infocus
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PROJECT
Noble Foods
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SERVICES
Civil, Structural and Environmental
On a 10 hectare site near Standlake in Oxfordshire, Noble Foods wished to expand an existing small warehouse facility into a much larger central packaging and distribution hub. The centrepiece of the project was a new 90m x 70m building with a distinctive curved profile which would accommodate offices, process areas for grading, sorting and packaging as well as warehouse areas for storage. Externally the works included a new 200m access road, staff car parking and lorry yards with weighbridges and vehicle wash facilities, as well as widening of the A415 main road to provide a turning lane and improved public transport links to the works.
Westlakes were appointed as the civil, structural and geo-environmental engineers for the project. Our scope covered the structural design of the new distribution warehouse, including the new 3-storey office block along it’s northern gable, as well as the design of modifications to the retained, existing warehouse. Foundations were ground bearing floor slab and perimeter retaining walls to the new warehouse.
The civils design also included below ground drainage for the development to accept surface water, foul and general effluent. All surface water was designed to drain via gravity to a number of large soakaways formed in clean stone wrapped in a geotextile filter fabric. Perforated pipes within the stone allow additional attenuation storage. Given the rural location of the site, the foul and effluent drainage had to be pumped via a private rising main to the adopted network, approximately 0.5km south-east of the site.
