We pride ourselves in delivering detailed inspections that go above and beyond the requirements of the standard.

All examination staff have completed the RSHI (Rock Slope Hazard Index) course and come with Dynamic Risk Assessment training to complement their Emergency at Work First Aid certificates.

We also have a team of IRATA Level 2 and 3 operatives with the companies lead L3 also being an IRATA qualified trainer.

As part of IRATA we are also able to carry out our internal six-monthly equipment checks on all rope access kit to meet the requirements of LOLER and PUWER.

We have recently appointed a new Operations Director, who is the former Amey earthworks national CRE (Contractors Responsible Engineer) who brings with him more than 10 years of experience in the successful delivery of over 300,000 earthwork examinations for Network Rail, with over 15,000 of these being achieved using roped access techniques.

Rope access work in the rail environment is a highly specialised skill and every one of our earthwork examiners have between 5 to 10 years’ experience in this field.

We review their EWE3 competency annually in accordance with ‘NR SP CTM 017 Competence & Training in Civil Engineering’ and ensure they maintain their IRATA competence. We continually monitor our examiners for quality and accuracy and provide further training and/or mentoring where required.

Any new staff will be trained in earthwork inspections and in the use of the handheld device and GISmo software. They will only be certified once our Operations Director is confident in their ability and understanding. If refresher training is required, this will be delivered ahead of any new season. During CP5, our Company has built the technical capability to meet the peaks in national workbanks to ensure our client always stays compliant and has the data it needs to make informed decisions and to manage budgets effectively.

We have provided the on-site support, failure identification, risk assessment for the safe running of the railway and specifying any recommendations and conclusions back to the route asset management team and Network Rail control.

Earthworks failures generally occur during periods of inclement weather, so we make sure the safety of the responding examiner is paramount by providing them with as much information about the incident, track layout, line speeds and site contact numbers. We also ensure appropriate lighting is made available should the incident occur at night.

All roped access examination staff and senior management within our Company have a minimum trackside competence of IWA or COSS. All have multiple years of experience working on Network Rail managed infrastructure and are fully compliant to NR/L2/OHS/019. We provide our own Safe Work Packs which link into our own set of Work Package Plans and Task Briefing sheets, highlighting all site risks and their control measures.

Alongside our normal NR_L3_CIV_065 rope access inspections, our Company has also carried out several more bespoke geotechnical appraisals on sites where additional detail or focus is required by the client. Where intervention works have been installed such as rock reinforcement, rock bolts and fixed netting, we have been asked to carry out maintenance checks to highlight any areas requiring repair.