Valley explosion|Destia CEO Tero Kiviniemi hopes that the company can improve the safety of its mining operations after the investigation of the case is completed
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The construction company SRV put Destia on a procurement ban due to dangerous situations.
The explosion accident in the valley was of a different nature than the previous ones.
SRV has given Destia two warnings for a total of three dangerous situations.
Destia is owned by the French conglomerate Bouygues SA.
Construction company On Monday, SRV placed the service company Destia on a procurement ban after Friday’s Laakso explosion accident.
SRV’s CEO Sipolan pocket according to the decision is based on repeated dangerous situations.
Stones have already flown out from under the excavation mats used to protect the excavation works in the blasts carried out by Destia in Laakso.
Last in 2008 SRV gave Destia two warnings for a total of three dangerous situations.
Last December, Sipola proposed to the management team of the Laakso joint hospital Alliance to change the operator, but the proposal was not agreed to. Sipola tells HS that SRV required at that time, however, that the management of Destia’s site in question be changed.
That’s how it was done.
“There has been something special about work management on that site. The previous management did not have the conditions to continue due to numerous backup situations,” says Sipola.
According to Sipola, the number of blasting problems in Laakso is “statistically quite shocking”.
He refers to SRV’s similar demanding projects in the central area of Helsinki in Kaartinkaupungi, Culture Barracks, the National Museum’s annex and Bridge Hospital. There have been no repeated incidents of danger in them.
Some of the rock blasting work in the downtown area requires very special precision.
For example, in the construction of the National Museum’s annex, in the case of underground explosions, care must be taken to ensure that, for example, Axis Gallen-Kallela The Kalevala-themed frescoes painted on the vaulted ceiling of the National Museum are at risk, Sipola says.
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According to Sipola, the number of blasting problems in Laakso is “statistically quite shocking”.
of the valley the explosion accident was different from the previous situations that led to warnings from Destia, where rocks flying in connection with the explosion are blocked with protective mats.
In these explosions, Destia had been put under strict supervision so that it was not allowed to detonate anything without an outside supervisor overseeing the event.
In Friday’s accident, a huge chipping machine mounted on an excavator hit an unexploded explosive while breaking up stuck rocks.
This is how the stones were able to fly without a protective mat.
Now the Regional Administration Office (avi) is investigating why the unexploded explosives had not been detected, and whether the explosive sites had been blown out with air pressure after the detonations.
“Naturally it’s quite clear that we take this accident very seriously”, CEO of Destia Tero Kiviniemi says.
He says that Destia strives to improve blasting work for both employees and outsiders.
Tero Kiviniemi.
“Now the investigation is underway. When it is resolved, I hope that we can improve the safety of the industry also with regard to mining work.”
Kiviniemi does not want to say how much Destia’s own personnel and how many subcontractors were used in the blasting and excavation work.
“Typically there are both.”
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An investigation is now underway. When it is resolved, I hope that we can improve the safety of the industry.”
He also does not want to comment on whether there is reason to suspect negligence in the case.
The reason for the silence is that the project manager of the Laakso joint hospital alliance has been agreed to be responsible for informing about the accident Ossi InkiläKiviniemi explains.
Destia has construction projects all over Finland that typically involve excavation and blasting, but Laakso is the only joint project with SRV, says Kiviniemi.
Different degrees the CEO of Forcit Consulting, which organizes professional training for punters Kari Saukkonen it is exceptional for unexploded explosives to be left behind.
“However, in connection with rock blasting, unexploded charges or parts of the charge remain from time to time,” he replies in an email.
“It’s an unfortunate incident, but fortunately a rare one,” says Saukkonen on the phone.
According to Saukkonen, accidents caused by unexploded charges are generally preventable with a careful approach.
of the valley Saukkonen does not comment on the explosion, but he says in general terms that the rock’s geotechnical layers can interrupt the explosive fire event.
“Usually, the ball is placed at the bottom of the hole, so that the explosives at the bottom of the hole will detonate with certainty, but when they come to the surface, they may remain unexploded due to the impact of the debris, if a so-called safety or double ball has not been used on the surface.”
Damages can also be prevented by choosing ignition methods, checking the detonation with video recording, using vibration measurements, checking the object and using compressed air to examine the bottom and drill holes.
In addition to these, it is possible to use dogs trained to locate explosives, which move around the construction site with their handlers and use their senses to mark the places where they get a hint of explosives, says Saukkonen.
of the valley According to Saukkonen, finding out the events of the explosion is difficult but not impossible.
First, it is necessary to find out whether the explosives were in a loose boulder or solid rock. If a clear bump has remained on the solid rock after the blasting event, the blasting event was unusual in some way.
“In that case, the blast holes must be blown open in order to verify whether there are unburned explosives left in the rock.”
According to Saukkonen, going through the blasting plans of mining blasts previously carried out in the area, analyzing vibration measurement results and interviewing workers can also help in finding out the reasons.
From blasting the respondent Destia is owned by the French multinational Bouygues SA.
The state’s Tieliikelaitos adopted Destia as its marketing name in 2007, and in 2008 its business was incorporated into a state-owned limited company.
In 2014, the state sold Destia to the investment company Ahlström Capital, which further sold it to the French listed company Colas in 2021. The French conglomerate Bouygues bought Colas off the stock exchange in 2023.