Safety beacon shines at Willesden Green station

Edited by the Buildingtalk editorial team Feb 29, 2008

The Tube Lines construction team upgrading Willesden Green station has been recognised for putting in place a model for safe working at the station.

The English Heritage-listed building is undergoing a major refurbishment to allow it to continue serving the millions of passengers that use the station.

The site was named a beacon site by Martin Brown, Chief Safety Advisor for Tube Lines.

The award was presented on Thursday night 21 February 2008 by Sarah Teather MP.

The team at Willesden Green station is led by Project Manager Baljinder Raju, a local to Willesden Green.

His team has been working around the clock to refurbish the station whilst maintaining its history, and in doing so earned beacon status.

Tube Lines introduced the beacon status scheme to encourage all work at project sites and maintenance depots to be done safely and considerately.

Any site can seek beacon status by demonstrating excellence in safety, consideration for the environment and all those impacted by the work, including local communities and those working on or visiting the site.

Also key to achieving this status is ensuring the work place is maintained to a high standard with the teams demonstrating an exemplary safe working ethos.

Following recognition of its beacon status, other project and maintenance teams from Tube Lines will visit Willesden Green station to learn from the high standards of safety being adopted.

The refurbishment works at Willesden Green station will bring many benefits for the millions of passengers who use the station.

A new clearer public address system and a better customer information system will boost the travel information available, and wall tiles have been replaced to restore the station's historic feel.

As with all station refurbishments a key focus for Tube Lines has been to boost safety and security, with an additional 36 CCTV cameras throughout the station and the installation of ten new help points.

These improvements help to increase the security of passengers and make the station a pleasant place to travel through.

The efficiency of the project at Willesden Green station has been accelerated with works occurring during passenger hours and a series of weekend closures.

The closures allow for the equivalent of five weeks worth of work per weekend.

The upgrade will be completed by May 2008.

Martin Brown Chief Safety Advisor for Tube Lines said: "The team at Willesden Green has worked hard to win beacon status and is an excellent example for all people working in rail or construction".

"Achieving beacon status at our sites ensures our continued commitment to the safety of both passengers and our employees." Sarah Teather was shown around the station during engineering hours whilst 100 engineers were on site carrying out improvement works.

Sarah Teather MP said: "I use my local station every day, alongside hundreds of my constituents".

"It was really good to see the improvements which are taking shape".

"I was pleased to award Tube Lines with a beacon award to recognise their efforts to be quieter for local residents".

"These kinds of developments can be disruptive for local people and I appreciate that they have worked hard to take local resident's comments on board".

"I am looking forward to the summer, when all four of the Jubilee line stations in my constituency will have completed their upgrades.".