- Client
- Lanes Group (for Thames Water)
- Start Date
- Jul 2012
- Finish Date
- Mar 2020
- Duration
- 3 years + 5 year extension
- Value
- £15m per annum
- Location
- South London, Thames Valley & North West London
Following eight continuous years of working on Thames Water’s wastewater network, Cappagh, through their joint venture, Cappagh Browne, were selected as the civils partner to the Lanes Group who were successful in being awarded a new contract entitled Wastewater Network Services (WNS). This contract was conceived to enable Thames Water to merge their blockage clearance activities with the various other activities undertaken on their wastewater network including civils works for their existing wastewater network plus the significant additional network they adopted as a result of the transfer of private sewers. Lanes Group were awarded the contract for the Thames Valley and North London regions and Cappagh were initially awarded the civils activities in the Thames Valley and North West London areas. Following further success, Cappagh’s area was extended to include South London.
The civils element of the WNS contract involves wastewater repairs and maintenance work such as the repair and replacement of broken manhole covers, repairing collapsed sewers and burst rising mains and carrying out various elements of ancillary maintenance. Innovative solutions involve shafts and headings, deep excavations, open-cut and no-dig techniques.
The works are issued to us on an emergency and planned basis with each job given an appropriate priority dependent on the nature of the work which could range from a two hour response to a response in more than 14 days. We usually employ approximately 40 wastewater teams across the two areas and they would undertake over 12,000 jobs per annum.
We are responsible for the planning / scheduling of all works, pre-inspection / enabling, liaising with Highway Authorities and other stakeholders such as the emergency services, local businesses and residents, raising streetworks notices / permits, arranging parking bay suspensions, road closures and TfL shut-outs, identifying and organising traffic management requirements, backfilling and reinstatement and recording relevant asset data.
We use a photo management system to capture and store digital images of various stages of our works. This enables us to record the actual works we have undertaken but, perhaps more importantly, to record the condition of the site when we arrive and the condition of the site when we leave to protect us and the client against potential charges from Highway Authorities.
For this particular contract, the training requirements were extremely demanding, particularly as the contract was mobilised within one month. In addition to the usual vocational qualifications that our wastewater teams would have such as confined space, NRSWA, abrasive wheels, first aid, etc, we are required to ensure that every employee on the contract has been through a specific health and safety induction, been trained in the use of the new photo management system, undertaken licence to operate training, is in possession of a Thames Water Safety Passport and has been through the required checks to enable them to be given a Thames Water identity card.
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