, conservative assumptions, or project-specific practices when designing working platforms. Those approaches often produced acceptable results, but they could also lead to using unnecessary aggregate, inconsistent performance, or uncertainty about whether a platform would perform as intended under demanding site conditions.

And taking that risk could have disastrous effects.

Protecting Your Most Valuable Resource

As project schedules tighten, equipment grows larger, and owners place greater emphasis on efficiency and safety, workforce well-being is more important than ever.

Recognizing that temporary working platforms deserve the same thoughtful engineering practices as other critical elements of a project, professional organizations around the world, are collaborating to develop guidance and recommended practices that encourage more consistent approaches to working platform design, construction, and management—reflecting a growing commitment to improving safety as well as performance.

Designing with Confidence: Tensar’s T-Value Method

Today, engineers have access to a more reliable approach. Backed by full-scale research and based on sound engineering principles, Tensar’s T-Value Method is a universal formula for designing working platforms across a wide range of conditions.

Used in combination with our software, Tensar+, engineers can assess site conditions and equipment loading; create, evaluate, and optimize multiple design options; account for the effects of geogrid stabilization; and generate project documentation—all before construction begins.

Learn More

Working platforms may be temporary structures, but the decisions that go into their design can have long-term effects on project efficiency, performance, and safety.

Visit Tensar+ to explore the tool and download the infographic, which provides a closer look at the engineering behind working platforms, and discover how modern working platform design can increase project efficiency while helping to protect your most valuable resources—the human ones.