Industry: Construction: Stadium Transformation Project
Alkoomi Involvement: Safety Leadership and Culture Change Programme
Date: 2014 – 2015
Context
In 2013 Balfour Beatty Construction was awarded the contract to carry out full transformation works to the London 2012 Olympic Stadium for its operator, E20 Stadium LLP which was a joint venture between the London Legacy Development Corporation and Newham Council. The design brief was for the existing Olympic venue to be transformed to a multi-event stadium suitable for athletics, football and concerts, and consequently involved some outstanding engineering challenges. The timescale for the transformation was identified as extremely demanding with a commitment to reopen for international sporting events in the summer of 2015.
Client & Alkoomi approach
Something extraordinary was needed if the project team (including the client) were to fulfil on their safety commitment and meet their obligations on the tight programme and budget. Some of the key challenges were a very crowded site with a high churn of contractors and trades, production targets, and a high number of workforce with English as a second language.
Following a site-wide cultural survey BBR launched a Safety Leadership Team which went into action to develop the project ethos and communicated this in various innovative formats and ways to the entire workforce. Alkoomi went on to deliver a structured rolling programme of specialist workshops for middle management, workforce and supervision; working with interpreters and translated materials to meet the needs of the various nationalities working on the project.
Outcomes and Feedback
The Transformation Project was completed with no lost time incidents equating to 1.84 million hours without a reportable injury. That was achieved against a backdrop of over 1000 people on site during the peak time and with 6000 employed on the project in total. The credit for the final outcome goes to the management of all the parties involved and the workforce who stayed safe while completing a challenging project.
The programme made a difference in the attitudes of everyone working on the project and the way in which they carried out their work:
“From today onwards safety is my priority and as important as my religion.”
“This workshop has changed my attitude to safety in the workplace as I now know that me being unsafe could impact not only me, but my family and friends as well.”
“Changed it from “it’s not my job” to “I can do something about it.”
Case Studies
