Nationwide Platforms supports safe arrival of New Street Station project

A five year journey supported by Nationwide Platforms, reached its destination on Monday 20 September 2015 with the opening of New Street Station in Birmingham.

The £750m transformation of the main transport hub for the UK’s second city is complete with new platforms, a major new shopping centre and a stunning entrance atrium.

Nationwide Platforms has been working with Network Rail’s delivery partner and principal contractor – Mace – to provide powered access equipment for the Birmingham Gateway development.

Construction work began in April 2010 and utilised the full range of market-leading powered access machines, available in Nationwide Platforms’ fleet.

With health and safety excellence a vital element of the project, Nationwide Platforms has used it to spearhead the introduction of new products designed to enhance safety and powered access productivity.

These include the SkySiren® secondary guarding system and the SkySentryTM fleet management and unauthorised access system.

Mace Safety Manager Paul Gaughran said: “Nationwide Platforms has always embraced the ethos of the Birmingham Gateway Project.

“On such a diverse and complex project, Nationwide Platforms delivered and maintained a service which allowed safety and a complex programme to run in parallel.

“Continued support and initiatives throughout the lifespan of the project afforded us the opportunity to experiment with new products with a view to making work at height safer.”

Other innovations successfully introduced at the Birmingham New Street development included the Nationwide Platforms range of material handling equipment, SkyRak®, SkyRakPlus® and SkyRakBoom®, all of which enhance safe working at height.

At peak times, more than 100 Nationwide Platforms machines were operating on the New Street site, including low level platforms, boom lifts, scissor lifts, and truck-mounted platforms.

Working in partnership with Mace, Nationwide Platforms has also delivered on-site training and tool box talks, including a powered access demonstration day for 180 operatives in five different languages.

Topics covered in the tool box talks included emergency lowering procedures and pre-use inspections.
Nationwide Platforms also advised on the introduction of a MEWP policy for the site, making secondary guarding operator protection mandatory for all boom lifts.

Andrew Briggs, Regional Director for Nationwide Platforms, said: “Working in partnership with Mace on such a large and strategically important project has been an excellent experience for us and our teams.

“It has also demonstrated our ability to deliver a total service package, including the best powered access machines, most advanced health and safety systems and training support, precisely how and when it is needed.”

Throughout the build project, powered access technology has played a key role in overcoming major technical challenges, made more difficult by the need to keep the station open to more than 170,000 passengers every day.

Nationwide Platforms machines were used extensively during the process to cover the concourse with a 3,300 sq m atrium made of steel and ETFE – a hard-wearing, self-cleaning plastic that floods the concourse with light, to create an attractive, open retail environment.

Nationwide Platforms also played a key part in the installation of the hundreds of sheets of polished steel that now clad the station’s façade.