Concrete-filled steel columns form Corby cold store

Designed to improve their thermal quality, a total of 175 concrete-filled columns have been erected to form a new cold storage facility in Corby.

The columns were prepared offsite by Billington Structures who constructed a purpose-built grillage at its Wombwell yard, that enabled the columns to be stood upright while they were filled with concrete.

In order to not exceed their transport trailers 25t-capacity, the 3t columns were delivered to site in groups of eight.

The concrete-filled SHS columns are 300mm x 300mm sections that support the facility’s first floor and surround the ground floor goods-in area.

Spliced to the top of each column is another smaller 250mm x 250mm SHS section, which takes each member to the building’s 20m full height.

Owned and operated by ColdStore, the new building forms the second phase of construction at the site. Similar in size to the initial phase, the latest work consists of a 133m-long goods-in and picking building, with an attached high-bay pallet storage structure.

The goods-in area is located on the ground floor of the 20m-high two-storey structure. This floor has a row of docking bays for delivery trucks, while internally it will contain a conveyor system and automated mono-rail to dispatch frozen food items around the warehouse and into the adjoining high-bay pallet storage building.