Safer culvert clean

A team of drainage engineers from the company's depot in Eccles, Greater Manchester, worked on the seven-week project in Etruria, Stoke on Trent, Staffordshire.

Lanes Group, the national drainage and maintenance solution specialist, was commissioned to carry out the work by Galliford Try, on behalf of Stoke on Trent City Council.

Galliford Try works manager Jez Hurst said: "The Lanes team did a thorough job. They worked well within our safe systems of work for the project, and showed good health and safety standards throughout. It was a tough task, digging out a lot of rubble and mud, but they stuck to it, and completed the task within the timeframe we asked of them."

The culvert, which was two metres in diameter and 35 metres long, was over 90 per cent full of silt and debris. Up to seven Lanes engineers worked on the project, observing strict confined space entry procedures, which included setting up a davit arm rescue winch above the culvert entrance.