Distribution
NSC 19
May 18
Manager Stephen Jay-Hanmer, his company
has had a long relationship with Magna Park
as it has erected seven previous buildings
on the site prior to starting on Plot 510 (see
box) and then the larger Plot 520.
Main contractor VolkerFitzpatrick began
work on Plot 520 in December 2017 and
started by installing pad foundations in
readiness for the steel package.
Speed is of the essence for all
construction projects, but possibly more so
with distribution centres. From the moment,
the main contractor starts on-site, its main
objective is to get the frame up as quickly as
possible.
“The weather hasn’t been great this winter
but the steelwork has been unaffected
by the wet and snowy conditions,” says
VolkerFitzpatrick Project Manager Jon
Evans. “The entire steel frame was up in just
10 weeks.”
Plot 520 measures 349m-long ×
200m-wide and is 20m-high. Inside its
mammoth interior of 72,000m2 it could
Working on behalf of Readie Construction,
Severfield has also recently completed
Magna Park Plot 510, a building that
Gazeley claims is the tallest and largest speculative
logistics warehouse in the UK.
Known as Altitude, the warehouse is 21m-high
and 410m-long × 126m-wide. The building offers
51,660m² of floorspace - equal in size to seven football
pitches - and is formed by four 31.5m-wide spans.
Construction of the warehouse began in August
2017 and took 26 weeks to complete. Within that
overall programme, the steelwork package, which
comprised of 2,300t, was erected in six weeks.
Severfield Operations Manager Stephen Jay-
Hanmer says: “We had two main erection teams
working on the project, one starting at one end of the
building and the other starting in the middle.
“Both worked in the same direction using four
mobile cranes each and, due to our design and onsite
expertise, the first team connected their final steel
elements seamlessly to the parts that had already
been erected.”
Severfield had 40 men on site to complete Plot
510, which included a third gang using a single crane
to erect the warehouse’s office block and ancillary
buildings.
The building is said to feature an innovative
design which provides occupiers with the highest
degree of operational flexibility and efficiency. Some
of its features include: an enhanced mezzanine
capacity and an increased number of pallet positions;
double deck loading doors in every position, at a
ratio of one door per 418m² - reducing time as well
as financial and environmental operating costs
for occupiers; an increased incoming power load
provision of up to 4 MVA to cater for the evolving
needs of customers, and designed to the WELL Ready
Standard certification, which is said to make the
building a healthier and more productive space for its
occupants.
Commenting on the development, Gazeley
Development Director Joe Garwood said: “Magna
Park, Milton Keynes is already one of the UK’s most
established hubs for logistics, and the development
of Altitude will only serve to strengthen that position
and appeal to occupiers as a leading location for
ecommerce, logistics and distribution companies.
“Altitude brings together a combination of
innovation, technology, efficiency, sustainability
and intelligent logistical thinking from some of the
most experienced figures in the business to create a
building that sets a new benchmark for the industry.”
Taller the
better
Illustration showing
the entire Magna Park
site with Plot 520 in the
foreground and Plot
510 top left
520’s frame was
erected in ten weeks
20
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/Retail_buildings#Distribution_warehouses
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/Single_storey_industrial_buildings#Mezzanines
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