Leading scaffolding contractor, XERVON Palmers, has been awarded a prestigious Heathrow Airport Limited (HAL) safety award – for their extensive scaffolding and access work on the new multi-million pound Terminal 2B “Queen’s Terminal” project.
It is understood this is the first time a scaffolding contractor has won one of the coveted HAL awards.
The HAL awards have twelve categories (Behavioral Safety Champion, Training Initiative, Leadership, Innovation, Team, Team Support, Project, Individual, Safety Professional, Supervisor, Design and Health) and are designed to recognise all those who have made an “outstanding contribution to health & safety within development in 2013 at Heathrow Airport.”
XERVON Palmers won an award in the ‘Designing for Safety’ category – which acknowledged the design and safe construction of a scaffold which was built during nightshifts, within a high risk environment, where care and attention to detail had to be ensured or works could potentially have affected the control and lighting of all the take-off and landing runways at the airport.
The HAL awards were presented by John Holland-Kaye, Heathrow Development Director and David Pyle, Heathrow Head of Safety at an Award’s ceremony in London earlier this Spring and XERVON Palmers were represented by the scaffolding nightshift foreman and two of the airport division's workforce.
Ian McFarlane, Director for Business & Project Development at XERVON Palmers said: “This is a great tribute to our workforce and support staff who deliver access & scaffolding daily at Heathrow. Our thanks and big well done to all involved for their hard work in achieving this excellent award.”
And Donald Morrison, CEO of XERVON Palmers added: “We are all very proud of the quality of our work at Heathrow’s Terminal T2B and of the attentive safety culture associated with that – delivering high quality scaffolding and access solutions, 100% safely, within a challenging work environment.”
The XERVON Palmers work on the T2B site at Heathrow’s T2 – for top construction firm, Balfour Beatty – began in January 2012. And at the project’s peak, XERVON Palmers provided a significant number of skilled scaffolding operatives and scaffolding equipment for the contract on the secure site which is one of the largest airports in Europe.
The contract has centred around providing scaffolding services and access solutions for the construction of the new T2B building at the airport in three phases, making way for the construction of a new, 600m long and 35m wide, split-level pier (T2B) and the proposed Heathrow East Terminal (HET). And some of the work has been involved in creating scaffolding underground, to assist in the construction of connecting tunnels for rail services under the T2B building.
The access has been provided using a mix of traditional tube and fitting together with the Cuplok and Layher system scaffolding which included the creation of large birdcage scaffolds in the T2B’s atriums and escalator constructions.
Heathrow Airport deals with over 67 million passengers a year from its five terminals and more than 90 airlines use the airport. Working on such a busy, sensitive site has thrown up unique scaffolding and access challenges for XERVON Palmers – including not interrupting sight lines for the Air Traffic Control (ATC) tower or disturbing RADAR signals while working at height, gaining clearance of advanced security systems and organising BAA passes for all of the operatives (a six month process). All site deliveries have been made, using specific pre-set access and egress routes at set times, gaining permit approvals for certain access equipment and clearance of night / weekend / overtime working hours.
Furthermore, XERVON Palmers as part of the normal daily routine adhere to strict risk assessments for working at height, working adjacent to live airport roads and pedestrian routes, working adjacent to live occupied buildings, materials handling, working with access equipment and plant, working in a multiple contractor environment. And all XERVON Palmer operatives needed to be briefed on the airport’s extensive emergency arrangements, traffic management systems on site and be up to date with COSHH and manual handling assessments.
The XERVON Palmers Divisional Manager for Airports said: “Working on such a sensitive, busy site provides us with plenty of challenges, but XERVON Palmers have developed considerable expertise in aviation scaffolding and access. Sorting out the security, health and safety and logistic issues of working on large airports is something we do year on year and we are well used to – particularly at Heathrow, where we’ve previously worked on all five Terminals and other peripheral buildings providing scaffolding and access. And, personally, I’ve been working on site at Heathrow for many years. We have risen to the challenges, met all site criteria and have almost completed the works without a complication, saving the principal contractor any additional charges caused by security or safety issues.
The work itself providing scaffolding and access to support Balfour Beatty’s T2B building work has been exciting and challenging and we have enjoyed being part of such a large scale, modern construction project. It’s just the sort of aviation contract XERVON Palmers love to do.”
Ian McFarlane, Director for Business & Project Development at XERVON Palmers said: “We are delighted to have been selected by Balfour Beatty to deliver the access & scaffolding involved with the works at Heathrow’s T2B, which is a superb, top level de-construction and building project –which we have helped make possible by the quality of the scaffolding and access we have professionally provided. Airport works of this scale require experience, expertise and knowledge when it comes to providing access solutions and our XERVON Palmers team – from management to operatives – have the know-how to make it happen, safely and efficiently.”
And Donald Morrison, CEO of XERVON Palmers added: “Having previously worked on Terminal 5 at Heathrow, we had developed the proficiency and know-how to help make this contract work smoothly for principal contractors, Balfour Beatty. The skilled scaffolding and access solutions XERVON Palmers provide is just part of the job. Knowing how to operate and manage large numbers of operatives on a sensitive site like Heathrow is something not every company can do, but it’s the sort of contract we relish taking on and providing successful services for, safely and efficiently.”
Terminal 2 is set to open on June 4th 2014 and is being dubbed by the UK’s leading airport as “the latest step in the transformation of Heathrow… designed from the outset with the needs of the individual passenger at its heart and with sustainability as a guiding principle. Terminal 2 is central to Heathrow’s vision of making every journey better. Partner airlines will move closer together to improve flight connections and there will be more natural light and space than you are used to seeing in an airport. It will be an extraordinary new space in its own right – great for airlines and the staff who work there and great for every single passenger.”
