Balfour Beatty VINCI SYSTRA Joint Venture

Last week, we went to the Westmont Enterprise Hub at the University of West London to host a Meet the Buyer event as part of the Ealing Festival of Business. It was a great opportunity to engage with local small and medium-sized enterprises as potential members of our supply chain. Supply Chain Analyst, Rishi Solanki, and Collaboration and Stakeholder Manager, Tomos Utting, provided an overview of Old Oak Common to a number of Ealing-based businesses, discussing tendering opportunities across the project. Attendees received guidance on how to apply for these roles, and the chance to have one-to-one conversations after the event. Tomos had the following to say: “It was fantastic to meet local businesses and discuss upcoming opportunities. Old Oak Common station will have a transformative effect on the surrounding area when it is in operational use, but we also want to support economic growth during the construction phase.”

🎓 Last week, our Civil Engineering Apprentice, Miguel Jardim, and Social Value and Legacy Manager, Jamie Townsend, visited the Cardinal Wiseman Catholic School in Ealing to speak to students in years 10 to 13 about future job opportunities at Old Oak Common, in particular, apprenticeships and work experience placements. 170 students attended the event after school hours. Miguel had the following to say: "It was a pleasure visiting the school and speaking about the project. Hopefully, I was able to encourage some young people to join the constructor sector and take on an apprenticeship.'' Jamie commented: "We currently have over 70 staff completing an apprenticeship at Old Oak Common. This October half-term, we're looking forward to welcoming work experience students from our neighbouring boroughs to inspire even more local young people to join this exciting project."

Last month, we invited local businesses to our Future Supply Chain Opportunities event, in partnership with HS2 (High Speed Two) Ltd, the Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation (OPDC) and Hillingdon, Hammersmith & Fulham, Ealing and Brent councils. We covered the upcoming tendering opportunities at Old Oak Common, and the best ways to access them.   Attendees had the opportunity to meet HS2 Project Client Director, Peter Gow, who provided an overview of the project and our contribution to the local area. They also met with representatives from Kilnbridge, our subcontractor building the Urban Realm, who explained the opportunities available in their package of works.   Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have a vital role to play in HS2’s construction and already account for over two thirds of their supply chain. At Old Oak Common, the procurement of large-scale civils packages is almost complete, allowing us to support the local industry with smaller packages that are feasible for local SMEs. So far, we've already hired local construction companies to our supply chain, such as J Coffey Group and Pyramid Builders Ltd.   This event is part of our wider goal to support economic regeneration in areas surrounding Old Oak Common, both during the construction phase and when the station is operational.

It is great to see Old Oak Common featuring in HS2's EDI Annual Report for 2023-24, which has now been published on the UK government website. In the report, HS2 celebrates an example of successful diverse recruitment on our project, as our very own Jemel Harri-Nanan, BBVS Procurement Assistant, won 'Best Job Outcome' at the Moving on Up awards earlier this year. Moving on Up is an initiative lead by Action for Race Equality to tackle disparities that young black men in face in the London labour market. You can also read about our pioneering skills, employment and education (SEE) programme, such as our work to inspire pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), and our collaboration with the Ealing SEND Hub to encourage more young people to consider careers in our industry through training, guidance and work experience opportunities. The report also recognised the inclusive design of our respect programme, which aims to create a safe working environment for our workforce. We are designing a video-based digital training programme, we have 25 respect advisers and a reporting tool to identify disrespectful behaviours, areas for improvement and areas where we are performing well. Our EDI Manager, Alpa Kapasi, commented: "we are committed to delivering a programme of culture and behaviour change where all our people feel valued, engaged and can be themselves. We work as one team and our ambition is to shape and influence culture change within our industry.” You can read the full report here: https://lnkd.in/esjtPJPQ #EDI #SEE #SEND #Respect

It was a pleasure hosting our colleagues from the Balfour Beatty US and Gammon Construction Limited Hong Kong offices today. Our guests were able to see the progress at Old Oak Common first hand, and enjoyed some expert insights from our Project Director, Steve O'Sullivan, and Construction Lead, Brendan Seymour. It was great to exchange ideas and we look forward to collaborating again soon!

A big thank you to Expanded , who managed the excavation of the station box and donation of the London Clay, and also to our supply chain partners, AEFM Limited and Clipfine Ltd, for their support of the event.

Yesterday, members from our Stakeholder Team visited Pitzhanger Manor and Gallery, Ealing's leading cultural hub. Pitzhanger Manor is a Grade I listed building designed by esteemed architect, Sir John Soane, in 1800, and Pitzhanger Gallery holds a number of major exhibitions by contemporary artists and designers.   We enjoyed a fascinating tour of the “From Waste to Wonder” exhibition, which uses clay from our site at Old Oak Common in a variety of artistic creations. It was great to explore the heritage of our local area and discuss the ways we could work together as part of our community engagement and investment programs. Watch this space! https://lnkd.in/evKEfHWQ

Behind the scenes of our respect training programme!  Creating a workplace where our colleagues feel safe, valued and respected is our priority. We are proud of our inclusive culture at Old Oak Common, but recognise there is always room for improvement.  That's why last year, we launched our respect programme. We started by setting up a reporting tool where colleagues can report unacceptable behaviour, suggest areas for improvement and recognise areas where we are doing well. We also recruited 15 respect advisors, highly trained respect champions who offer confidential support to our colleagues.  Earlier this year, we held a series of listening groups and ran a site-wide survey to better understand our existing culture of inclusion and respect, and we are now using this data to develop a scenario-based digital learning programme for our whole workforce. The training will calibrate the standards of behaviour we expect and will equip staff with the skills to challenge inappropriate behaviours when they see or experience them. This week, we had the pleasure of hosting a film crew on site to film these scenarios – it is exciting to see the programme coming to life!  We will also deliver a 'Train the Trainer' programme for site supervisors to enable them to deliver the training to their teams. This approach will help us continue growing our inclusive culture and aims to drive improvements throughout our industry. A big thank you to our supply chain partner, Laing O'Rourke, who have shared our vision and also to our DE&I consultants, FAIRER Consulting and Enact Solutions Limited for bringing our vision to life. https://lnkd.in/enHP4SPg

We've started steelwork prefabrication for the Old Oak Common concourse and platform areas, where the Great Western Main Line, Heathrow Express and Elizabeth line trains will run. The steelwork will be a visible architectural feature of the station, and installation is set to start early next year. We've started with the Y columns that will support the platform canopies, and will soon move onto other steelwork elements such as the end of platform bridges and scenic lifts. As part of the design process and performance testing, mock ups were built at the VINCI Technology Centre UK Ltd – you can see images of them below. Senior Package Manager, Martin Kilbane, had the following to say: “reaching this point is the result of great effort and collaboration between HS2 (High Speed Two) Ltd, Balfour Beatty VINCI SYSTRA Joint Venture, Martifer Group, WSP and WilkinsonEyre. Producing the visual mock ups really brings the structure to life and is a great way to get a feel for the scale of what we're building.” Old Oak Common Station will be a new transport superhub in West London offering quick, reliable, and comfortable journeys to the Midlands, the North and Scotland. It will also be the 42nd stop on London’s new Elizabeth line enabling passengers to get to the West End in 10 minutes, Liverpool Street Station in 20 minutes and Heathrow, via either the Elizabeth line or the Heathrow Express, also in 10 minutes. This once industrial area is being transformed into a thriving super-connected neighbourhood and building a legacy for generations to come. 

Last week, a team of BBVS volunteers joined forces with Skanska Costain STRABAG Joint Venture to tackle the overgrown local areas around Channel Gate Road, cutting back trees, pruning bushes and removing waste. The team also cleared weeds in the cobbled alleys that adjoined residents' back gardens. The hard work paid off, and the area was transformed and refreshed at the end of the day.