Patent ID: 8177028

Claim:
A ladderway system for an underground raise, the system comprising: a plurality of elongate tubes configured to be joined end to end in the raise, each tube being a single annular piece formed of a lightweight resilient plastics material and configured to generally conform to the raise, where said elongate tube is of circular cross-section and is formed with a longitudinal slit along its entire length whereby the width of the slit is adjustable to conform the diameter of the tube can be adjusted to generally conform to the shape of the raise; each tube having a ladder in an interior of the tube and extending substantially the full length of the tube, and wherein the ladder in each tube is provided with a joining device configured to join with the ladders in adjacent tubes end to end, wherein the ladder is received in a gap formed between the edges of the longitudinal slit and pushes the tube outwards to conform to the shape of the raise, and; a mounting device in at least one of the tubes which is configured to mount the ladder and the tube to a wall of the raise, wherein the tube is configured to form a liner for the raise to protect a person on the ladder, and wherein each tube with the ladder in the ladderway system is prefabricated and the tubes with ladders are configured to be installed in the raise by connecting each tube and ladder to an adjoining tube and ladder, and sliding the connected tubes in the raise until the full length of the raise is lined.