Transport - Rail
"With ever more people using the rail network, the challenge is to find cost effective ways of increasing infrastructure capacity to meet the demand." Paul Williams, Principal Director, Rail
Over 80% of Osborne’s work in the rail sector is delivered through frameworks. We currently have four frameworks with Network Rail for construction and maintenance, including an exclusive agreement for refurbishing stations, depots and footbridges in Anglia, the south of England and the West Country under the Operational Property Framework South. We were awarded this framework in April 2008, and carried out £10 million of work during the first year.
We are also working with Network Rail to deliver the Government’s Access for All programme, which involves installing lifts and other facilities to improve access to stations and trains. We have so far been awarded projects at Canterbury West, Fareham, Fratton, Herne Hill, Kingston, Lewisham, Streatham Hill, Twyford and Vauxhall stations, as well as an £8million contract to install lifts at Clapham Junction Station. The framework initially involved pricing work purely on a traditional build basis, but our performance has resulted in the client now awarding projects as design and build packages.
Under the Southern Territories Framework, Osborne is responsible for reactive maintenance at Network Rail stations, depots and lineside buildings throughout Sussex and Wessex. We provide a round-the-clock repairs service that ensures platforms and other public areas are safe, secure and well lit. We have been involved in this type of work since 1995, and have a dedicated call centre and workforce, the majority of whom are directly employed.
We have two frameworks with Network Rail Commercial Property, one for refurbishing its investment properties and another for reactive maintenance. Although most of this work is in the London area, the client has engaged us for work in Manchester, Bristol and Chester during the last year.
Our frameworks with train operating companies include reactive maintenance with Southern Trains and provision of ticket machine bases for South West Trains.
This year will also see an increase in the volume of work we undertake on the London Underground network, with our selection for London Underground’s Vendor Capital Framework for disability access and station maintenance work.
The remaining 20% of our work includes projects for East Midlands Trains and Chiltern Railways, such as the refurbishment of Leamington Spa Station. We are also in the process of providing an Access for All facility for South West Trains at Southampton Parkway.
During the last year we completed several bridge reconstructions including the reconstruction and widening of Woodcote Grove Bridge in Croydon. The work required new piled abutments adjacent to the existing bridge, carefully avoiding the sewer below, with the new bridge deck constructed using pre-stressed concrete bridge beams.
We have considerable experience of car parks and are currently constructing multi-storey car parks for Network Rail at Luton, Birmingham International and Rugby stations.
The Access for All programme is designed to make sure passengers with limited mobility can use some of our busy stations by creating accessible routes to platforms. By its nature, the programme involves working on platforms and public areas in stations, but our priority is to ensure that we don’t affect the thousands of people using those stations every day. We are therefore relying on contractors like Osborne to design, manage and construct the work without disrupting the travelling public and staff, while still delivering the programme efficiently and within the budget. Andy Gent, Senior Programme Manager, Infrastructure Investment Building and Civils, Network Rail
For more information contact rail@osborne.co.uk