XERVON Palmers have been praised once again for their scaffolding and access solutions at Heathrow Airport.
The firm picked up “Suppliers” award and an “Individual Achievement” award for their contracted work for construction giant Morgan Sindall.
XERVON Palmers’ team of a dozen operatives have been working night shifts providing a 70m long and 35m wide tube and fitting scaffolding with a system and Kedar clad temporary roof on this highly technical job renovating the airport’s CIP Lounge over a 10 month period.
The scaffold and access works were carried out in a highly sensitive airside environment – right next to the large aircraft stands and aircraft taxi ways in a windy environment –and the CIP Lounge building was fully utilised by the public during the whole operation.
Heathrow Airport deals with over 67 million passengers a year from its five terminals and more than 90 airlines use the airport. Working on such a busy, sensitive site has thrown up unique scaffolding and access challenges for XERVON Palmers operatives – including not interrupting sight lines for the Air Traffic Control (ATC) tower or disturbing RADAR signals while working at height and also gaining clearance of advanced security systems and organising BAA passes for all of the operatives (a six month process). In addition, all site deliveries have been made, using specific pre-set access and egress routes at set times, gaining permit approvals for certain access equipment and clearance of night / weekend / overtime working hours.
Furthermore, XERVON Palmers had to adhere to strict risk assessments for working at height, working adjacent to live aircraft, airport roads and pedestrian routes, working adjacent to live occupied buildings, materials handling, working with access equipment and plant, working in a multiple contractor environment and extraordinary working hours. And all XERVON Palmers operatives needed to be briefed on the airport’s extensive emergency arrangements, traffic management systems on site and be up to date with COSHH and manual handling assessments.
Ian McFarlane, Director for Business & Project Development at XERVON Palmers said:
“We are delighted to have been awarded more accolades for our highly skilled scaffolding works at Heathrow, from a client of the ilk of Morgan Sindall. Airport works of this nature always require expertise and knowledge when it comes to providing access solutions and our XERVON Palmers team – from management to operatives – have the know-how to make it happen, safely and efficiently. We’re very proud of them all for the work they do and how they represent the brand.”
Donald Morrison, CEO of XERVON Palmers added:
“Having previously worked on Terminal 5 and Terminal T2B at Heathrow, this contract was smaller scale, but none the less required the same levels of skill, training and expertise to complete and we’re thrilled our client, Morgan Sindall recognised our performance and as such presented us with awards.”
The XERVON Palmers Divisional Manager for Airports said:
“Working on such a sensitive, busy site provides myself and our team with plenty of challenges, but XERVON Palmers have considerable expertise in aviation scaffolding and access. Core to our success is ensuring the security, health, safety and logistic issues of working on large airports are addressed properly, our experienced team are well used to implementing this – particularly at Heathrow, where we’ve previously worked on all five Terminals and other surrounding buildings providing quality scaffolding and access, the CIP Lounge job was another welcome extension of those works for us. We have risen to the challenges, met all site criteria and have completed the works collaboratively and efficiently working together with the principal contractor.
“The work itself providing scaffolding and access to support Morgan Sindall’s building work has been exciting and challenging and we have enjoyed being part of such a large scale, modern construction project. It’s just the sort of aviation contract XERVON Palmers thrive on.”
The XERVON Palmers Heathrow CIP Lounge scaffolding and access contract is now finished – on time, on program and on budget.
