Railway station fence erection, Cardiff & Caerphilly – May/June 2009

With increasing health and safety issues surrounding the movement of people around the recently refurbished and extended Heath Halt High Level station in Cardiff and at Caerphilly station, Spencer were called in to erect a series of fences for specific areas around the platforms.

Working for Network Rail’s main contractor for this project, Galliford Try – who purchased Morrison Construction in 2006 – Spencer was tasked to install fences around the station perimeter and underneath the platforms in order to stop anyone from trespassing into out-of-bounds areas which could consequently be dangerous.

To achieve this within the specified five-week time frame, it meant that Spencer’s team was required to work on Sunday’s and through the night for a 10-day period, in order to minimise any disruption to normal train services.

The stations concerned are both located on the busy Rhymney line, which runs from Central Cardiff through the Rhymney valley, to Caerphilly, Bargoed and Rhymney. Heath Halt High Level station, situated just north of Cardiff City Centre, is used extensively by commuters during the working week, whilst the much-used Caerphilly station sees trains run on average every 15 minutes.
           
Spencer started work on the project at the end of May and completed all that was required by end of June, the company delighted to have secured its first rail-based contract. Therefore, taking into account Spencer’s flexibility to work within the time constraints imposed by the main contractors and Arriva Trains Wales’ timetables, coupled with the quality of the finished jobs, Spencer hopes that this will be the first if many similar projects on Network Rail sites