Sainsbury's, DIRFT II Rail Construction

VolkerFitzpatrick began work on the design and build of a new 1 million ft2 distribution centre for Sainsbury’s on the Prologis, Daventry International Rail Freight Terminal (DIRFT II). The project also included construction of 75,000ft2 of offices as well as a 770 car parking spaces and a 9,600m2 intermodal rail facility for loading and unloading of containers.

Preparatory works on site included demolition of existing buildings, site remediation and extensive earthworks with an 1,000,000m3 scheme cut and fill and 350,000m3 of soils modification with powders.  

The main facility was constructed of steel frame on traditional strip foundations with a mix of composite and built-up cladding used for the envelope.  

Construction onsite also consisted of a new rail bridge across the A428 and a 9,600m2 intermodal facility to offload containers directly onto lorries or for storage into the warehouses. The existing highways and drainage system was also improved.

A new 500m railway line was also built on a 9m high embankment to run over the A428. The 800m long embankment has a flat section on top to support a 24m section housing four rail tracks. Two of these tracks will stop at the Sainsbury’s depot and two will serve the future development at DIRFT III. 

On top of building Sainsbury’s new distribution centre itself, VolkerFitzpatrick also installed several reinforced earth slopes to enable the construction of an embankment to raise site levels by approximately 14m. This also acts as an environmental bund to provide an acoustic and visual barrier between the distribution centre and a proposed residential development to the west of the site. 

Whilst works onsite continued, we were successful in negotiating the fit out contract for Sainsbury’s. This involved a re-working of the initial build programme to integrate the additional works required into the overall project plan. This resulted in giving the client program certainty for their going live date of February 2015.  

The fit out works included specialist wide aisle racking to the low bay and narrow aisle monorail black box to the high bay, in rack integrated sprinkler systems, offices, conference rooms, toilets and a reception area.   

The distribution centre has also achieved a BREEAM ‘Excellent’ accreditation and the best possible EPC rating for its size.   

Facts and Figures

Client:
Prologis/Sainsbury's
Dates:
September 2013 - February 2015
Duration:
80 weeks
Value:
£110 million
Location:
Daventry International Rail Freight Terminal, Rugby, Warwickshire

What Our Clients Say

JBA achieved a reduction in planned and unplanned work hours between ship 1 and ship 2 in the structures area of 40-45% as opposed to the business expectations of 25%. This reduced the production time from 7 weeks to 4 weeks bringing the milestone payment back on schedule.

PSCM Project Manager BAE Systems

JBA set up a modern, state-of-the-art control centre that coordinated our response to incidents in service, failures and provided a route to short-term mitigations and long-term solutions to prevent re-occurrence. We also for once had a real time visibility of our resources and the competence of staff.

Head of Production Engineering London Underground

With the assistance of JBA, we managed to resolve recurring issues, resulting in reducing financial penalties to our customers by 3.6 million year on year.

CEO Network Rail

Having the knowledge of what to do should a risk occur, as opposed to losing valuable time in crisis management proved invaluable in ensuring the Program was delivered on time and to budget - a fantastic system which we will continue to use.

VP of Change Management ABB

The results go to show that JBA achieved their project brief very successfully...Excellent communication and involvement throughout the process.

Commercial Director Lloyds

In my 35 years of working for New York City Transit, JBA are the first consultants who truly understood our business, implemented real change and delivered sustainable results.

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History in words

Company History

2005

JBA Was formed in Feb. 2005

Initially to provide hands-on consultancy services primarily within the rail industry, the primary clients being London Underground (LUL), Network Rail, Metro trains Melbourne, Sydney Trains, Bombardier Transportation, Metronet Rail, BVT Surface Fleet and BAE Surface Ships , where a variety of roles were undertaken from interim operation management, supply chain management, engineering management to COO and Vice President of Operations Performance.

2017

JBA Change Management Corporation

Currently JBA are working with various Rail Organizations in the US to devise methods of consultant support to improve their business performance. JBA Change Management Corporation (North America) was set up June 2017 to establish a firm base for all contracts in the US going forward and to provide a presence in the North American market.