Jackson was appointed by the Environment Agency to carry out on-going refurbishment work on locks on the River Great Ouse and River Nene in Northamptonshire and Cambridgeshire. The work included lock drain downs and silt removal, mechanical works including installing new actuators, and the repair and re-painting of lock gate structures.
Creative solutions were employed to enhance health and safety, mitigate risks to the environment and boost relations with local businesses.
One major improvement came from working closely with supply chain partner XL scaffolding, who Jackson asked to incorporate a lifting track into the scaffold structure around the lock gates. Prior to this, heavy items had been lifted either by hand, using pulleys, or by using costly cranes and lorry loaders.
At one site on the River Nene, the team helped to boost a local business by choosing to set up their facilities in the nearby pub that was closed because of the Covid lockdown.
Some of the innovations were simple but incredibly effective, such as choosing to use tree bark on the pathways near the locks rather than employ standard plastic matting. Not only were the paths safer to use, the use of tree bark was a sustainable solution that left the footways in a better condition than before – providing a benefit to members of the public who used them after our work had finished.
