Second Award For Sheet Piling Innovation
The team at Sheet Piling (UK) Limited is proud to have been nominated for a second award for innovation, having just been shortlisted for a Red Rose Award, in recognition of our pioneering of change in the sheet piling world and the infrastructure-widening environment.
The Red Rose Awards are prestigious awards for businesses operating in Lancashire and only the very best make it past the first stage of shortlisting, which whittles nominees down to 12. After that, a final shortlist of six businesses is agreed by the judges and we are delighted to be included within this six-strong shortlist for the Innovation category.
This award nomination adds to another shortlisting for innovation, which we earned in the FSB Awards NW 2019. This is the week in which we will discover whether or not we are winners of this FSB NW award. We are up against some very strong competition, in the form of past winners, Kendal Nutricare, and some other big names, but we shall see what happens on Thursday.
Being shortlisted in the innovation category for both awards, speaks volumes about the vision we had when determining that the smart motorway network, as well as the HS2 high-speed rail works, would both benefit from a solution preventing projects invariably running both over budget and beyond deadline.
This was the R&D phase of our innovation, as we determined how sheet piling could play its part in speeding up the process and dramatically reducing costs for those Tier 1 contractors implementing smart motorway and HS2 contracts.
We realised that the sheet piling process could be reduced in duration by at least two weeks, if the need for enabling works (digging into embankments to build platforms on which sheet pile installation rigs could stand) was removed from the schedule of works. This led us to brief in the long-reach sheet pile installation rig that is a world first and unique to us – the TM 12/15 LR.
Knowing the cost attached to enabling works, we also calculated that we could save Tier 1 contractors – and the ultimate signer of the cheque for works, the British tax payer – a staggering £40,000-£60,000 on a typical 100-metre sheet pile wall installation. It is necessary to include such sheet pile installations at least every 2.5km on motorways, to ensure sufficient Emergency Refuge Areas are available.
When this saving per sheet pile installation is multiplied across all the 2.5km stretches of motorway being upgraded as smart motorways, it is clear to see how colossal the savings could be.
Add to this the environmental benefits of not digging up embankments and destroying wildlife habitats, along with a reduction to traffic disruption and fewer journey delays, and we believe our innovation ticks the boxes of environmentalists and motorists alike.
We can only think that the judges of both the FSB and Red Rose Awards think this an astounding contribution from a sheet pile contractor working within a construction sector continually criticised for its lack of innovation and modernisation. We shall see whether the appreciation of construction environments is enough to enable us to win one of these awards, in the coming days, weeks and months.
- Ends -NOTES TO EDITORS
Sheet Piling (UK) Limited is one of the UK's leading piling contractors. Owning and operating a comprehensive range of specialist piling equipment Sheet Piling (UK) Ltd also carry extensive stocks of new and used piles enabling rapid reaction to any urgent requirements or emergency situations.