By Julian Whittle

Last updated at 08:45, Tuesday, 12 March 2013

Story Contracting has beaten some of the giants of the construction industry to be named top-performing contractor on Britain’s railways.

A Story Contracting team working at Ribble Viaduct

Network Rail, the state-owned company responsible for track, stations and signalling, scores all contracts worth more than £50,000 on its Prism performance matrix.

Factors considered include whether the project was delivered on time, safety performance, engineering assurance, and the contractor’s behaviour including problem solving and collaborative working.

Carlisle-based Story Contracting was the best of 38 contractors assessed in 2012-13.

It finished ahead of major players such as Mott MacDonald, Birse, Kier Group, Tata Steel, Balfour Beatty, Arup, Carillion, Morgan Sindall, Babcock, Atkins, Siemens and Amey.

Mike Halliday, rail director at Story Contracting, said: “The most important client in the rail industry in the UK has judged Story Contracting to be the best in the business. That is a fantastic accolade to our staff who go to tremendous lengths to ensure that we have a satisfied customer.”

Network Rail says that its Prism system is intended to “drive a culture of continuous improvement”.

It takes the scores into account when awarding new contracts.

Mr Halliday believes that Story’s success is down in large part to its collaborative approach.

It aims to keep lines of communication open with clients and staff from the date acontract is awarded to the completion of works on site.

This allows potential issues to be anticipated and dealt with appropriately.

Mr Halliday added: “We continually strive to be the best in whatever we do and our growth is evidence of that.”

Story Contracting did £15m of rail-related work in 2012-13, employing up to 160 staff on the West Coast Main Line, Carlisle-Settle route and throughout Scotland.

One of the projects assessed was a £910,000 track-replacement scheme on the Ribble and Little viaducts, 250 metres apart on the Carlisle-Settle line between Horton-in-Ribblesdale and Settle.

The scheme was completed over four months and involved renewal of 400 metres of twin-track permanent way, the installation of a concrete saddle, waterproofing and drainage works.

One of Story Contracting’s strengths, the company says, is its ability to deliver track-renewal schemes without using dedicated engineering trains.

On this scheme both tracks had to be replaced at the same time, which ruled out engineering trains.

Another plus is Story’s capability to undertake civil engineering work incidental to a track renewal.

The company says it completed the work safely and “to the highest possible quality”.

Story Contracting is a sister company of the housebuilder Story Homes.

Since January, the businesses have hired 21 new staff – 10 at Story Homes and 11 in Story Contracting.

Story Contracting is recruiting for project managers, project agents, engineers and experienced road/rail vehicle operators.

First published at 08:43, Tuesday, 12 March 2013
Published by http://www.cumberlandnews.co.uk