For various reasons the competitive tendering process for appointment of a single Main Contractor ran into some difficulties and hence the Trust has decided to ‘go it alone’. We are therefore hugely grateful to our hardworking Trustees Paul Amsterdam and Robert Yorke who, between them, are as a result now shouldering the significant burden for sourcing of materials, sub-contractors, liasing with utility companies, setting up contracts, getting signoff from Network Rail and West Midlands Trains, programming the work and just generally ‘running the show’. This is, not unexpectedly, turning into a full-time job – and the rest! Thankfully both Paul and Robert are very local to the station and have significant experience with such projects. We couldn’t be in better hands.
Work on site should begin in May (look out for the nice sign above appearing at the station soon!) and here are some selected highlights of progress so far:
- Electricity is reconnected.
- We are in the process of arranging for water and sewerage to be reconnected.
- Manufacturing of the windows and doors by ‘Knockout Joinery’ has been completed – see photos below.
- A subcontractor has been appointed for brickwork cleaning, re-pointing, rebuilding of the chimneys and some structural work.
- An extension to our funding has been agreed with West Midlands Trains and the Railway Heritage Trust, to whom we are very grateful.
