Sainsbury's, DIRFT II
VolkerFitzpatrick began work on the design and build of a new 1 million ft2 distribution centre for Sainsbury’s on the Prologis, Daventry International Rail Freight Terminal (DIRFT II). The project also included construction of 75,000ft2 of offices as well as a 770 car parking spaces and a 9,600m2 intermodal rail facility for loading and unloading of containers.
Preparatory works on site included demolition of existing buildings, site remediation and extensive earthworks with an 1,000,000m3 scheme cut and fill and 350,000m3 of soils modification with powders.
The main facility was constructed of steel frame on traditional strip foundations with a mix of composite and built-up cladding used for the envelope.
Construction onsite also consisted of a new rail bridge across the A428 and a 9,600m2 intermodal facility to offload containers directly onto lorries or for storage into the warehouses. The existing highways and drainage system was also improved.
A new 500m railway line was also built on a 9m high embankment to run over the A428. The 800m long embankment has a flat section on top to support a 24m section housing four rail tracks. Two of these tracks will stop at the Sainsbury’s depot and two will serve the future development at DIRFT III.
On top of building Sainsbury’s new distribution centre itself, VolkerFitzpatrick also installed several reinforced earth slopes to enable the construction of an embankment to raise site levels by approximately 14m. This also acts as an environmental bund to provide an acoustic and visual barrier between the distribution centre and a proposed residential development to the west of the site.
Whilst works onsite continued, we were successful in negotiating the fit out contract for Sainsbury’s. This involved a re-working of the initial build programme to integrate the additional works required into the overall project plan. This resulted in giving the client program certainty for their going live date of February 2015.
The fit out works included specialist wide aisle racking to the low bay and narrow aisle monorail black box to the high bay, in rack integrated sprinkler systems, offices, conference rooms, toilets and a reception area.
The distribution centre has also achieved a BREEAM ‘Excellent’ accreditation and the best possible EPC rating for its size.
