Tuesday 26 September 2017

Supporting the development of Suffolk's new 750,000 sq ft logistics hub

Port One, as it is so casually referred to, is St James Park by its official name. Located outside Blakenham, Ipswich, it is no less than a massive warehousing and logistics hub to support the ever increasing flow in and out of the port of Felixstowe.

Felixstowe handles 42% of Britain's containerised freight. That's more than 4million TEUs (Twenty-foot Equivalent Units) , welcoming approximately 3,000 ships each year, including the largest container vessels afloat today – crucially, the port provides some of the deepest water close to the open sea of any European port.

https://youtu.be/9WCD70U05mM
Click on the image to see video

Suffolk’s business community has long argued that warehousing space is in short supply in the county. St James Park would service both local and regional needs as well as support onward freight from Felixstowe as it disperses inbound goods throughout the 'Golden Triangle'.


St James Park is a £72 million, 750,000 sq ft development headed by Curson de Vere. Curson say it has already received unprecedented levels of enquiry from national and international business extending to China and mainland Europe.

Warehousing means trucks, trucks mean traffic, traffic means congestion. But, arrangements ensure that freight haulage vehicles enter and leave the site via the A14, junction 52.


On the site itself, the infrastructure and the warehousing structures are being engineered by JMS Civil and Structural Engineering in consultation with both the developers and end users.

Structurally, we are dealing with a large span multi-bay warehouse and distribution unit. The main steelwork employs hot-rolled steel framing.

In multi-span portal framed construction such as this, valley beams are used to eliminate some of the internal columns. Alternate columns are omitted to maximise access and space within the unit. The valley of the frame is supported on a valley beam spanning between the columns of adjacent frames, which is often referred to as 'hit and miss' frames. The frames with the columns are the 'hit' frames.

Design efficiency is maximised using Masterseries MasterPort software:

Click on the image for a brief video demonstration
Drainage management on a site of this scale is practically an art form executed with precision engineering. Access and exit, standing, loading bays (of which there are hundreds) on a 24 hour rotation, 365 days of the year form just part of the challenge.

The drainage will be a combination of SUDS (sustainable drainage solutions) features from permeable paving, swales and infiltration lagoons to manage the surface water at source.
   
JMS have engineered a foundations solution as the site requires extensive levelling to form plateaus for each of the warehouses. The fill areas will be soil stabalised to achieve the bearing capacity and balanced cut and fill volumes across the site.

There is a need to achieve flood control; acceptable run-off rates; minimise pollution; re-charge groundwater; and all within an enhanced environmental brief as well.  Subsurface drainage has to meet its load bearing challenges and surfaces need to consider the attenuation requirements of vehicle oil and gas leakage as well as rainfall containment and flow management.

Just part of JMS' involvement in redeveloping the future of Suffolk.




We add value to every project we have been,
are, and will be equally proud to support.

01473 487 047
https://jmsengineers.co.uk/
https://jmsengineers.co.uk/









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