Beacon status for safe, considerate working at Oakwood station upgrade

David Burrowes MP presents award to Tube Lines construction team

The Tube Lines construction team improving Oakwood station has been recognised as a model for safe working. The station, which has just finished being refurbished, was named a beacon site by Trevor Bellis, head of health, safety and environment delivery for Tube Lines, the company rebuilding 40% of the London Underground. The award was presented yesterday to the team, which is still on site fitting a lift to provide step free access to platforms, by David Burrowes, MP for Enfield Southgate.

Tube Lines introduced its beacon site scheme to help ensure all work at its project sites and maintenance depots is undertaken safely and considerately. It is based around the Considerate Constructors Scheme but demands even higher standards and has additional requirements because of the potentially hazardous rail environment.

Any site can seek beacon status by demonstrating excellence in six areas:

1. Safety – this looks at all aspects of site activity and the promotion of care, consideration and safety of all personnel, visitors and the general public. Safety training and its impact are measured.
2. Environment – noise from construction operations and employees must be minimised and effective measures adopted to reduce waste, recycle and protect local wildlife.
3. Cleanliness – all aspects of the site must be kept clean and tidy.
4. Consideration – this looks at the impact of our work on others, including our neighbours, the general public and people working at or visiting the site.
5. Management and values – paperwork must be completed properly and team members demonstrate a safe working ethos.
6. Site specific – the scheme is flexible so can demand special requirements for each site.

Beacon status recognition for the team at Oakwood comes as it successfully finishes refurbishing the station – ahead of schedule – including enhancing information available to passengers and boosting security. These were achieved through help points which passengers can use in an emergency to contact the British Transport Police or can use to obtain information from London Underground staff, an upgraded public address system, new information boards and better CCTV coverage. Structural repairs, re-decoration, re-tiling and improvements to seating areas help to make the station a more pleasant place to travel through.

Now the focus is on finishing installation of the new lift which will provide step free access to platform level for people with mobility difficulties, pushchairs or lots of luggage. In order to minimise disruption to passengers, almost all work must be done at night during the few hours when the station is closed, roughly between 1.30am and 4am, so the consideration aspects of beacon status are particularly important to people living near the station.

Following recognition of its beacon status, other project and maintenance teams from Tube Lines will visit Oakwood to learn from the excellent levels of safety being adopted.

David Burrowes MP, who presented the beacon award, said:

“It gives me great pleasure to present this award to the people in the team on site and I congratulate them on their achievement. It is really important that people working on major projects such as this take seriously their responsibilities to the environment and neighbours on site. I am delighted that this team has done this so well. The station upgrade and new lifts are very important improvements to the local area and I look forward to their completion in the next few months.”

Trevor Bellis, head of health, safety and environment delivery for Tube Lines, said:

“The team at Oakwood has worked hard to win beacon status and is an excellent example for all people working in rail or construction. We will capitalise on their expertise and ensure best practice is shared around Tube Lines.”

ENDS

For further information, please contact:
Press office, Tube Lines: 020 7088 4848 / 07843 551 589

Notes to Editors

1. Tube Lines is responsible for the maintenance and upgrade of the infrastructure on the Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly lines. London Underground is responsible for operating the Underground, for employing drivers and station staff, for ticketing and fares, and for the Tube’s safety regime.
2. The Tube Lines consortium consists of two shareholders – Amey and Bechtel. They bring together some of the most experienced providers of business services with specialist skills in the rail industry, including track and signal renewals, plus project and operational management. They are providing some of the best project and operational managers from around the world to work on the modernisation of the Tube system. Amey owns two-thirds of Tube Lines’ business and Bechtel one third.

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