We are carrying out extensive enhancement works at the Great Western Railway (GWR) Long Rock Depot in Penzance, involving major new construction works and increasing the depots capacity for servicing trains.
In order to support our client (GWR) to meet challenging deadlines around the HS2 programme, the delivery team are working to an accelerated programme. This is particularly important since the UKs investment into HS2, which requires upgrades to existing rail infrastructure.
Working on a project with such tight timelines requires meticulous planning and being able to manage stakeholders effectively. We have an excellent relationship with the depot staff, the on-the-ground GWR project team and the more senior GWR project management team, as well as with the Network Rail team in the area. All of the teams link together and enable us to develop really good plans together as a group of stakeholders.
The project will enable maintenance of GWR’s popular Riviera Sleeper fleet to be relocated from Old Oak Common to the redeveloped Penzance site, which will also support GWR’s new high-speed fleet.
We are delivering a series of enhancements to the Penzance depot, having devised an innovative scheme of works to enable the regular depot operations to continue unhindered throughout the extensive redevelopment.
The £20m project involves construction of a 132m x 15m maintenance shed, which will extend the existing high speed train depot. The new facility will have capacity for five carriages and will have two tracks with service pits, an overhead crane and train lifting jacks. Also putting in place extensive track alterations and connections, building a new access road and electricity sub-station and constructing a new stores, staff accommodation and welfare building.
With up to 50 workers on site at any time, many recruited locally. The project’s progress had been enabled by exemplary collaborative working between the Spencer Group and GWR teams. This has been evident in design development, assessing risk and developing a revised plan to achieve a completion date that is some 14 weeks earlier than our contracted date. This meets the client's target for completion in December.
As with all of our projects, environmental focus has been to the fore, with all materials procured from sustainable sources and an ambitious target for less than 5% of waste going to landfill achieved. We are actually achieving around 1% to landfill exceeding the client’s target.
Penzance is one of two major projects we are currently delivering for GWR. The other is at GWR’s flagship train care depot in Reading, where we have extended the existing train maintenance shed to create space for a new wheel lathe facility, alongside additional track modifications, and the construction of offices, training rooms and welfare accommodation.
Spencer Group Managing Director Gary Thornton said:
The Penzance project is an excellent example of our ability to manage large-scale, business-critical projects to challenging timeframes. It also showcases the innovation we bring to the unique challenges of each project, our commitment to collaborative working and our focus on delivering schemes in the greenest way possible.
We have had a strong presence in the rail depots market for 10 years and this focus has increased to meet the needs of the industry as the UK moves into a new era of high speed travel.
In responding to these changes, we have developed an excellent track record of designing, modifying and upgrading important depots around the UK. We believe our expertise in this field is second to none and we are seen in the industry as the ‘go to’ company for depot enhancements.
For more information, contact think@thespencergroup.co.uk or visit our website