Eve

EVE RACES AHEAD WHEN IT COMES TO BARRIER CONTROL

Having doubled its involvement in mass participation events over the last five years, Eve has calculated that it provided crowd control barriers on over two million metres of race routes in the last 12 months equating to hundreds of thousands of metres of barriers and fencing being utilised annually by the UK’s most prestigious competitive road races.

Celebrating 45 years in the industry, Eve has supplied the widest range of temporary access systems within the market to over 100,000 contracts and is now, amongst its other products and services, becoming reputed for its specialist mass participation barrier service.  This enviable reputation is mirrored in Eve’s extremely high customer retention within this sector.

Barriers are essential to ensuring the safety of spectators and participants and the overall accessibility of an event.  Therefore, taking into consideration the 35,000 participants the likes of the Virgin London Marathon attracts, it is vital that the route is protected, participants are kept on the road and spectators remain safely on the pavement.

Eve’s industry experience means the products it uses are very much ‘tried and tested’ in terms of their durability and stability at a wide variety of different events and sites, and its stock ranges from government agency-approved heavy-duty crowd-control barriers to lightweight barriers plus specially angled barriers for the start and finish of races.

Rick Barnett, Managing Director of Eve said: “Eve is committed to ensuring mass participation and specialist events are provided with unrivalled service and expertise and as such our approach is continuously reviewed to adapt to changing customer, product and service requirements and health and safety regulations.

“Eve’s specialist barrier service allows our project managers and engineers to provide comprehensive advice regarding customers’ requirements matched to route analysis as well as rapid installation and extraction, a deep resource of product, labour and specialist fleet, flexible and prompt stand-by crews for last minute and unexpected changes, meticulous attention to detail and regulations – but with 45 years in the business one would expect no less!”

One of Eve’s long-standing barrier contracts is with the Virgin London Marathon, an event which Eve has been providing crowd barrier solutions to for the past 25 years, culminating in the largest contract to date in 2011.  Over 30,000 metres of demarcation barriers - including 20km of 5ft Heavy Duty Barriers and 10km of GT Lightweight Barriers - were installed, maintained and removed along the route, which saw a 100-strong crew utilising over 40 vehicles to deliver a quality service on time and budget and with minimal disruption in the Capital.

Lisa Thompson, Assistant Race Director/Operations, Virgin London Marathon commented: “In some places we use barriers to create pens, such as crossing points where spectators can cross the route while the race is in progress.  Barriers also help to enforce road closures and protect drinks stations.”

Eve’s commitment to ‘green’ is demonstrated by buying the highest quality barriers - to maximise their longevity of use particularly when they are utilised so frequently - implementing an extensive programme of maintenance/recycling and adapting transportation methods/vehicles to maximise loads and cut Eve’s carbon footprint.  The latter saw Eve developing deployable ‘side walkways’ on the new barrier wagons which also improved safety and efficiency, eased barrier deployment and recovery, reduced lifting and allowed almost continuous installation, which is crucial for the Virgin London Marathon, resulting in a smoother service delivery.

Lisa continued: “We have worked with Eve for many years and each year we make minor adjustments to help the operation run more smoothly.  It is a huge task, several thousand metres of barriers to be installed in just a few days and collected immediately afterwards.  The Eve team are very accustomed to working in London and I never have to explain where things are, even on the more remote areas of the route.  The team also understand the sensitivity of certain areas and work hard to ensure that stakeholders are comfortable with their work schedule and procedures.” 

Eve’s business is growing year-on-year with new events being added to its schedule continually – the latest mass participation contract being with the 2012 Brighton Marathon.  This will see Eve providing all its barriers and fencing for the start, course and finish of the race. Other major events which Eve supplies its barrier and fencing products and service include the London Duathlon, London Triathlon and the Great North Run.

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