CA Drillers Case Study

Drilling & Construction Case Studies

Contractor: Costain Group PLC

Location: Paddington New Yard

CA Drillers have undertaken the final stage of works down at Paddington New Yard. The required works were to form a new opening in the existing bus garage wall. The opening was 6 metres high, 7.5 metres wide by 375mm deep. The method used was to Track saw the perimeter of the opening to then allow us to break out the centre.

All works had to be carried out methodically in order to ensure the safe removal of debris. The final element of the works was to remove a reinforced concrete beam which was above the opening that we broke out. This was 7.5m long, 700mm wide by 500mm high – weighing 6.3 tonne.

Contractor: McNicholas Construction Limited
Main Contractor: Virgin Media
Location: BT Exchange, Collingdale

We work with McNicholas Construction Limited on a regular basis fitting cable containment on behalf of their client, Virgin Media. McNicholas contacted us back in May 2014 regarding the biggest job to date for Virgin Media. This was to fit Ladder racking, which is a type of cable containment, to the BT Exchange building, Collingdale.

Ladder Racking is a simple way to provide safe access for fibre optic cables from the ground level of buildings up to the roof to then be connected to the building internal communication system. This is so all information that needs to be stored can be sent to the correct places. The Ladder racking is made up of galvanised steel as the cover and then cables are positioned within flexible steel conduit which works as a protection. The steel is positioned at the side of the building. The flexible conduit is then also attached using stainless steel cable ties. All materials used are weather proof.

The reason for McNicholas to book a job of this type in such advance is because the biggest mobile crane in the country was required as it had to reach a height of 50metres in order to complete the ladder racking route to the top of the building. We had to book the crane 4 months in advance in order to complete the works in which McNicholas needed. This was carried out by our supplier of MEWP’s (Mobile Elevated Working Platforms) which we use on a regular basis and gave us a window of one weekend to carry out the works. We attended site and was able to complete all works within one working day which proved very helpful to McNicholas as the job was expected to span over a two weekend day period. All ladder racking was successfully attached to the whole height of the building with all cables pulled through the flexible conduit and attached to the building internal communication system on the roof top. As with all of our jobs for McNicholas, we fitted a protective box over the bottom of the racking so no personnel will be able to climb the fixture in any way.

McNicholas were extremely satisfied that all works were completed to a high standard and we look forward to carrying out similar projects for them in the future.