EPIC Painting - Winners at the 2014 PDA Annual Trophy Awards

BIRKENHEAD, U.K. - July 9, 2014 - PRLog -- Congratulations goes to Hankinson Painting Group Company EPIC Painting who beat off the competition again!  They have won the Industrial Category of the Painting Decorating Association (PDA) 2014 Awards for the third time in 4 years, which is a remarkable achievement.

The Group has now won 7 awards in 10 years!

Graham Lawrence of EPIC (pictured below) attended the prize giving ceremony in London on 26th June and received the coveted Rose Bowl.

In addition to this success  EPIC’s work at Liverpool Football Club preparing and painting the Centenary Stand received the “Commended” accolade also in the Industrial Category.

The work was carried out on Rockingham Street Bridge for Amalgamated Construction Limited on behalf of Network Rail.

The bridge is situated in a residential area within the Central London Congestion Charging Zone, the main concern was from noise pollution as an apartment block was situated a meter from the bridge.

In order to win the competitive tender bid, EPIC had to take ownership of the scaffolding package, making them responsible for the design and installation of the Scaffolding and the Encapsulation of the bridge. Part of the design was to install pedestrian walkways and a cycle path for residents to access the other side of the bridge.

To overcome the noise from the grit blasting, they installed acoustic panelling inside the encapsulation and split the works into 2 phases to supress the “echoing” to a minimum. Other obstacles to overcome included having to remove and reinstate bird mesh and sealing the bridge from above to stop debris from contaminating the paint system, and to help weatherproof the bridge.

As the bridge had been previously painted in Lead based paints, CLAW regulations (Control of Lead at Work), had to be adhered to at all times. Samples of the existing Lead coatings had be sent away for analysis to determine the percentage of Lead remaining on the bridge, to ascertain the levels of Lead that the Operatives had the potential to be exposed too, and to ensure that the waste generated by the works were disposed of correctly by a licensed Waste Management Company

Before works commenced all Operatives had to have Lead blood level tests carried out, to see how much Lead was currently in their body. They would then undergo further testing every 4 – 6 weeks to monitor exactly how much Lead was finding its way into their bloodstream.

A large amount of time and money was spent on training the Operatives, as anyone working on the project had to be ICATTS approved, attend the Network Rail Personal Track Safety Course and have Lung function tests, in order to be issued with a Face Fit respiratory mask, to comply with Network Rail safety requirements.

EPIC’s Site Inspectors also had to be trained to achieve their Painting Inspector ICORR Level 2 licence.

Daily climatic temperatures had been checked every 3 hours to ensure that all works were being carried out in line with the Specification.

Works to trackside parapets had to be planned and carried out on nights under approved Network Rail Possessions.

Group Chief Executive Stephen Hankinson said “To have won the Industrial Category in the Premier Painting Industry Awards 3 out of 4 years is a remarkable achievement.  The award winning contracts have ranged from industrial tanks to rail bridges which shows the versatility of the Company.”

Operations Manager Graham Lawrence said “It’s always an honour to win a National award and to now have won 3 times in the last 4 years is testament to the hard work and effort  that everyone puts in, from the tender process stage  to completion. The focus is already on next year’s awards as we have a number of exciting projects to enter and are hopeful that we can maintain this winning streak.”