The largest initiative in a numerous number of years to improve the railway routes in the West Midlands, HS2, is set to be given the royal seal of approval of the queen. This project is eagerly awaited by building and development leaders who want to begin plans to implement the high-speed link from London to Birmingham. Valued to inject an extra £14 billion into the country’s economy as a whole, it means that access from the capital to the West Midlands will be quicker than ever and it is certainly undoubtedly the case that the project is an ambitious one. It is said that the enterprise will result in the creation of 104,000 employment opportunities for individuals in the area as well as 2,000 apprenticeship schemes that will help to set up the new generations of workers along British railways. Indeed, a huge amount of land in between is set to be cleared and it is clear that a number of villages between the two locations will probably be bulldozed or have a lot of land by them that will be taken up by the HS2 project. But that is clearly of no concern to the HS2 initiators and the Queen (who probably still needs to be reminded that Birmingham is a city and not a… biscuit), who will very probably have signed away the fate of those villagers by the time this press release gets launched into cyberspace. It is quite evident that a great deal has been said about the advantages that the HS2 will have (such as how it will improve the transport journeys of two million individuals who have to travel regularly between the two cities). It is also clear that a great deal of money has been put aside for this enterprise and that it will undoubtedly improve the economic infrastructure. But city slickers, I beg you: spare a thought for those who might see things a little differently.

With the recent implementation of two huge 600 ton weighing archways as part of the Ordsall Chord initiative to improve the railway connections between the three key Manchester railway stations, it is useful to see what the leading forces in the project had to say about the advancements of the project. Alan Parker the Program Manager of Network Rail explained that he was very pleased that the completion of this stage of the project indicated that it is yet again closer to being completed on time and on schedule. He cited the actual lifting of the arches over the famous River Irwell that runs through the city as a major site that it will take a long time for him to forget. Indeed, at 600 tons each, the elevation of this two structures must have been incredibly impressive. Similarly, David Brown the CEO of Transport for the North wanted to express his elation that the railway link is closer to being complete and added that this initiative will encourage the rest of the developments to improve the conditions of the railway systems all across the Northern regions of the United Kingdom. He also emphasized that these changes are not merely restricted to the railways, and that the initiative that is taking place in Manchester will undoubtedly help other projects taking place in transport improvements (such as the investments in Northern air and motorway refurbishments) all over the North of the country. Paul Staples of the TransPennine Express was also present to see the event for himself and was adamant that the news is not merely fantastic for Manchester, but also for all the other railway networks operating around the Northern areas. In a similar vein, the Project Manager of Severfield as well as the leading architect of the project, Messrs Jarrod Hulme and Peter Jenkins, were both very pleased with the hard work of all concerned without which the project may have never come to light.

The Head of Civil Engineering of well-respected firm Morgan Tucker, named Tom Ingram, has emphasized more than ever before the need for building companies to take into consideration the disastrous and disruptive effects of flooding into their building developments. Since the winter of 2015 to 2016, the weather situation in the United Kingdom has got increasingly worse and heavy gales and winds such as “Hurricane Barbara” caused major disruptions to worksites all over the country. What Tom Ingram emphasizes is that building contractors and site managers need to implement some careful tactics into their work that takes careful consideration of the ways in which flooding in the area can put workers and sites at risk. Whilst it is good that many building companies are very well aware of the dangers of flooding, there needs to be more risk assessment taking on sites and land developments that actually take into appropriate consideration the various amounts of things that can be implemented so that if a flood does occur workers and site managers are prepared and have put in appropriate health and safety measures in place. For example, certain factors such as the CAP (Common Agricultural Policy) that has been put in place by the European Union whilst advantageous to many actually increases the risk of flooding to local areas near maize production grounds and farms. Tom Ingram calls for companies and architectural firms as well as property and land developers of all kinds to take a more serious attitude towards the effects of flooding and not to simply ignore the implementation of safer methods as too expensive or unnecessary. With the weather taking a turn for the worse this year, it is clearly more important than ever that risk assessments are taken and that methods are put into place in order to ensure that water is not irrigated onto building sites through flooding as it has done so much in the past few years. An appropriate alternative to these problems needs to be sought out.

The train station of Stamford located in the area of Lincolnshire is finally in the ending processes of its planned repair works by Network Rail. Operating throughout the country in order to improve the conditions of railway stations and the experiences of passengers, Network Rail has worked tirelessly over the year to improve the way that transportation works in this country, but they would not be able to do this without the efforts of a hard-working and committed workforce of individuals and hired contractors in the building and construction industries of this nation. For Stamford station, Network Rail collaborated with East Midlands Trains as well as the well-respected Railway Heritage Trust.  Much of the work itself involved the improvement of the station’s roof structure, which was done so through the implementation of Collyweston stone, a material that the structure has been used in stations around Lincolnshire for centuries. The work also involved creating a canopy area as well as improving the surface conditions of the platform areas of the station, amounting to a total staggering cost of more than £1 million. It is clear that the project however was worth the money that it cost and the personality and uniqueness of the structure will soon be able to be admired by users of East Midlands Trains and commuters in the local Lincolnshire area. Network Rail were also financially backed in this ambitious enterprise by the Railway Heritage Trust, which contributed £150,000 in grant funding: this revenue was used to implement the station’s beautiful new canopy that is set to be the talk of Stamford and the Lincolnshire train-crazy population. Andrew Conroy of East Midlands Trains is hopeful that users of Stamford station will be pleased with the changes that have taken place. Similarly, Andy Savage of the Railway Heritage Trust is delighted that the Trust was able to make such a valuable contribution to the project.

BigChange the Mobile Workforce Management technology specialist has won contracts to supply some of the UK’s biggest equipment rental businesses with its three-in-one JobWatch system for over 5000 mobile technicians, engineers and drivers. A hire-specific version of the JobWatch system has been implemented by leading players including A Bird, Elliott Group, HSS Hire, Nixon Hire, John Deere, Morrison Utilities, Komatsu, Haulotte, Garic, A1 Group, Procomm Site Services, Hawk Group and Fourjays. The turnkey solution from BigChange has introduced a paperless revolution, equipping mobile workers with a Samsung Android tablet that manages receipt of job instruction, electronic proof of collection and delivery, site servicing, timesheets, electronic start-of-day vehicle walkaround checks, driver behaviour scoring promoting safe eco-driving, tachograph interface and Health and Safety procedures. The system is also a rich vehicle tracking system providing real-time location updates. The system is integrated with leading Hire Management systems including MCSrm and InspHire meaning that planned services, repairs, deliveries and collections are automatically pushed through to JobWatch. On logging on to the app at the start of each day, drivers and technicians are guided to start their timesheet, conduct a walkaround check that meets DVSA requirements (recording, photographing and alerting any vehicle defects) and have instant access to their jobs for the day. In the back-office, the system is enabling planners to respond faster to customer needs, intelligently allocating work orders based on real-time engineer availability, skills, live location and parts stock levels. This is significantly increasing productivity, minimising customer wait time and driving first time fix and ensures this can be achieved at the most competitive cost. The JobWatch system is saving Hire operators across Modular Buildings, Portaloos, Construction & Forestry, Plant & Equipment, Lifts, Platforms and Power Generators hundreds of thousands of pieces of paper annually and has significantly improved back-office administration. Engineers and drivers receive their work orders instantly on the JobWatch mobile app with paper job-cards and service repair worksheets replaced by equipment-specific electronic workflows that guide technicians at every step including risk assessments and method statements. Engineers no longer need to return paperwork to the back-office, saving a huge volume of previously manual back-office processing. The workflow also effectively manages damages and chargeable items; photos captured at the point of delivery or collection are automatically relayed to the back office, allowing them to instantly raise an invoice for chargeable work. Photos are time, date and location watermarked, providing robust proof of condition. Graham Wood, Group Logistics Manager at Nixon Hire commented: “With the support of JobWatch, every one of our fitters has boosted their productivity by around 20 percent.  This allows us to further absorb company growth and efficiently deploy the current resources we have before we look at recruiting additional resources. We get to where we need to be, when we need to be there, and we do what we say we are going to. This is also improving our customer service levels – evidenced by an increase in On Time Arrivals by more than 10 percent and a rise in First Attempt Job Completions by more than 5 percent.” The JobWatch system is also providing a detailed work and maintenance history for all rental assets, giving management visibility of productivity and utilisation across their operation as well as a real-world view of how long jobs are taking. This ensures they are able to more intelligently schedule and deploy resources to meet actual requirements. A detailed picture of costs are reported down to the resource level, taking into account travel time, fuel, parts and resource costs. For portable loos, the technology is even automating waste transfer notes. BigChange users benefit from 24/7 on-demand RoadCrew customer service for all back office users and drivers including remote support and management of all tablets.

Passengers and travelers were reminded that there will be several closures along several junctions that might have a significant impact on their journeys and are therefore encouraged to check the road network websites for details, diversions and alternative routes that have been put into place in order to ease the concerns that they might have as much as possible and in order to ensure that they arrive wherever they want to go on time and with as little hassle or disruption to them as possible. Indeed, the Highways England team has announced that there will be several closures during the next following weekends, which will include the closing of junctions 7,8 (M56) as well as junction 19 along the M6. These will take place from February the 17th until the morning of the 20th, meaning that alternative routes will need to be sought by those that might be affected. Whilst this may cause some disruption, it is undoubtedly essential that these be implemented so as to allow the ambitious Knutsford-Bowden installation of an all-new dual carriageway to be built in and set to be up and running as soon as possible for those that will benefit the most from it. Indeed, this is an ambitious building design and construction effort from Highways England, and the project itself is estimated to be worth a rather staggering £192 million. Indeed, Mister Paul Hampson of Highways England has also explained that careful and considered diversion have been put into place for the inconvenience this may cause to some passengers travelling along the A556 around the time of the closures. Furthermore, Paul Hampson suggests that those traveling on the road to Manchester Airport during those weekend periods ought to look carefully at the alternative routes and networks that they can take to get there, since those wanting to catch planes on time will undoubtedly be well advised to consider the impact the disruptions could have on the amount of time that they have to catch their flights.

Sykes Pumps have pumped back some vital enthusiasm into the community of Maidstone, Kent, by contributing to the effort to control water level areas in the vicinity. A special wheel had to be redesigned for location across one of the gateway entrances along the Upper Medway Navigation so that the water levels could be measured and controlled accurately and efficiently by the sliding gate. The team enterprise involved the twinned efforts of Hunton Engineering and Sykes Pumps to work together on different areas of the project in order to ensure its overall success in the watery Kent area. The contributions of Sykes Pumps were vital in the sense they were able to design and make the essential component Super Wispaset 150, a device which was at once very efficient with pumping large levels of water whilst at the same time reducing the noise pollution that would normally ensue from such a bustling and frenetic activity. Able to work on limited amounts of fuel energy, the perfect implementation of this product necessitated as well the protection of the engineers and contractors working on the structure: various amounts of scaffolds had to be constructed in order to ensure that they were kept well out of harm’s way during the potentially hazardous activity and that none were swept into the water. The minute the work was done, the Super Wispaset 150 was taken back to dry land by Sykes Pumps once it had served its time at a fantastic efficiency and a reduced pollution cost to individuals in the local area. Indeed, Mister Sean Trow of Hunton Engineering expressed his satisfaction that such a business like Sykes Pump could be dispatched and prove effective as well as reliable in ensuring that the task was completed to the best of every worker’s ability. Through this collaborative work between the two businesses, it is hoped that the sluice gate in Maidstone will once again prove to be as operational and as effective as ever.

The famed Heating and Hot water Industry Council (otherwise known in abbreviated terms as the HHIC) has  finally opened its annals to a new company known as Infomill Limited. This is as a result of the HHIC’s implemented plans for developing its technological future by welcoming more software companies through its doors. Indeed, Infomill Ltd are a reliable and beneficial service to the company that will be able to provide them with online data and information, as well as process orders for various other manufacturing outlets, such as furnishing them various forms of equipment. Indeed, Mister Stewart Clements of the HHIC has declared that Informill Ltd are absolutely welcome in the council’s Heat Policy initiative. There, it is hoped that the company will diversify the council and ensure their inevitable progression into the information and technological future of the 21st Century. With such a wide range of experience and know-how in many different industries, it is clear that Infomill Ltd are undoubtedly the right choice for enabling the council to go forward on its New Year resolutions to develop and embrace the challenges of the years to come. In addition to this, Mister Jonny White a manager at Infomill Ltd is delighted to be welcomed by a conglomerate like the HHIC, who as he says have had good partnerships with other leading industries in construction management, such as with other companies in the gas and heating sector of Britain. Mister White emphasizes the importance of accuracy and attention to detail when processing huge amounts of data, which a company like Infomill Ltd are committed to doing on a regular and consistently reliable basis. It is hoped that by aligning themselves to a large industry like the HHIC, Infomill Ltd will advance themselves and gain a better understanding of the industry that they are in and expand themselves further as a company.