We were employed by the Primary Contractor, Alun Griffiths Civil Engineering, to complete the installation of all streetlighting columns, lanterns, signs and sign lights. Work on the Newtown Bypass began in February 2016 and over the course of the project over 1,000 workers were involved at some stage or another. We were contracted to begin work in June 2018 to its completion in February 2019. Due to the size and scope of this project, our Contracts Director took the lead and we also assigned a Site Supervisor and team consisting of two electricians and two groundworkers – all trained to National Highways Sector Scheme standards for their trade and HERS ECS card holders. The Contracts Director and Site Supervisor began site visits and planning meetings four months prior to our given start date to meet other contractors and familiarise themselves with the project and in April 2018, the rest of the team attended site for their induction and site tour. We arranged for the team to be based at a local Inn from Monday to Friday for the duration of the project, we had booked this well in advance as the area was particularly busy with site workers and wanted to ensure efficiency by keeping travel times to a minimum, support local businesses in the area and to ensure some consistency for our team.

Our Contracts Director worked closely with the Road Manager for Alun Griffiths to develop a programme of works however it soon became apparent that, due to several external factors relating to the size of the project, it would be difficult to follow the programme exactly. To work in the spirit of the partnership we had to be responsive and reactive to change. We were flexible in our approach to fit in with Alun Griffiths, for example, traffic management schedules changed frequently, so we adapted our plans to work where required to enable continuity.

We encountered some issues with the delivery of signs and street lighting columns, it was noted during our goods in inspection of the second delivery that quite a number of signs were not up to the required specification. As our process dictates, delivery was refused and our stores manager immediately informed our supervisor who duly contacted the manufacturer. The manufacturer reordered the signs and began an investigation as to why the original signs had not been up to standard. New signs were delivered two weeks later which, due to the allowances made for delays/discrepancies in the programme of works, meant that there was no adverse effect on the schedule.