G4S won the contract to provide the tactical, technical and physical security and technology services for the three consortia building the Thames Tideway sewer tunnel. G4S is securing the project as a fully integrated partner and part of the decision making team for security across all 21 construction worksites.
The three consortia are; BMB (Balfour Beatty, BAM Nuttall and Morgan Sindall} which has the contract for the shorter western tunnel drive, FLO (Laing O’Rourke and Ferrovial Agroman) which has the largest, central section drive and CVB (Costain, Vinci and Bachy joint venture) won the eastern section. All three have slightly different mobilisation and construction timescales.
Once fully operational, construction will span 21 large, complex worksites across 15.5 miles (25km) from the storm tanks in Acton in the west, to Abbey Mills pumping station to the east. Preliminary construction works are under way at the four key drive sites with work started at a further nine sites across London.
During the mobilisation phase, when power was not available, G4S deployed a stand-alone, mobile camera surveillance tower. These towers are self-sufficient and powered by hydrogen. The data and footage collected is transmitted using a 4G network to the central control room.
G4S Tideway Project Account Director, Tarquin Halse, said: “The tactical and operational planning that has gone into providing the security at each of the sites and as part of the whole project is immense. We are working closely with all of our partners to ensure that ramp up is smooth and that our around-the-clock security is thorough and highly-responsive, all of which is monitored from our central London command centre.”
G4S will install Avigilon cameras integrated with Symmetry access technology at pedestrian perimeter access points (PAP), turnstiles and internal site access points as well. At peak construction, G4S expects there to be many hundreds of people passing through the Symmetry access controlled zones within each of the large works sites, daily. Each Tideway construction site is organised into zones, each of which has its own level of security access clearance and construction workers must go through extra Symmetry security checks to gain access. The zone closest to the tunnel construction site has the highest level of restrictions, so that only those directly involved in the tunnel construction and the correct training and credentials, are able to enter that zone.
Tarquin Halse said; “It is really important that our security solution works in line with Tideway’s focus on health and safety across all the sites. The access security is key to knowing exactly who is on the site at all times, whether they are in the right zones and that they have the correct security clearance. This is supported by our highly trained, well managed and construction orientated security personnel on site.”
