LONDON UNDERGROUND
Before
time and having to hire in new people. We’ve got named people and skilled tradesmen and we’ve got them for seven years.
“It also gives employees that stability as well, because it can be a case or feast or famine for the employees as well. Like everybody, they’ve got bills to pay and it’s good that they’ve got a seven year window in front of them as well.”
LU is meeting on a quarterly basis with Infrastructure UK and the other companies involved, including Thames Water, to share knowledge on new delivery models and supply chain relationships.
Downie said it would be wrong to pretend LU had invented the principles behind Stake, and said that Tube Lines had experimented with similar models.
“It’s a hybrid idea that’s come from a lot of different places, so I wouldn’t be so arrogant to claim this as ours,” he said.
Academies
LU is also working with the successful suppliers to establish craft academies to support the aim of delivering work faster and on a larger scale.
Academies will provide craft skills training as well as frontline leadership for supervisors and construction managers on the skills and practices needed to deliver the programme efficiently.
Downie said that was still at the early stages, but that LU is talking to government department and bodies about potential funding streams, and is also having conversations with TUCA, Crossrail’s Tunnelling and Underground Construction Academy in east London.
“We’ve started on this internally first, by kicking off training courses for both our staff and the contractors’ staff.”
The initial training courses have included ones for the site ‘person in charge’, and another for frontline leadership.
Big boys
The Stake model doesn’t focus solely on small ‘craft’ companies – there are some well- known names among the 22 contractors (see box out), and three bigger companies have
After
been appointed as multi-discipline designers: Atkins, Jacobs and Capita.
Downie explained that decision, saying: “We looked at the overall programme and the volume of work and calculated how we could evenly spread that across a certain number of companies.”
That was to avoid either overwhelming too few companies, or acting as a disincentive for too many.
“We know the standard that [those three companies] can work to and we have sufficient design work for all three at this point in time, because of the rolling seven year programme. We’ve got an internal design programme as well, so a third of the designs are created internally and two-thirds go to these bigger companies.”
Opportunities remain for bigger contractors
Unsurprisingly, the smaller companies are The suppliers
LU has picked 22 contractors and three multi-discipline designers (Atkins, Jacobs and Capita)
The contractors are: • Wingate • Delatim • Giffin Group • Atkins • Fourway • Magnolia • Emerald • Close Brothers • Livis • DMC • Excel • K&M McLoughlin • JNG • HA Marks • AGS • Community Clean • UKDN Waterflow • Lanes Group • Hillmore Fire Protection • Young & Young Security • TRAD Scaffolding • Millcroft
delighted with Stake (see box out, left), but main contractors might feel aggrieved at being chopped out, and treated as if they never added much value in the first place.
Downie was keen to emphasise that they will still have opportunities to win work with LU. “Look at some of our capacity programmes, like
Bank, like Vauxhall – they’re still involved with us. They’re not cut out completely, we’re just in a different marketplace.
“On the Stake programme, we’re upgrading the stations to what we term a ‘fair for 10 years’ condition, we’re not doing a wholesale refurbishment of them, or a capacity upgrade. That’s where tier 1s and tier 2s will come in.”
Monitoring
Stake will face annual reviews to ensure it’s performing as expected. Since it covers only 70 stations, by the time the seven-year programme is up LU will be on to the next tranche of stations needing upgrades.
At the outset, the upgrades budget was cut by 12% – so Stake has to achieve at least that level of savings to ‘break even’, effectively. “But there’s an aspiration to get to between 20 and 25%,” Downie said. “That’s why we’re having the annual reviews.
“We’re actually seeing some good results coming out just now. But it’s very early stages because we’ve not finished any stations yet.
“We’re confident we can achieve a minimum of 12% if not higher.”
LU is on site at six stations currently as part of the Stake upgrades, with another six to follow later this calendar year. Next year is likely to be similar – about 12 to 15 being upgraded.
opinion@railtechnologymagazine.com TELL US WHAT YOU THINK
rail technology magazine Jun/Jul 14 | 91
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