Stoneleigh – in Epsom, southwest London – is one of Surrey’s busiest stations. Stoneleigh Access for All (AfA) made the bustling station accessible for users with mobility challenges and easier to navigate for rail users with children, heavy luggage or shopping.
Unique surroundings and location
Covered footbridge, three lifts, three sets of stairs: this established AfA formula was used to enhance access at Stoneleigh. Although most AfA designs are comparable, however, all AfA projects are unique. The real challenge is in remodelling the design to meet site-specific circumstances; and tailoring project delivery to accommodate local ground conditions, site constraints, existing structures and existing infrastructure – as well as navigating how each site’s individual ecosystem of land use, space and stakeholders influence logistics. Blending in with local aesthetics is another important factor.
Client Network Rail awarded Octavius the Stoneleigh Station project through the One Team Wessex Framework, to design and build a new superstructure consisting of a covered footbridge from east to west with access to all platforms via stairs and lifts.
Although the station is at the centre of a busy suburban community, obtaining sufficient space for access, laydown and welfare was much less of a challenge than it may have been thanks to the support of Epsom & Ewell Borough Council which granted favourable parking suspension terms in Stoneleigh Broadway, adjacent to the station. This typified the local authority’s desire to facilitate the project.
Island platform challenges
Of greater significance was the challenge presented by the station’s single island platform configuration, which necessitated the use of telehandlers to remove from the platform material from the excavations and an existing building which had been out of use for many years. Temporary works, necessary to enable the creation of the platform lift shaft, included measures to strengthen and stabilise the structure to accommodate the work of the piling rig.
Clearing the ground for the lift shaft also meant diverting buried cabling carrying CCTV and communications data as well as providing power for station services. To ensure the diversion was achieved as proficiently as possible Octavius used the communications contractor responsible for much of the original installation, an example of how the team used supplier relationships intelligently in order to bring efficiencies to the project. Indeed, it is Octavius’ policy to – wherever possible – use supply chain partners that know the area and the job.
Established relationships central to success
Within the Octavius team too, local knowledge and established relationships were key to efficient delivery. For more than 20 years Project Manager Adam Szeremeta has been supporting projects for Stoneleigh’s train operating company (TOC) South Western Railway, building a clear understanding of what success looks like for one of the project’s most influential stakeholders.
Multiple highly influential stakeholders are a characteristic of AfA projects, with Stoneleigh no exception. By having deep roots in the area Octavius already had the strong, established stakeholder relationships necessary to keep the project to schedule and cost. This institutional knowledge was central to flexible and efficient delivery which minimised impact upon people using the station and those living and working around it.
Stoneleigh is one of a quartet of recent AfA projects in suburban west and southwestern London; the others being Isleworth, Barnes and Motspur. They are part of a national portfolio of more than 35 successfully completed AfA projects, making Octavius, arguably, the UK’s most experienced AfA delivery partner.
For more information you can contact afa@octavius.co.uk
