A STRUCTURAL and civil engineering company is providing specialist services for a major new logistics site being developed at Haydock, near St Helens, between Merseyside and Greater Manchester.
Edge Structural Design is providing civil and structural engineering services for the Haydock Green development on greenfield land west of the M6, near Junction 23.
The project centres on the construction of two large warehouses, one on a 7.2-acre plot and the other on a 17-acre plot. The warehouses will be used mainly for climate-controlled storage and distribution but will include some offices.
Edge is a consultant to the developer, Morley Estates, and builder Barnfield Construction.
Pharmaceutical logistics firm Movianto is due to move there next year from its existing base in Knowsley, Merseyside. Movianto’s operations will centre on a 373,000-sq ft climate-controlled distribution centre, which is expected to create employment for 300 people. One hundred existing staff are due to be transferred there from Movianto’s current site at Knowsley Industrial Park.
Work began on-site at Haydock Green in April, 2018, and the handover date is April, 2019.
Edge’s civil and structural engineering services have focused on cut-and-fill earthmoving analysis and highways, car parks, drainage and foundations for the new warehouses.
Adam Sedgwick, founder and managing director of Oldham-based Edge Structural Design, said: “HaydockGreen is the biggest plot of land with the biggest industrial buildings that Edge has worked on to-date.
“The project has required major cut-and-fill analysis and excavations to level the site. We surveyed the topography, which was followed by the excavation and relocation of 42,000 cubic metres of soil to the low areas. The quantity of earth moved was equivalent of 100 Olympic-sized swimming pools. It’s a large site.
“Our civil engineering services include carriageway alterations to widen the A599 Penny Lane to form a third lane and creation of new on-site car parks, access roads and a service yard.
“Our drainage system design uses underground Tubosider stormwater attenuation tanks to capture rainwater and then slowly release it to reduce flooding.
“We are using five underground tanks. Four measure 110 metres long and 2.4 metres in diameter, while the fifth is 132 metres long and 2.4 metres in diameter. Theses can hold a total of 3,200 cubic metres of rainwater, which is seven days’ worth of constant, heavy rainfall.
“Summer rainfall is often heavy and intense, which can cause flooding. In contrast, winter rain tends to fall for longer periods but in lighter volumes. So, the Haydock Green drainage system is designed to hold large quantities of rainwater run-off from this site and release it slowly at the same rate as agricultural green fields.”
Tubosider is based nearby in Sutton, St Helens, and manufacturers corrugated steel pipes, water management systems, culverts and tunnels.
Elsewhere on the Haydock Green site, Edge’s structural engineering work focuses on the large concrete foundations needed for the huge new steel-framed warehouses. The largest warehouse will be 113 metres wide by 323 metres long, and over 15 metres high. It will require 1,100 tonnes of steel frames.
So, Edge has designed foundations using a total of almost 1,000 cubic metres of concrete. The largest foundation measures 4.2 metres by 3.2 metres, which is the size of a standard domestic living room and required 50 cubic metres of concrete.
The land already had a mains water pipeline running below it, serving Warrington and Haydock. This has been retained and the new site’s service yard will be located above the mains pipe. Elsewhere, lagoons have been created nearby to protect wildlife including newts.