Archway Tube Station
1st March 2010
Rhinoceros win a contract from Ringway Jacobs to refurbish the retaining walls outside this underground station in north London. This project is jointly funded by Transport for London and the London Borough of Islington. The work is part of TfL's major upgrade of underground stations on the oldest of London's Underground lines, the Northern Line.
ICATS Training Completions
February 2010
Four Rhinoceros operatives completed their ICATS training this month. Petar Danchev, Diyan Penev, Zhivko Velihkov and Damyan Kuteterov have completed the comprehensive Industrial Coating Applicator's Training Scheme course. Their evaluation papers have been sent off to Correx, the administrating body of the ICATS scheme. We expect the men to receive their well deserved certificates in a few weeks. Rhinoceros is proud to be one of the sustaining members of ICATS and we expect more of our staff to complete this training in the future.
Rhinoceros on TV news
February 2010
Rhinoceros operatives painting lamp columns for Skanska in Surrey were surprised to see the lamp columns they were painting on the television news one evening last month. It turns out that these lamp columns have been fitted with a new high tech smart street lights which only come on when conditions require. The project is expected to reduce carbon emissions by up to 60,000 tons and to save Surrey tax payers some £12 million over the next 25 years. Rhinoceros are proud to be working on a project which saves money, improves the environment and contributes to better road safety for drivers and pedestrians.
Anti-Flyposting in Stirling
5th February 2010
Earlier this month Stirling City Council awarded Rhinoceros their third contract to clean 70 utility cabinets and apply the original Anti-Flyposting Coating System to these cabinets. This will almost complete a project by Stirling City Council to Stamp out fly-posting and to protect all utility cabinets with the Anti-Flyposting System.
A council spokesman said "We are pleased with the standard of work done by Rhinoceros. The anti-flyposting system is very effective and we are saving on cleaning costs each year where this coating has been applied."
Aldgate Place
20th February 2010
Rhinoceros win praise from Tishman Speyer UK and Ringway Jacobs for completing the new pedestrian subway at Aldgate Place two weeks ahead of schedule. Ringway Jacobs Senior Structures Manager, Tony Cleary and Transport for London Supervising Engineer, David Preece both complimented Rhinoceros staff and operatives for their high standard of workmanship and organisational skills resulting in the early completion of this project.
Tishman Speyer
4th January 2010
Rhinoceros win a contract to construct a pedestrian subway for Tishman Speyer UK at Aldgate. This subway will serve two 21 storey office towers Tishman are building on this site at Aldgate. The subway connects with the recently refurbished underground station at Aldgate East. Rhinoceros were also involved in this work, refurbishing the south east entrance. Rhinoceros are proud to b e associated with Tishman Speyer who are one of the largest developers of real estate in the world.
SMSTS Training
11th December 2009
Rhinoceros senior contracts manager, Keith Jebbitt, and contracts managers, Lloyd Muir, and Dimitar Danchev, attend and complete the Construction Site Managers Safety Training Course run by AMSS in Rayne run by our H & S consultants. All three passed the exam and now hold the Construction Site Managers Safety Certificate.
Edinburgh
4th December 2009
Rhinoceros win a contract to blast clean and repaint two road bridges over a dis-used railway line in Edinburgh near Lochend. The contract, for Edinburgh City Council is the third to have been awarded by ECC to Rhinoceros in just over 2 years. ECC said they were very pleased with the way in which Rhinoceros carry out these contracts and particularly the high standard of workmanship.
Hampshire Bridges
August 2009
Rhinoceros managers and operatives are commended by Hampshire County Council for completing the repainting of 12 bridge parapets on time, within budget and without causing any contamination to the environment. The council said that it had received a number of compliments from residents on the hard working professionalism of the Rhinoceros staff. Highways Dept staff also said that they appreciated the no-nonsense direct communication and honest approach to the work displayed by Rhinoceros Managers.
Hampshire Bridges
July 2009
Using a combination of mechanical and manual methods and with the assistance of a paint disbonder manufactured by International Paints Rhinoceros operatives have won praise from Hampshire CC, the Environment Agency and local wildlife lovers for the measures taken to protect Hampshire rivers and wildlife habitats from the potential risks posed by this type of work.
Hampshire Bridges
June 2009
In June 2009 Rhinoceros Ltd won a contract to repair and paint parapets to 12 bridges for Hampshire County Council. Most of the bridges were over the River Test and its tributaries, one of the most important trout and salmon fishing rivers in England. The task was to remove all of the existing coatings and clean the steel to the standard Sa21/2 without contaminating either the water courses or surrounding wildlife habitats with dust and harmful debris from paint stripping and preparation processes.
RHINOCEROS And The Rhino
Tuesday 30th June 2009
We use the black rhino for our name, so here at rhinoceros we decided to show our appreciation for such a strong, iconic creature by offering our support to Etna, the black rhino. While we charge around UK cleaning and maintaining, Etna charges around her lovely paddock in Kent!
We help to support Etna, who was born at Durr Kralove Zoo in the Czech Republic and arrived in Port Lymne in 1995. The wonderful news of her first calf Tana was followed by more celebration as she is now the proud mother of a second male calf, Grumeti, he is now 18 months old and is growing up under his mother's watchful eye! Tana has since been released into the reserve in South Africa, the native home of the black rhino.
Although you might see us working on the streets, you certainly won’t see Etna there; she is very well looked after at her home in Kent. We hope Etna continues to benefit from our support, and will keep us updated on her progress!
Aldgate Stairs Re-Vamp
Monday 20th April 2009
RHINOCEROS recently refurbished the stairs at the East entrance to the Aldgate subway system. After putting in new tiles hand rails along with refurbishing the actual steps the entrance is much improved, as can be seen in the before and after photos (right).
The client was delighted with the work:
I would very much like to pass on my thanks for an excellent job recently carried out to complete
the revamp of the stair case to Aldgate East Station. The staircase was completed on time and to a very
high standard. Many Thanks for everyone’s effort.
Brian Sugrue, Transport for London
Sector 19A QMS Stage 1 Passed!
Wednesday 25th February 2009
RHINOCEROS has passed the first stage assessment by LRQA towards certification of our Quality Management System for Highways Sector 19A contracts. Below are some of the things the auditor said about us.
The general layout of the QMS and its documentation of it is considered to be very sound, and if the issues raised are addressed and sufficient objective evidence of it being worked as planned provided, then certification at stage 2 is achievable. The Quality Policy is well written and gives clear indication of the company’s intent.
The Company has an ICATS trainer, and has detailed how inspection by ICorr level 1 trained personnel is addressed. Document control requirements for ISO9001:2000 and NHSS19A are addressed in the procedures for control of documents and records.
We are continuing to develop and improve the QMS and are confident we will pass the stage two assessment in the summer and achieve full certification later this year. Meanwhile we are continuing to train our men on the ICATS modules in blast cleaning, surface preparation and paint application.
We are actively reviewing our supply chain to ensure the quality of materials and plant purchased and particularly exploring opportunities for cost savings on raw materials, machinery and plant hire. We intend to be able to deliver a blast cleaning and painting service which is innovative, cost effective and of a very high standard. We can reduce costs and road or lane closure times for the client.
Fully Certified Quality Systems Manager
Tuesday 9th December 2008
Mr Danchev is now qualified to manage the RHINOCEROS Quality Management System satisfying the requirements of UKHSS19A Maintenance Painting of Highway Structures. Mr. Danchev will be responsible for training personnel and supervising internal audits.
The reputation, success, growth and future prosperity of the company, and all who work
within it, is directly related to how closely we can meet or exceed customer expectations
and requirements.
Duncan J MacLean, Managing Director.
TiO2 Self Cleaning Panels at Blackfriars Underpass
Monday 30th June 2008
In January this year we put got permission to put up test panels on both sides of the road at the western end of the Blackfriars Underpass, London. These test panels were covered one half in our TiO2 Nano-Coating and the other half left uncoated.
Shown right is what these pannels looked like less than 4 months after we put them up. The left hand side is uncoated, and the right hand side is coated in photocatalytic TiO2 - need we say more?
This demonstrates just one of the amazing properties of these coatings - just imagine the the saving in cleaning to costs for just about anything you apply these coatings to! If you want to find out more about these coatings please go to Why Should I Use TiO2 Nano-coatings?
