Carillion sets up M6 rescue service

Black Country-based building giant Carillion has set up a rapid-response base to rescue broken-down vehicles while it works on part of the M6.

The new base, in a unit on the Bloxwich Estate just off Junction 10, will house construction equipment and up to 20 staff working on the 96 million Birmingham Box traffic management scheme.

This involves installing gantries, safety fencing and new technology to speed up the flow of traffic on motorways around Birmingham, including setting up variable speed limits and use of the hard shoulder between Junctions 8 and 10A on the M6.

The Bloxwich site will also monitor CCTV images from the motorway while work is under way. Because narrow lanes are coned off to enable work to go on while the motorway is in use, there is no hard shoulder or emergency telephones.

In the event of a breakdown staff at the base will be able to despatch free recovery trucks to motorists and bring them and their vehicles to the Bloxwich site to await assistance from recovery services like the AA or RAC.

Carillion, which employs 800 people at its city centre headquarters offices in Wolverhampton, has agreed a lease for the 40,743 sq ft unit with site owners London and Cambridge Properties (LCP).

Peter Collins, Carillion's public liaison officer, said: We were looking for a location for a base for our M6 works project and the Bloxwich Estate fitted the bill. Normally we use a green field site where we can set up temporary cabins to form a compound. This arrangement has saved time.

We already have our main compound at Coleshill, but we also required accommodation for a satellite office.

Margaret Hopkins, LCP's marketing director, said: We were delighted to be able to satisfy Carillion's requirement for premises very close to this busy section of the motorway. We have a broad portfolio of properties, in both size and location, and this wide range and our flexible approach to property letting, means we can do more to accommodate businesses and their needs.

Pensnett-based LCP is one of the UKs largest private owners of industrial and retail property, managing assets worth more than 970 million.