______________ Briton Fabricators Limited
week to help train the apprentices, effectively running a small apprentice school within the workshop. This approach allows us to retain and pass down the knowledge, and after four years, those apprentices become qualified platers working alongside the experienced team. It is physically demanding work, but the continuity it creates is invaluable. Our apprenticeship program extends beyond the shop floor. In our drawing office, we currently have two apprentices working on 3D fabrication modeling, taking clients’ designs and turning them into detailed fabrication models. These apprentices follow a different college pathway given the more technical requirements of the role. Additionally, we have an apprentice health and safety advisor working under our health and safety consultant and a trainee quantity surveyor working through college to supplement our quantity surveying team,” Dean continues.
With a well-trained team and stronger capabilities, Briton is more than ready to take on its most significant current project: HS2.“ As the new phases of HS2 have progressed, many tendering opportunities have come our way through Balfour Beatty Vinci( BBV) one of the main contractors on the program. The first job we secured was a straightforward road bridge over a rail line, and during construction, we were invited to tender for something more complex: up to four 77-meter arch bridges to go over the railway. The designs are broadly similar across all four, so there are real synergies in being able to repeat the build process. We have just secured the third of the four bridges and are currently on site installing the first.
“ That first bridge has been fully trial erected in our yard by our own site teams, with a complex temporary works procedure and trestling system developed to support it. The trial erection was completed successfully, the bridge has been fully welded on site, and we are now in the process of stripping the temporary works back to reuse on the next bridge. At present, the second bridge is in production on the shop floor. It is not exactly the same as the first and did require some remodeling, but there are enough similarities that we have been able to standardize the temporary works across both, allowing us to carry the same system forward. And with the third now awarded, the drawings are being done,” Dean ends.
Securing the HS2 contracts are a sign of how far Briton has come over its five-decade long history. By reinvesting in capabilities and ensuring the knowledge that built its reputation is passed down to the next generation, the company has laid the foundations to support long-term success. In an industry that demands both precision and experience, Briton is making sure it never runs short of either. ■
britonsltd. co. uk
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