FM Conway - Going the Extra Mile

Going the Extra Mile

T he decade had started with a high-profile project, The Queen’s Gardens, and it was going to end with another one, using pretty much the same team that had done the job in Croydon: Jim Manning, the Murtagh brothers, and Patsy McEneany. The Borough of Kensington and Chelsea wanted us to resurface Portobello Market. It should have been a good job. The problem was that they wanted us to lay it using sets that they had already bought from Portugal. When Jim started on the job, he found that not only were all the levels wrong, but also that the sets the Council had provided were very badly made: they were different heights and different widths, and they were a nightmare to lay. Jim had a terrible time on that job. He and the Engineer, Dana Skelley, had to re-design the job as they went along in order to get it to fit.

Portobello Road Market. Resurfacing the road was a high-profile job, but turned into a nightmare when we found that the sets that had been provided for the job were all of irregular sizes.

The 1980s had been a very successful time for the company. Our turnover had grown from £1 million at the start of the period to £10 million at the end. We had our own offices and yard, and we had our own small fleet of vehicles and plant. We had a tremendous amount to

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