Description: Falco has been delivering groundworks packages to facilitate the repair, maintenance and development of clean water and wastewater infrastructure since our inception in 2004.
Initially we worked on infrastructure owned by Thames Water & Southern Water as a sub-contractor to a number of principal contractors including Laing O’Rourke, MGJV, 4D, Costain, Barhale, Clancy Docwra, J Murphy & Sons, Enterprise, Amey, Ferrovial, Galliford Try, Metrorod, Enserve Group, H2O Water and Morrison Utilities.
As a reflection of the company’s growing capability, & following a detailed due diligence process, we were awarded approved contractor status by Thames Water in 2012 which enabled us to tender directly as Principal Contractor for developer service packages up to £2 million in value.
During the AMP 5 (2010 to 2015) & AMP 6 (2015 to 2020) regulatory periods we continued to build on our track record of successfully project delivery to work on a number of wastewater projects including Beckton STW Upgrade, Counters Creek in West London, Farnborough Flood Alleviation Scheme and various FLIP packages for Optimise & Eight20 .
In April 2021 we were awarded a 3-year Framework Contract, with options to extend by up to a further 5 years to provide repair and maintenance of existing FLIPs systems which protect households against flooding from surface and sewer discharge. A FLIP is an electrically powered pump which is triggered when the sewer network reaches capacity & isolates the property from the network, protecting it from hydraulic flooding during times of heavy rainfall.
The installation of FLIP pumps serves to prevent foul flooding of properties when there is a surcharge in an adjacent public sewer. The works consist of the construction of a FLIP pump station adjacent to, or within, the affected property which could be a driveway, carriageway, or basement. This generally involves constructing a chamber to house the FLIP unit, installing a short rising main and installation of an external wall mounted FLIP control panel with all associate electrical connections.
Works can be undertaken in domestic or commercial properties and Falco will always strive to minimise disruption to clients. Where possible measures will be taken to avoid accessing occupied parts of properties, i.e. by accessing via lightwells etc, however where this is not possible Falco will always ensure that properties are left clean, tidy and safe at the end of every shift, and will carry out finishing works to the satisfaction of the client.
Under this contract we have successfully completed the repair, maintenance and upgrade of over 200 FLIPs to a high level of customer satisfaction.
Building upon our FLIP framework we were pleased to be informed in December 2022 that we had won a place on the new Approved Supplier List for Small Project Work Runway 0 civils construction works up to £250k across all Thames Water working areas.
It is an exciting opportunity to broaden the scope and value of work that we undertake directly for Thames Water & we expect to start bidding for projects from January 2023 onwards.
“Small Project Work Runway 0” is Thames Water’s new capital procurement strategy for the remainder of AMP7 (to 31 March 2025) and into AMP8 (2025 to 2030) to provide a delivery vehicle for civils repairs and maintenance of Thames Water’s water and wastewater sites up to an order value of £250k.
