Managing risks before they’re issues
Described as ‘the jewel in the crown’ of North Herefordshire’s Black and White village trail, the medieval village of Pembridge threw up some significant challenges during the delivery of the project we started in mid-July 2020. But, as ever, we let nothing stand in the way of the network – even when the issues are this historic.
Complete Utilities was responsible for all aspects of this build: from survey, civils excavation, installation and reinstatement, to fibre blowing, splicing, OTDR testing and traffic management. So, what were the key challenges?
The main road through Pembridge narrows to a single carriageway at certain points in the village. This road is a major travel route in the county of Herefordshire, with heavy HGV traffic coming from local quarries. And understandably, the area is very popular with tourists, so there are plenty of pedestrians to manage. There is also an extreme density of existing utility services, most of which are shallow. All in all, a perfect storm of a major travel route, tourists and the risk of disruption to residents. While we diverted HGVs out of the village, there was still potential for a large number of customer complaints.
The LA Streetworks team, Fastershire and the local/Parish Council took a great interest in the build for the reasons outlined above. We used our experience of dealing with different stakeholders to liaise with all the parties from the outset, and mitigate the issues that working in this historic village would create. There was also a live Section 58 Notice to deal with.
The project commenced in mid-July 2020, with the full build due to finish in early May 2021 (with a premise count of 437 and total meterage of 27,357). Our first step was to undertake a comprehensive survey, with the purpose of generating a detailed Bill of Quantities and Bill of Materials, as well as a detailed RAID register (which identifies all risks, assumptions, issues and dependencies). This process proved extremely valuable: our people have since been recognised for the mitigation plans put in place, helping to ensure risks didn’t turn into major issues for the village and its residents.
The local team from Staunton on this project, like all our teams, sets the highest standards and shows genuine commitment every day on every project. Cathal O’Grady, Complete Utilities Managing Director, has recognised the value of this team: “We are really proud of the works completed to date in Pembridge by a local team who have been with us for almost ten years.”
This message sent from a local resident brings together the values we’re focused on demonstrating at Complete Utilities: “The team worked so very hard – staying back late, starting early, appearing on a Saturday morning. I can’t praise them enough.”
We’ve also received a number of compliments from local Councillors and our client Gigaclear, for the work completed to date, and this is down to the expertise and application of the Project Manager, Facilities Manager and the whole team, along with the support we received from Highway Services. With full fibre connectivity needed now more than ever, the Pembridge community can look forward to a fantastic service in 2021.