Railway Surveying

Railway Surveying has become a major speciality of Survey First not by accident but by DESIGN and it's designers that need this service – why, because they always need a SURVEY FIRST before they can undertake their works!

Jim Melville our Railway Division Manager who has many years of rail experience is able to tap in to additional experience and advice provided by Peter Squire – Official Advisor to Railway Division – who has 40 years of experience with BR, WCML, Intercity, Railtrack and Network Rail.

David Kerr who has more than 30 years of experience with BR, BRIS, First Engineering and NR is our Health and Safety Advisor on Rail Projects.

All Survey First surveyors are put through a medical, drugs and alcohol testing and PTS (Personal Track Safety) training on joining the Company to ensure that the Railway Division has the back-up from the large resource of surveyors employed by Survey First.

Survey First surveyors have undertaken many varied railway tasks including tunnel surveys; platform extension surveys; station surveys; major control schemes; S&C surveys and gauging of bridges and platforms.

There are many other types of projects that our dedicated Railway Division are experienced in undertaking so please contact our Railway Division Manager, Jim Melville for more details.

Rail News | April 2010

Mersey Railway Tunnel Project

Project: To provide accurate plans within the tunnels to enable Consultancy – Scott Wilson Railways to install a new lighting network throughout the length of the tunnels.

There were three tunnels involved in this Project:
Tunnel 1 ... Central to St James
Tunnel 2 ... Birkenhead Park to Hamilton Square
Tunnel 3 ... Central to Moorfields

Why was this Project important to Survey First Limited? This was the first major Railway Contract to be undertaken by Survey First Limited and also the first contract awarded by Scott Wilson Railways – Swindon Office, we had undertaken work for SWR in Glasgow but not the Swindon Office.

It was Survey First's intention to prove to Scott Wilson Railways that we could produce a quality product, on budget. Both parties were agreed that a pre-contract meeting should take place to ensure that all possible factors that might affect the job were appreciated by both Companies before works commenced. Too many railway surveys are undertaken where additional possessions/costs have to be justified at the end of the job where a compromise has to be accepted to ensure final payment.

A full and open discussion took place between David Corfield (Business Development Director) and Jim Melville (Rail Division Manager) from Survey First with Julian Hawkes (Permanent Way Manager) and Chris Spellman (Senior Project Engineer) via conference call from Scott Wilson Railways. Main points of discussion during our 3 hour meeting:

1. A bespoke code list would need to be created based upon the client’s standards and edited to give unique coding to the existing lighting, junction boxes and wiring to make design works easier.
2. Our costings had been based on 4 hour night-time possessions and it was agreed that site diaries supplied on a daily basis to the client would record the exact possession time available so that any additional shifts would be anticipated in advance by the client.
3. Survey First supplied some files from previous projects, re formatted and coded to SWR requirements at the meeting which were checked during the meeting and details regarding any changes required were discussed at that stage.
4. Lines of communication were agreed, reporting procedures set up, payment schedules were agreed.
5. Survey First made no secret of the estimated Field and Office processing hours required to undertake the works irrespective of the number/length of possessions available and also indicated to SWR the length of tunnel/track that would be surveyed per hour.

It was clear from this meeting that both client and contractor wished to ensure that the Project ran as smoothly and efficiently as possible.

The control aspect for the tunnel where no Permanent Ground Markers were permitted to be installed was controlled by temporary control installed in wooden sleepers with 3 No retro targets glued to the wall, enabling nightly checks to be made on the stability of the temporary control. In the concrete tunnels nails were drilled and fitted to the floor.
Initial site access time was to be 4 hours survey time; this was curtailed to 3 hours by the necessity to vacate the tunnels 1 hour before traffic started. With the onset of the bad weather the shifts were later reduced to 2 hours or less by the ice clearing trains and other maintenance works.

Despite the unavoidable disruptions we were still able to complete the survey within the estimated hours although additional shifts were required to make up for the reduced shift hours. We were able to project estimates daily of how many shifts were required to complete the project and conveyed this to the client in a weekly and/or daily report as the project progressed. This in turn allowed the client to book only the required sites and only enough to complete works saving time and money. The reports and daily diaries also aided the client in recovery of additional shift costs at an early stage.

Very close co-operation was enjoyed between Survey First and Scott Wilson Railways throughout the project. Rail Manager Jim Melville attended site on the first night to brief staff and assist on the first shift as well as meeting the client representative and safety staff. A further visit was made half way through the site works to monitor progress on site and our Railway Health and Safety advisor also attended site to carry out an internal site safety check.

As each site was completed, processing was carried out and all tunnels were quality checked and delivered within 1 week of field completion. Some minor coding improvements were requested and these were dealt with and the revised data was sent by return. Once the data for all 3 tunnels were approved CDs were despatched which included control results, PGM photos and spreadsheets for the control, levelling and temporary control checks.

Survey First would like to acknowledge the excellent level of co-operation and professionalism experienced throughout the project from Julian, Chris and all other SWR – Swindon staff involved and trust that they appreciated the same from Survey First Limited.

Julian Hawkes of Scott Wilson Railways said "Survey First delivered exactly what was required. Having invested time in clarifying the remit and establishing robust lines of communication the survey was achieved successfully despite access issues that arose. This demonstrated the good working relationships that developed before and during the project – we would have no hesitation in employing Survey First again.’’ 

Survey First can provide surveys across the full range of disciplines as follows:

• Topographic Surveys
• Measured Building Surveys
• Railway Surveys
• Underground Services Tracing
• CAD Services
• Aerial Surveys (inc. Lidar Surveys)
• In-shore Hydrographic Surveys
• Calibration Measurement
• GPS Control Networks
• Monitoring
• High Resolution Digital Photography
• Publicity Images

Survey First Ltd
4 Langlands
Luncarty
Perthshire
PH1 3EX

Tel. 01738 829000
Fax. 0800 066 4471
Email. info@surveyfirst.biz

London Office

Survey First Ltd
26 York Street
London
W1U 6PZ

Tel. 0207 788 7569