One happy customer!

Ringway Jacobs Central operations team have gone above and beyond in retrieving a lost mobile phone for a member of the public. The tourist dropped their phone down a grill on the footway along Embankment and was understandably distressed. Ringway Jacobs retrived the phone from the grill and stored it back at the Armada Way Depot where the member of public could pick it up. They were delighted we were able to find it for them and passed their thanks to the operations team.

Open Minds Healthy Minds

On Wednesday 16th May and Friday 18th May London launched the Open Minds, Healthy Minds campaign. The positive mental health champions hosted cake & chat afternoons at both New City Court and Picketts Lock Depot.

There were great discussions about how we best move forward in tackling poor mental health, what improvements we as a business can make, and how many Krispy Kremes it was acceptable to eat!

One in four people will experience a mental health issue in any given year and between one in five and one in six working age adult is depressed, anxious or experiencing stress-related problems at any one time.

If you need to talk to someone you can reach out to one of our positive mental health champions, call the 24hour Health Assured phone line at 0800 716 017 or use an alternative support charity or NHS Choices.

While the city sleeps - Guardian Article

The Guardian has published an article containing pictures taken by photographer Sean Smith capturing the city at night including cabaret stars, homeless people and LoHAC road maintenance workers. Extract below:

With the roads relatively free of congestion, Transport for London begins night maintenance on Upper Thames Street Tunnel. Opened in 1970, approximately 40,000 vehicles and 4,000 cyclists travel through the half-mile long tunnel every day.

In 2011 a new liner LED lighting system was installed which has cut CO2 emissions by more than 60%, saving an estimated 163 tonnes each year.

"We have only one opportunity every three months to close the tunnel and carry out all repairs, maintenance and cleaning for the next three," says Stewart Wilson, Asset Operations Manager. "You really feel the pressure when you have a dozen jobs that all need to be carried out at once before the tunnel reopens."





https://www.theguardian.com/global/2018/may/22/while-the-city-sleeps-london-after-hours-a-photo-essay

Sam Lydford CIMA Associate

Congratulations to Sam Lydford who has recently passed his CIMA (Chartered Institute of Management Accountants) qualification and is now a CIMA associate.

Sam undertook 17 exams across finance, business and management and completed 30months of practical portfolio work in order to become an associate. Sam undertook all of this while working full time at Ringway Jacobs and previously at Eurovia as an Assistant Accountant.

Moira Grant, Financial Controller said; 'I am proud to share that Sam Lydford has become a fully qualified accountant. His dedication and drive to work full time and study has paid off, and now he can enjoy adding to his experience and being instrumental in shaping the finance function' 

John McGrath, Finance Director said; 'Congratulations to Sam, on what is a massive achievement and a credit to Sam’s dedication over the past 4 years, sacrificing weekends and holidays to achieve something that will hugely benefit the rest of his career'

Congratulations for ISO45001 accreditation from Mike Brown

Record fine issued for unsafe working

British Telecom have been issued a fine for putting the public at risk during streetworks in the City of London. They have been issued a fine for £90,000 after pleading guilty, the highest fine ever prosecuted by TFL in relation to a streetworks offence.

During works in Bishopsgate in August 2017, BT failed to properly sign and guard works and were found to be using the wrong traffic management methods.

TFL Director of network management Glynn Barton said 'The safety of the public and workers should be top priority when undertaking roadworks. It is absolutely vital that companies such as BT ensure safety on site and we will always push for the strongest possible action against those that put the public at risk'.

The District Judge said 'It took over a day for BT to rectify these faults despite the works taking place in a busy part of the City of London with substantial impact on traffic. The response was unacceptably slow in my view and I hope that is reflected in my sentence'.

Completion of Harefield Hospital

On 3rd April the regeneration works at Harefield Hospital were completed by Ringway Jacobs after 6 weeks of construction. The works included foot way renewals, carriageway resurfacing, drainage improvements, pedestrian crossings and installation of street furniture. The creation of a new roundabout, bus stop and lay by have all increased the accessibility of the hospital to the public, providing a safer route for cars and pedestrians.

Before (above) and After (below) photos

The works were situated outside the main entrance to the Heart and Lung specialist hospital where ambulance priority was essential, any delays could prove fatal to critically ill patients. A one way traffic management system was set up in order to mitigate this and operative briefings to ensure that at the first sign of any blue flashing lights any obstructions were removed and traffic stopped. Dust suppression was also critical around the hospital so water suppression was used on all cutting works. 

Camden High Street Closures

Over the Easter Bank Holiday weekend Ringway Jacobs had co-ordinated a series of closures at Camden High Street to accommodate Balfour Beatty Rail works at Camden Station.


Daren McFadden, Operations Support Planner, Track Partnership said: "The TM worked very well, at times we were a little tight on space, but that was to be expected due to the number and size of vehicles we had to accommodate. The feedback I recieved back on site from the senior management team was all positive stating that it was a vast improvement on the previous Camden Closures. Please thank the TM team on sire during the weekend for all their assistance. Also a big thank you to Laura for all the hard work and effort you have put in to this project, (we could not have done it without you)"

Cleaner air for London - 100 rapid charging units installed

On 19th March the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan marked the start of the electric revolution with 100 rapid charging points now in London as part of the Mayor’s plans to clean up London’s filthy air. Electric vehicles can be charged in 30 minutes and these points support the growing number of zero-emission capable taxis and electric commercial vehicles in London. This is all part of the Mayor’s wider plan to tackle toxic air in the capital and become completely zero-emission by 2050.

Ringway Jacobs have been pivitol in planning and delivering over 30 sites across London. A well done to Randulah and her team in delivering these highly political and time sensitive works. 

Randulah Muthumala, Senior Engineer "The entire team has been involved in the delivery at some point or another, especially in time critical points! A special mention to Roberto Merchan who has been heavily involved with delivery the works given the time pressures and the ever changing programme form the client. We have worked closely with the TFL team and stakeholders to ensure the Mayor's expectations were met, and the collaboration and close relationships we've developed during this project have helped achieve these targets, especially under the tight timeframes."

TFL Programme Manager for RCI, Sagal Dirie said: “The Rapid Charging Point Infrastructure which is a high profile project had challenging timescales to deliver the first milestone. The Ringway Jacobs project team led by Narendra Mistry were very collaborative with TfL and surveyed, designed and built over 30 sites. The scale of delivery was not without its challenges and the TfL project team is very grateful for the commitment and dedication the Ringway Jacobs team showed, especially Randulah Muthumala who went above and beyond to deliver. This played a key role in enabling TfL to achieve its milestone of 100 rapid charge points in London”

Ringway Wins West Sussex Contract

Ringway Infrastructure Services Ltd have sucessfully tendered for a Highways Term Maintenance contract for West Sussex starting in July 2018. The contract will run for 7 years, with the potential for a 3 year extension. Ringway will be taking over from Balfour Beatty that has been the incumbant since July 2011. The bids were weighted 60% cost and 40% quality, of which Ringway has 'submitted the most economically adventageous tender'. The total spending through the current highways contract was £31.3, and is estimated at £34.7m for 2017/2018.

MIND charity donation - HSE Reports

For every HSE report submitted, Ringway Jacobs will donate £1 to the contracts charity of choice. The 2017 cheque for £800 was donated to Mind in Enfield at Picketts Lock Depot.

Ben Jabuni of Mind said "Many thanks to Ringway Jacobs for their kind donation to Mind. This will allow us to continue providing front line mental health services and support for some of the most vulnerable members of the local community when they need it most. We see thousands of individuals come through our door every year, and we are committed to helping them all lead healthy and fulfilling lives. Thank you for helping us make that happen"

Member of public charged wtih assaulting operative

Ringway Jacobs have been working closely with the police to ensure any incidents of violence or abuse against our workforce are dealt with swiftly and appropriately. On 13/03/2018 a member of the public verbally and physically assaulted some workmen on one of Ringway Jacobs work sites, A10 Bruce Grove High street. The police were called instantly and charged the individual on the same day with:

1. Criminal damage under £5000

2. Racially aggravated assault by beating x2

3. Racially aggravated harassment / alarm / distress

Mike O'Neill " It’s horrific that our people are subjected to this sort of assault and abuse, but it is great to see the Police taking the matter seriously and that they are prosecuting the individual responsible for this attack. It is essential that we do everything we can to raise the profile of this sort of crime with the Authorities, and the best way to do this is to report all verbal and physical abuse from the public through our HSE reporting system"

Martin Cahalan "The HTMA continues to work hard to raise awareness and provide solutions on the subject of road works incursions and abuse in order to change the public’s perception and behaviour. We have recently launched our 2018 Project group on this topic and our aim is to address these issues on a national basis to make our workplaces safer for all our staff and supply chain partners, and in the long term to influence the law in the UK so that there are consistent and  significant consequences for members of the public who don’t treat our road workers with the respect they deserve. It’s encouraging to see the news that the Met Police in conjunction with the Ringway Jacobs LOHAC team have successfully charged an abusive member of the public which will help the HTMA in our drive for a safer workplace.”

Winter Maintenance above and beyond!

In the past few weeks the winter season has hit London hard, and as a result our Winter Maintenance teams have been running round the clock making sure our roads and footpaths are safe. Carl Eddleston Head of Asset Operations sent this message through with his praise and identified some of the great work from individuals and teams in this critical time. We want to share a thanks to all!

Carl Eddleston "I have been chatting with Glynn and Steve and we all want to pass on a huge thank you from all of us over here for the ‘Beast from the East’ efforts last week. Steve said the entire team were brilliant but also highlighted a few people he said went above and beyond.

Paul Thwaites – When the call to grit secondary routes was made, he came back into work to organise the crews. He also has a secondary sense with regards planning for our requests before we even ask.

Mark Ellis – Organised at short notice crews to pick up and deliver to bus stations bagged salt form the Hackney Bus Ops store, even gained entry when a parked car blocked the access path !

Lee Potter – Focal point for the prompt demise of the strategic salt store and the distribution of salt amongst London Boroughs."

Road Improvements in Haringey

Haringey council recently forwarded on a message from Fantastic Films praising the work of Ringway Jacobs on road improvements on Fordington Road. Special thanks were given to Arban of Loughlins and Jason Haddow (RJ) for their work. Great job, keep up the good work!

Happy International Womens Day

Apologies this is belated - due to technical issues we weren't able to publish updates yesterday. 

Working in the STEM industry can come with stigma, pressures and external influences that have previously made it a difficult and limited industry for women. In 2018 we see more now than ever a strong presence of women in our work places, including engineers, quantity surveyors, managers, administrators, technical staff and corporate. Currently on the London contract 30% of our office staff are female and over 20% of our technical staff our female. Currently 25% of our Senior Management team are female and just under 20% of all our managers are women. 

These ratios were much lower just a few short years ago and have demonstrated both the improvements that have been made, but also the the progress still to be made in both the company and the industry. 

We would like to celebrate International Women's day by recognising one of the many famous female engineers of the past, Emily Roebling (1803-1903)

Emily Roebling was the first women field engineer and technical leader for the Brooklyn Bridge. Emily was responsible for much of the chief engining duties including day-to-day supervision and project management. The bridge was completed in 1883 and holds a plaque honouring Emily. 

Great work on Haringey Zebra Crossings

Ringway Jacobs have received some great praise from the Warner Estate Residents Association for their work on a zebra crossing at the end of Redston Road.

Joyce, Secretary, Warner Estate Residents Association said to Haringey: "Everyone locally is pleased to see that the Priory Road zebra crossing at the bottom of Redston Road is almost finished. It will make an enormous difference. The team of workers has done a brilliant job. Pass on our thanks to them. also thanks to you and your team at the council"

Well done to the team at Picketts Lock managing this work and the operatives on site!

Plastic Roads

In collaboration with Enfield Council, Ringway Jacobs have delivered a plastic-ashphalt mix road resurfacing scheme. The press have reported the news positively in the london Metro today shown below:

The resurfacing scheme uses a mix of plastic bottles and ashphalt that is tougher and more durable that standard tarmac. The new durable material could reduce future maintenance works and helps prevent plastics ending up in landfill. TFL have now released finding these schemes. 

You can also read about it on the Metro website: Metro Website - Enfield Plastic Roads

What is a customer?

As part of the Management and Leadership training, the students were asked to review these statements about customers and what they mean to a business. As a customer focused business its good to remind ourselves about who our customers are and how we should be interacting with them:

What is a Customer? 

• A customer is the most important person in any business;

• A customer is not dependent on us, we are dependent on them;

• A customer is not an interruption of our work, they are the purpose of it;

• We are not doing a favour by serving them...they are by giving us the opportunity to do so;

• A customer is part of our business, not an outsider;

• A customer is not just money in the cash register;

• A customer is a human being with feelings and deserves to be treated with respect;

• A customer is a person who comes to us with needs and wants. It is our job to fill them;

• A customer deserves the most courteous attention we can give them;

• A customer is not someone to argue, or match wits with;

• Nobody ever won an argument with a customer;

• A customer is the lifeblood of this and every business;

• A customer pays your salary;

• Without customers we would have to close our doors. 

Well done Tony and team!

Douglas Claxton, Principal Tunnels Traffic Coordinator LSTOC: "I would like to highlight the outstanding efforts and actions of the Ringways Jacobs Teams under the supervision of Tony Hopkins regarding an incident within the GGT contraflow system. A vehicle collided with the cross over barrier and ended up on its side within the single contraflow lane. Thanks to the quick thinking and proactive actions of the team on site, the driver was able to exit the vehicle safely and without injury after the team repositioned the vehicle, also the closure of the affected lane was kept to an absolute minimum thanks to a TM ‘Bubble’ enabling the traffic to continue whilst creating a safe environment for the emergency services to conduct their business and rrecovery of the vehicle to be completed without any further impact on the traffic. The communications with Tony were excellent, the information was clear, accurate and gained direct from the team on site which we were then able to pass on to other stakeholders"

We would like to give a special thanks to Tony Hopkins and the team working that night for the impressive resourcefulness and capability demonstrated in this high pressure situation. 

New Starters - Tanya Mosely and Vanessa Chisnall

Today we welcome two new members of the team to Picketts Lock depot in the Network Control Centre. Tanya Mosley NCC Team Leader and Vanessa Chisnall NCC Operator.



Tanya is a familiar face having worked for RJ for 4 years in the control room on the HMWC central contract, after which she joined CVU for 5 1/2 years as NCC Manager. Tanya commented; "Its great to be back at Ringway Jacobs again, I look forward to meeting all the new faces"







Vanessa comes to us from British car auctions as a transport administrator where she worked for 5 1.2 years. She commented she is ; "looking forward to a new challenge here at Ringway Jacobs"

Lee would like to wish a warm welcome to both Tanya Moseley, as NCC Team Leader, and Vanessa Chisnall, as NCC Operator into the Operations Team in Picketts Lock. The experience that Tanya brings is greatly needed in the control room following various departures in 2017, so the team are greatly looking forward to improvements being seen. 

Haringey Scheme KPIs

For first time since April 2017, we will be reporting compliance in LBH across all three Scheme Delivery Metrics as below. Thanks to Robbie’s team (Charlie, Jason, Jordan, Lauren & Tika) and excellent support from Neha Bhargava. Keep up the great work team! 

Goodbye Shayna Meyers

Last week Shayna Meyers left the London contract after working for Ringway Jacobs for 6 years, starting her career on the HMWC central contract. Shayna was head of the Asset Team, working tirelessly to ensure the consistency and excellence required by the clients for the GIS services that we provide on the LoHAC contract.

We all wish Shayna the best in her future endeavours and she will be missed by her colleagues at both Picketts Lock and New City Court.

Excel Hints and Tips - Hiding rows and columns

If you need to hide specific rows and columns there is a quick keyboard shortcut you can use.

In order to hide columns, highlight any cells in the columns you wish to hide and press Ctrl+0, the columns with selected cells will be hidden. The same principle works with rows, highlight any cells in the rows you wish to hide and press Ctrl+9.

Goodbye Paul Browne

As most of you will know, Paul Browne left Ringway Jacobs on Friday after 4 years working on the London contract. Paul joined us as Scheme Manager and progressed to Senior Programme Manager for the Cycle Enfield project which he has been doing for the last 18 months. Paul was known for his no-nonsense approach and desire to deliver projects successfully. His input to the Senior Management Team and delivery of Cycle Enfield will be missed in particular, along with his passion and dedication to the after work pint. Today he takes up his new job with Volker Fitpatrick on the Highway England contracts based in Bedford. We want to wish him all the best for his new role and the future.

Fore Street Tunnel Skanska visit

We would like to share a thanks to Tony Cleary and Stephen Spence for facilitating a visit to Fore Street Tunnel from Skanska in support of their Silvertown bid.

The Bid Manager commented; "thanks again for the very exciting night shift at Fore Street Tunnel. For me it was amazing to look at the pump sumps and to see all your routine maintenance activities and all your explanations about the ME&P systems"

Excel Hints and Tips - Pivot Tables

Have you ever tried a Pivot table? They transform data into a customisable table that can be used to analyse, perform calculations and summarise. They are used throught the business, for example the financial JARs are made up of a series of Pivot tables!

If you want to learn how to create pivot tables and how they work, please watch the recording of a training session run by Ringway Jacobs last year LINK:  Pivot Table Training video

Charity of the Year

The London contract Charity of the year as voted by the staff will be....Mind, the mental health charity. Mind provide advice and support to empower anyone experiencing a mental health problem. They campaign to improve services, raise awareness and promote understanding. They won't give up until everyone experiencing mental health problems gets support and respect. 

If you need someone confidential to talk to about mental health, concerns or issues. please contact one of our mental health champions, speak to your line manager or HR business partner. 

Alternatively you can call the confidential Employee Assistance Programme by Health Assured : 0800 716 017

Passed with flying colours!

A huge well done to Nick Reading and Dave Egan who have completed module 1 of their Leadership and Management Degrees with full credits!

Dave and Nick have signed up with Ringway Jacobs to undertake a leadership and management degree that takes place part time over the course of 4 years. The completion of their first module marks the first milestone in their journey to becoming graduates. We wish them the best of luck with their future studies, keep up the hard work gents!!

If you have any questions about training, please talk to your line manager.

Happy 200th Birthday ICE

For ICE's 200th anniversary they are celebrating the role of the Civil Engineer and how it plays a part in transforming lives and safeguarding the future. The exhibition 'Invisible Superheroes' is a year long exhibition at One Great George Street focusing on the unsung heroes behind some of the world's most amazing engineering projects. See the link below:

https://www.ice.org.uk/events/exhibitions/ice-invisible-superheroes-exhibition

The London Transport Museum also has engineering exhibits to celebrate the 'Year of Engineering'
https://www.ltmuseum.co.uk/whats-on/year-of-engineering

Picketts Lock BSI Audit Update

Following two days of external audits undertaken by BSI I am delighted to announce that Picketts Lock Depot has achieved certification to ISO 9001 ISO 14001 & OHSAS 18001.

This would have not been possible without the hard work and dedication from a significant number of staff and operatives throughout the depot, so thank you all for your efforts.

The audit has identified a number minor non-conformances which will need to address in advance of the next assessment which will be taking place in July.

Thanks again to everyone involved and hope you have a great weekend.

Nick Reading

Business Manager

Excel Hints and Tips - Duplicating Data

Microsoft Excel is used extensively across the business in all departments. There are plenty of useful shortcuts to help you be more efficient on Excel and use the software to its full ability. So through this message board we will be posting hints and tips you can use on a daily basis.

Our first tip is 'Ctrl+Enter' - when entering the same data in a number of cells, you can highlight all cells you want to input data into and press 'Ctrl+Enter' once finished, it will auto-populate with the data you have entered. This should save you time copy and pasting over and over again! It is also a good way to avoid formatting errors that can occur with copy and pasting.

Picketts Lock BSI Audit

On the 18^th and 19^th January, Picketts Lock Depot will be subject to an external audit by the British Standards Institute (BSI) who will be undertaking an extension to scope audit against ISO 9001 ISO 14001 & OHSAS 18001. These are the standards which we work to as a business covering quality, environment and safety.

The audit forms an important milestone for the depot, following significant investment to improve the overall look and feel of the site. In addition, the depot team have been working extremely hard to ensure that we are best placed to achieve a positive outcome from the audit. Thank you all for your hard work in preparation for the visit. For those of you at Picketts Lock Depot – a last minute reminder to please ensure that desks are clean and tidy and any clutter and boxes are removed. 

A further update will be provided tomorrow evening providing some feedback from day 1.

Narendra Mistry - Well Done Team!

In 2017 the LoHAC contractors were asked to collaboratively deliver 75 rapid charging units across London in an effort to support electric cars in the capital. Ringway Jacobs have delivered 61 applications for planning permission and have constructed 5 of the units in the central area. We have plans to deliver a further 10 units by the end of January pushing the total delivered by the LoHAC contractors from 66 to 76.

At a meeting on Friday 12th January, TFL were very congratulatory to the team for delivering the 66 units before the new year.

I would like to thank all of my team delivering these works and to keep up the hard work!

New Starter - Umer Farooq

Ringway Jacobs would like to welcome Umer Farooq to the London contract. Umer will be working within the Design team reporting to Narendra based in New City Court. Umer will be working on the high profile rapid charging units on the TFL contract. He brings with him a wealth of experience particularly in Civils 3D design from his previous appointment with Capita working with the London Borough of Barnet. Umer has also worked on High Speed 2 for Highways England bringing highway and railway experience to the contract.

Narenda Mistry Design Manager "I hope you all join me in welcoming Umer to the team, and I look forward to working with him".

Goodbye Andre Duarte

From everyone at Ringway Jacobs we would like to wish you good luck and thank you for your years of hard work and dedication. You will be missed by all your colleagues, clients and especially by The Union Jack pub.


Everyone who wishes to see Andre off, there will be leaving drinks held in The Union Jack Pub in Southwark this evening.

Welcome to the London Message Board!

Here you will find information posted by your Management Team to keep you up to date with the latest news about the business. The board will support photos, web links and videos, so if you've got something you want to share with the contract please get in touch with your SMT lead or submit your message to Emma.Bedford@Ringwayjacobs.com

Let us know what you think about this board with the poll in the side bar! Any improvements or suggestions can be submitted to your local Business Improvement Manager.