Spence is currently in the design development stage of a particularly complex project in the heart of London at Clapham Junction Station. The brief is to design, supply and install additional escape capacity (up to 2000 per minute) to the Grant Road elevation of the existing station.

Project Value: £170k design works and a £660k build
Programme: Ongoing
Form of Contract: NR04
Client: Network Rail
Key Trades: Design / Temporary Works / Civils / Steelwork

The current project is significantly challenging in the following aspects:

Access restrictions;
Provision of temporary escape during the works;
Land ownership;
COVID – 19 and subsequent restrictions;
Multiple stakeholders;
Initial design brief and expansion of requirements.

To overcome these challenges, Spence has adopted multiple action points in order to combat and remove these challenges. These include COVID – 19 secure working practices, regular stakeholder meetings (these have been undertaken utilising Zoom and Microsoft Teams) and full virtual reality modelling to allow all stakeholders to visualise works remotely, preventing unnecessary travel during government restriction.

Spence, in conjunction with Veda Associates, are fully accountable for the design of the project; this needed to incorporate the full planning application, pedestrian flow modelling and national asset security parameters.
Spence is currently managing the above actions by undertaking regular design review meetings, early IDR’s and collaborative working with ALL stakeholders. In addition to the above Spence maintain a robust project programme with key milestone points logged and reported against weekly.

Spence has, and is maintaining, an excellent approach to collaborative working with all parties associated with the project. This includes other contractors working within the station, planning authority, asset managers and project engineers. Furthermore, due to the nature of the works, there is an element of confidentially in terms of the security of the structure. This has been undertaken “behind closed doors” with key elements of this process being highlighted to key action holders.