Case study – Community – A good neighbour

Communication works magic with the community

When you are about to move onto a site near people’s homes or businesses and carry out heavy construction work it is essential to keep the neighbours informed. Maintaining a regular dialogue has been a major contributor to the successful progress of major improvement works at Stanmore station.

“We have been on site over three years and are on schedule to complete the works to provide a third platform at Stanmore in time for the new signaling system on the Jubilee line to go live in 2009,” says Richard Whitten, Senior Field Engineer. “We have also been able to progress the station refurbishment works faster than planned and expect these to be completed two years early.”

The Stanmore project is a critical part of the Jubilee line upgrade programme. Construction of the third platform has been made possible by cutting away 10 metres of a slope at the side of the existing station and building a retaining wall alongside the new 300-metre stretch of track.

Once the upgrade is complete, passengers travelling to key central London stations including Waterloo, London Bridge and Canary Wharf will enjoy faster journey times. It will provide London Underground with the capability to increase the number of trains, resulting in shorter waiting times and more trains going all the way through to the Stanmore terminus.

Communication

Before moving onto site in October 2004, Tube Lines opened up a dialogue with local people. “Because this is such a large project there was the potential for disruption on this site, particularly as some people live in the station buildings,” explains Chris Ball, Access Manager for Tube Lines’ Stations team. “We arranged a public meeting before the works began and put leaflets through people’s doors.

“We also planned the work so that most of it would be done during the day instead of during our normal night-time engineering hours. Whenever this was not possible, we always gave people advance warning.”

“Fortunately, we were able to create an access road from an existing parking area to give us some storage space and access via the back of the station to our work area,” Richard adds. “However, some weekend closures were inevitable to enable us to carry out jobs involving major crane lifts, such as moving a new cable bridge into position, or drilling in public areas.

“Under our Section 61 consent we have to keep the council informed to ensure that we have found the quietest, least disruptive way of doing each piece of work and they have been very supportive. Regular noise monitoring ensures that acceptable levels are maintained.”

Our 24-hour telephone helpline has been useful in ensuring that any issues are dealt with swiftly around the clock.

“It’s all about respecting other people’s point of view,” Chris adds. “We never forget how painful our work can be for everybody affected and take this seriously every step of the way.”