Great expectations at Charles Dickens House
Thanks to great teamwork, a water shut down caused minimum disruption, without a ‘Twist’
)
Charles Dickens House in Tower Hamlets is a huge block – 130 flats over 22 floors.
Recent essential repair work to an underground water supply pipe, meant that the whole block would be without water for hours whilst the repair was completed. We knew that this was going to be a huge job for the teams involved to cause minimum disruption to customers.
And, due to the emergency nature of the repair, we knew that we could receive very short notice on when the water was going to be switched off, so it was essential that customers were prepared.
Teams were involved from across Hyde, including Property Services, Safer Homes and Neighbourhoods teams. Colleagues all worked together to put customers first – from arranging water drops, to hand delivering letters so that that customers knew what to do in time for the water shut off.
Customers were advised to store water, as well as turn off their taps and remove plugs from basins and sinks for when the water was turned back on.
The situation was made even trickier by the fact that the excavation took longer than expected, so the water turn off kept being postponed – meaning more updates were needed for customers.
And the work didn’t end after the water was finally restored. Colleagues from Neighbourhoods and Property Services teams were then onsite to carry out practical activities. A floor-by-floor check was carried out, asking residents if their water supply had been restored. If residents weren’t in, colleagues listened for running water – in case taps had been left on.
Steve Austin, Head of Property Maintenance (London) said: “This was a huge undertaking, with a longer timeline than expected due to the complex nature of the repair. But, thanks to everybody pulling together, including our contractor - the TW Drainage site team, the work was completed without incident and with minimal risk and disruption for our residents.”
Thank you to everybody involved. And thank you to residents at Charles Dickens House for your co-operation, which made it much easier to fix the problem and minimise disruption.