Hello Margaret,

You do need to perform a risk analyses. Basis for this analyses is
information about incidents with construction work. Construction work is one
of the major causes of fire. Make sure you have a good contract with the
building company with all the do's and don't's. If you decide to keep the
museum open , and the collection in it's place you must make sure plenty of
precautions will be taken against the danger of fire and of damage caused by
dust, movement of construction material through your building, and the
presence of numerous unknown people outside and inside your exhibition area
from very early in the morning until late in the afternoon. Do have guards
available to accompany construction workers. Do not allow the use of open
fire. Have always fire extinguishers available at the construction site. If
there will be scaffolding make sure it is not possible for unauthorized
people to climb those (use fences, infrared and CCTV). Make sure you KNOW
the personal details of everybody working on top of and in your museum. Do
not hesitate to check ID's.
Make rules for parking on your premises. Make sure you have contact details
(cell phones) of people responsible for the construction work, and make sure
you can reach those 24/24 and 7/7. Do invite your local firefighters, and
ask for advise. Adjust your emergency plan for this special situation.

One more thing: sit at your desk with your security manager and some other
staff and consider all possible negative scenario's and what can be done to
avoid those, or what you need to do whenever they occur. Spend some time on
it, and please do not wait until things go wrong, and start blaming others
if they do go wrong. There is never a guarantee against incidents, but do
prevent that you feel guilty afterwards because you could have prevented
incidents.

Only tailor-made solutions will do. There is no general rule.

Best of luck

Ton Cremers




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-----Original Message-----
From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf
Of Margaret M. Tamulonis
Sent: 21 December 2004 18:19
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: roof replacement work

Hello all (Happy Solstice!)--

I am facing the prospect of having 4-6 weeks of roofwork done here at the
Museum either this summer or next summer...Our collections and of course our
exhibitions are housed under this roof (well, not DIRECTLY under but a floor
or two down).  How have other institutions determined how to react/what
precautions need to be taken for such construction?  We are balancing the
possibility of being closed (not very likely), or moving collections (and
the accompanying risks with that).  I would appreciate any
stories/thoughts/forwarnings about this as we make our plans.  Thank you
very much!

Margaret

--
Margaret Tamulonis
The Robert Hull Fleming Museum
The University of Vermont

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