December News!

As we head into a Christmas that is once again wildly different from the one before (and changing every minute), we can hope to enjoy the slightly increased normality that is still possible – even if circumstances remain precarious!  We hope all of our clients and collaborators are able to celebrate more festively, while still safely, this year. 

December has seen a few last minute Christmas gifts in the shape of new load monitoring requests for a Langbank station; design for platform water heaters in Ayrshire; and anti icing works at a depot in the Aberdeen area – clearly ‘tis the season!  We have also fielded several fee proposals and tender requests for works ranging from asset surveys to signalling power design, all of which should lead to a bumper start to 2022. 

In the meantime, we will be kept busy up until Christmas with our current, ever expanding portfolio of projects, headed up this month by Anderston and Glasgow Central Low Level stations; the construction phase of works at Aberdeen Station and ventilation design at Edinburgh Waverley Station.  Taking the lead from Santa and heading from North to South, we continue to be involved with frost protection at Aberdeen Clayhills; Dalcross GRIP 4 works; CETs at Fort William Depot; and shore supplies design at Perth.  Moving across the bulging central belt we are still providing design advice for Reston Station; Carstairs Rationalisation; AFA schemes at Selby, Croy, Johnston and Port Glasgow; DBs at Cathcart; and rectification and survey works for multiple stations including Hyndland and Burntisland.  Edinburgh is still a busy place fluid dispensing works at Haymarket ongoing; Edinburgh Control Centre Renewal still going strong; and Edinburgh Waverley station remaining home to various projects covering gas supplies; toilet ventilation, design for superloos and concourse lighting.  There is also plenty going on close to home as we move into the Glasgow area with Glasgow Central Station playing host to ventilation survey works, retail space design, power supplies and lighting DB design; while depots at Eastfield, Corkerhill, Yoker and Polmadie remain busy with accommodation design; departure roads, drainage and points converters works.  In the surrounding area we continue to make progress with a Railway property in London Road; Bellgrove’s blue light installation; a new railway shed at Carstairs; and various Railway retail properties while, further down the Ayrshire coast, works are ongoing for Troon Station and multiple sites for HST lighting upgrades.  Finally, moving South of the border, works are still very bust on the Ferrybridge to Goole route, with the next phase of works currently in the pipeline.  Additional design for the London to Corby Route is well underway as are works for VAMOS level crossings; our long running Birmingham Station project; and 650V feeders renewal in Middlesbrough and Whitehouse.  Works at Reading Triangle are approaching the final stages while those at Whitley Bay are just getting ready to begin. 

Of course we have retained several commercial projects to keep things interesting this Christmas with works related to the ash lagoons in Valleyfield created following the closure of Longannet Power Station in 2016; provision of expert advice following a fire in a Glasow University building; and office refurbishment at a business park in Musselburgh.    

And just like that, we’ve made it to the end of another topsy turvy year.  SVM will be closing for a well earned Christmas break on 24th December and will be open for business again on Wednesday 5th January.  We hope that all of our clients and collaborators have a safe, happy and revitalising Christmas and New Year and that we are all ready to continue navigating this ‘new normal’ in the New Year.