What Does the Use of Virtual Reality Bring to You in Terms of Prevention and Health and Safety at Work?

Antoine Morand, Group Health & Safety Director at Terre Armee

Soletanche Bachy and Terre Armée are part of the specialty networks division of Vinci Construction.The company employs 22,000 people and has a strong international presence with over 200 subsidiaries. Given our activities, safety is obviously a major issue.

However, we are in countries where cultural habits mean that, sometimes, when we impose certain rules, we get an easy yes, but without real support. We were looking for a tool that would allow us to involve people more in safety issues, and that would also allow them to express themselves and help them make decisions. We were therefore looking for a more practical tool that would allow us to put people in situations.

Safety: Soletanche Bachy goes into virtual reality to master risks!

To acquire knowledge and reflexes, nothing beats practice. This is particularly true in the area of safety, where challenging risks enables our teams to better understand them and adopt the right behavior on site.

Therefore, Soletanche Bachy relies on virtual reality: it allows us to reproduce the risks on our jobsites, and then our teams to experience the hazards and good practices in conditions close to reality, safely! Our employees can thus assimilate the risks and their preventive measures in an instructive and entertaining way, and thus eliminate or reduce the risk at its source.

For several years now, a dozen of Soletanche Bachy subsidiaries have been equipped with virtual reality equipment (computer, mask, and joysticks), allowing complete and interactive immersion in the heart of our operations.

There are now 2 scenarios, which confront the participants with several unsafe situations and good operational practices that they must identify:

● A Diaphragm wall job site* modeled on a real site of the Grand Paris Express project was conducted in 2019.

● An underground jobsite, which was created in 2020 allows our staff to move in a tunnel and on a TBM (Tunnel Boring Machine).

​​​These scenarios, co-created internally within VINCI Construction, can be customized for your operational environment, with a choice of a safety or environmental focus, or even if you wish to train your teams in mechanical preventive maintenance. The scenario has no limits!

“To acquire knowledge and reflexes, nothing beats practice. This is particularly true in the area of safety, where challenging risks enables our teams to better understand them and adopt the right behavior on site.”

A Diaphragm wall job site modeled on a real site of the Grand Paris Express project was conducted in 2019*

Virtual Reality comes to our Job site!

This project aims, in the long term, both to support training, especially through the program of new hires, but also to experience on-site immersion and discovery of operations and associated risks.

The objective is to make employees aware of safety issues and particularly to stress our “5 killers”of our major risks. The VR scene begins with the selection of mandatory PPEs on site, then we attend a pre-start meeting before beginning the discovery of the job site. The goal of the scene is to follow the red arrows indicated on the screen which represent the major risks of the site. The scene ends in front of a giant screen indicating the risks and hazards encountered during the visit.

As the scenario is adaptable, it is dedicated to being editable regarding the different needs and regulations of each country. For instance, changing the language (vocal and written) or focusing the scene on techniques of lifting, concreting, or excavation. It is also possible to add new risks or even highlight good practices.

Enjoy your immersion! Do not be afraid of the virtual accident!