Going the Extra Mile: John Deere Fall Protection Highlight

The necessity for protecting rooftop workers is the same for buildings of all shapes & sizes. Falls from roofs are an especially dangerous (and predictable) hazard, but they also can be one of the simplest fall hazards to mitigate—with the right fall protection partner.

John Deere Prioritizing Safety With Diversified

Diversified Fall Protection was brought in to assist John Deere with providing rooftop safety for their maintenance workers at their Moline, IL corporate campus. They had a desire to provide a safe workplace for daily maintenance, with the added assurance of bringing the site into OSHA compliance. And, of course, the buildings were not perfectly flat rectangles that simple solutions could accommodate. As with any project, this process began with a complimentary site walk of the premises to identify fall hazards & configure practical solutions.

Our Custom Solutions

Besides the sheer size of this project, its complexity was amplified by varying roof levels that were accessible by permanent ladders affixed to the building’s exterior. Each time workers climbed to a new roof level, they would be immediately exposed to an unprotected roof edge upon accessing their destination. There were attempts to mitigate this fall hazard when we visited the site, but the solutions used were “homemade” temporary solutions and did not comply with OSHA guidelines. In many areas, we also added self-closing swing gates to protect against accidental falls from the roof into the ladder area.

Our team developed a plan to bring this entire facility into compliance by designing a full-perimeter guardrail system. In this project, we were able to utilize our freestanding, counter-weighted guardrail baseplates for most of the rooftop area. This solution is easy for virtually anyone to install as it requires no rooftop penetration. The counterweighted baseplates are heavy-duty enough to protect workers & adhere to OSHA guardrail specifications.

Our Goal: Satisfied Clients and Safe Workers

By the end of the project, we installed over a mile of guardrail to protect the 5 million square feet of rooftop on their campus. This project is another testament to the comprehensiveness of guardrail as a rooftop fall protection solution. It requires no training, no certification, and no inspection process. Moreover, it is extremely effective in not only protecting workers from fall injuries but also preventing falls from happening altogether.

If you have a complex project that seems daunting, our safety experts stand ready to help, and we're dedicated to being easy to work with, simplifying the process with our turnkey approach. Contact us to learn more.