In partnership at Heathrow

For the past 18 months Xervon Palmers have been providing scaffolding and access services in a multi-million pound contract for the second phase of Heathrow Airport’s state of the art new Terminal 2. 48.3 Scaffold Design are very proud to have been their sole providers of scaffold design on this project for the last 16 months.

48.3 have provided continuous technical and design support since May 2012 in a variety of ways. Initially, we provided a service as and when we were needed – carrying out site visits, attending planning meetings and completing designs when the project required.

As the scaffolding requirement increased on site, so did our presence. In the autumn of 2012 we provided permanent on-site staff, working alongside Xervon Palmers management team and in conjunction with Balfour Beatty’s Access Management team.

Clive Vardakis, Access Manager for Balfour Beatty said when asked about the service 48.3 Design Engineer Andrew Kitley had been providing on site “Andrew is an excellent designer that has produced some really simple and innovative solutions to even the most complex situations and client requirements, his drawings and calculations are clear and concise and of a very high standard."

In the early stages of the contract we were producing designs for all the small scaffolds Xervon Palmers were erecting (typically A3 drawings with calculations and design risk assessment). At any given time we had between 50 and 100 of these designs to complete, and we completed on average around 85 a month! That enabled us to build a library of design solutions that the site team could use as and when they required.

The successful delivery of the design aspect of the scaffolding contract has been party down to the unique way in which we can manage our resource. The design requirement has always been inconsistent, with peaks and toughs in demand.

To meet the needs of the most demanding periods, we had a full time design engineer on site and three additional dedicated staff off-site. This enabled us to deliver multiple complex design solutions at once and avoid delays where designs where required at very short notice. When at their peak, Xervon Palmers had approximately 120 scaffolders on site, so the design requirement, given most items required design input of some degree, was very significant.

Ben Beaumont, Managing Director and one of the Principle Engineers at 48.3 said “The Terminal 2B project has been a fantastic challenge for us, the design requirements have been diverse and wide ranging, from Temporary Roofs to Vehicle Access Ramps to the systematic support of 45m long escalators as they were assembled and installed in location. We have continued to build our successful relationship with Xervon Palmers – our longest serving client, and their staff at Heathrow have been great throughout the whole project.

We have particularly enjoyed the creation and development of the BIM model of the permanent works and the inclusion of key temporary works within the model as the project progressed. This has been the first time scaffolding of this scale has been included in the BIM process and it has been beneficial for everyone involved.”