Costain news

Crossrail Team Scales The Peaks

8 June 2010

Two Costain teams have conquered the gruelling COINS Three Peaks Challenge to raise more than £10,000 for Haitian homeless.

A team from the Costain Skanska joint venture (CSJV) working on the Crossrail Royal Oak portal project, and a team from the Church Village bypass project in South Wales joined 39 other teams from the construction industry aiming to climb Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike and Snowdon in under 24 hours. The CSJV team came home in 23 hours and 28 minutes, just ahead of their Church Village colleagues who finished in 23 hours and 31 minutes. The two teams finished ninth and tenth.

"It was very testing," said Kevin Cousins, Senior Engineer at the Royal Oak project. "The worst part was when we had to start climbing Scafell Pike at 5.30 in the morning, having slept in the van after a six-hour trek on Ben Nevis."

The Church Village team also found the going tough at times, said Tom Kenyon, Section Engineer. "It was hard and exhausting and difficult to sleep between mountains. It was good to finish!"

Tom and teammates Meirion Rees, Stuart Curtis and Kieran Ellery, along with their support team Jason Nutt and Michael Patterson, have raised £6,400 for the COINS Foundation, which funds projects to help vulnerable and damaged people. Meanwhile Kevin and teammates Lee Davies, Ross Mackenzie, Owen Jarman and Daniel Haines are well on their way to achieving their target of £5,000. www.justgiving.com/CSJV-ROYAL-OAK-PORTAL-TEAM

The event, now in its eighth year, is aiming to raise a total of £500,000. The COINS Foundation will use the money to build 50 homes in Haiti and help restore infrastructure destroyed by the massive earthquake there earlier this year.

You can help the CSJV team reach their target by making a donation at

Team at the top . . .