Million Mark On The M1
6 April 2010
Three major road schemes - the M1 hard shoulder running
scheme between Junctions 10-13, upgrading of the motorway's
Junctions 11 and 12 and the A5-M1 Link Project - have reached a
combined total of a million hours free of reportable
accidents.
One of the more remarkable aspects of the achievement is that
work on the latter two schemes is still at the statutory stage,
with public inquiries due later this year. While construction
work on the road widening project only got underway with advance
works in August 2009 and formal Notice to Proceed to Construction
in December 2009.
The fact that one million hours have already been racked up
gives an idea of how much preparatory work goes on behind the
scenes for major transport projects, before the first earth is
turned or first load of concrete poured.
Achieving a million accident-free hours for work largely
accomplished in design offices rather than out on 'live'
construction sites may seem easy, but "These are all man-hours
worked on the Project whether on-site or off-site", says Bruce
Richards, Project Director for the Costain-Carillion joint venture
managing all three schemes.
In a message to team members, he described the one million hours
as "a fantastic achievement" and "a tribute to all your hard work
and dedication to the health, safety and welfare of our staff,
sub-contractors and workforce".
The M1 J10-13 project between Luton and Milton Keynes will see
the hard shoulder strengthened to create an extra lane to help cope
with periods of heavy traffic. The project, due for completion in
spring 2013, is an Early Contractor Involvement scheme worth in
excess of £300 million to the Costain-Carillion JV. It
involves work on 23km of motorway, strengthening 14km of
embankments and cuttings, creating 7km of retaining walls as well
as the creation of 30 emergency refuge areas and erection of 60
sign and signal gantries.
- The million man-hours achievement is to be marked with a gift
of around £1,000 to St George of England Church, Toddington, for
improvement works plus another £200 to Toddington and Harlington
District Girl Guides or local tree planting.