Aldi Naas

This £25 million construction project was for a 36,000m2 Regional Distribution Centre on 30 acres of Industrial Land. The building incorporates a 6,000m2 freezer/chiller warehouse and an adjoining 2-storey office building of 2,000m2. Jenkins & Potter’s infrastructure brief not only included the design of the car park and service yards, but also a new 400m public access road alongside the Aldi site. A process known as lime cement stabilisation was required to improve and strengthen the silty clays to make the site suitable. Drainage on such a large site is particularly challenging, and SUDS principles were incorporated into the car park surface water drainage, which is allowed to percolate into the ground.

A steel frame with a 15m x 20m column grid designed to have orthogonal continuous beams, was chosen for the structure on the basis of a minimum weight/cost analysis. With a height to eaves of 8.5m and an 800m perimeter, the external walls’ inner skin was formed of precast concrete planks which minimised cost and the construction programme.