‘Impressive’ Lanes team weathers two storms in station upgrade

 

Lanes Group has carried out its largest ever Network Rail station upgrade project, attracting praise from main contractor Balfour Beatty Rail for the professional and safe way it completed the work.

Lanes teams worked in partnership with Balfour Beatty Rail colleagues to realign a platform and replace subways at Maidenhead Station over Christmas 2015 and Easter 2016, despite being battered, both times, by major storms.

The c£900,000 project prepares the Berkshire station for the opening, in 2019, of Crossrail, the new East-West line through London, which runs longer and faster trains, and will significantly increase passenger numbers.

Balfour Beatty Rail Senior Project Manager Ed Griffiths said: “I was very impressed with Lanes Group’s approach. Senior managers were on site, and had a strong can-do attitude, and the work ethic of the operatives was very good.

“We worked together as one team, their site management was very professional, keeping it clean and tidy at all times, and they completed a complex and critical project on time and to a very high standard.

“Their approach to health and safety was also excellent, contributing to Balfour Beatty Rail’s very good record of continuous work with no incidents, which was very important to us.”

In the first stage, during a Christmas engineering station closure, Lanes Group Rail Division replaced the roof sections of two concrete subways under Platform 5 at the station on the Great Western Main Line.

In a complex operation, six 10m-long sections, each weighing up to 26 tonnes, were craned into position, then water sealed before the track was reinstated.
During the work, the station was lashed by Storm Eva, holding up lifting for 24 hours. To minimise the impact on Lanes Group teams, each operative was issued with specialist extreme weather clothing.

Coping stones along 210m-long platform 5 were also removed and replaced with temporary Magma boards.

During a second line closure, over Easter, Lanes Group and Balfour Beatty worked around the clock to complete project by renewing and realigning the platform and track. Up to 80 operatives worked on site during each 12-hour shift.

Balfour Beatty Rail installed new track along an increased radius, and a super-G switch, allowing longer trains to travel faster through the station.
Coordinated with this work, the Lanes Group teams installed new steel supports to allow the platform to be extended between 100mm and 150mm along the length of the platform in line with new track.

The Magma boards and temporary asphalt were taken up and replaced with 230 new coping stones and permanent asphalting. Finally, new passenger guidance lines were painted along the length of the platform.

For a 24-hour period the teams, again, endured horrendous weather, as Storm Katie battered England. Despite this, they were able to hand back the station, as agreed with Network Rail, early on Tuesday 29 March.

Eamonn Maloney, Network Rail Manager for Lanes Group, said: “A big challenge was co-ordinating every step across all teams in a very confined work area. The rapport we had with Balfour Beatty Rail and Network Rail was crucial.

“It required meticulous planning and precise on-site management, on a minute-by-minute basis, plus a huge amount of hard graft from our teams. We were very pleased with the outcome. The new platform looked an absolute picture on handover.”

Matthew Todd, Commercial Director for Lanes Group Rail Division, said: “This is an example of the increasingly challenging civil engineering projects we’re securing. Working flexibly while maintaining the highest standards of safety and quality are central to that success.”