Shurgard Woolwich

Our first self-storage project for Shurgard UK involved the construction of a new £11 million, self-storage facility in London. The proposed works were to provide a purpose built self-storage facility [circa 10,900m²] at Nathan Way, Woolwich.

There were the inevitable challenges that can accompany construction in London and Woolwich was no exception, before we broke ground there was evidence of a single mammal hole, which if occupied by a badger would have delayed the project by a minimum of 4 months, luckily after a week of time lapse imagery it turned out to be an abandoned sett.

The next minor test was piling directly above the multi £billion cross rail tunnel project. The 2 tunnels were only 19m below FFL and the substructure was made up of a band of peat overlying river terrace gravels and Thanet sands. Due to the poor ground conditions the piling design was changed from CFA to Continuous Helical Displacement (CHD), this allowed the designers to reduce the number of piles from 1,388 to 348 and also ensure there were minimal risings being produced that would have to be removed from the site.

The proposed works comprised the construction of a ground + 3 storey steel framed building with composite clad roof and walls. The internal fit out included; 3 passenger/goods lifts serving 3 mezzanine floors and over 1250 storage units with associated M&E services. The external works included; secure access control, car parking facilities and landscaped areas.

The project took 36 weeks to complete utilising a total of 471 personnel on site. The scope of works included:

Piling

RC slabs

Steel frame erection

Cladding & Roof

Blockwork

Curtain walling and feature glazing

Partitioning

Lift installation

Electrical & Mechanical installation

Fit out

Commissioning

Sub-structure works, including reduced level dig, drainage

Also, worthy of note is that the building received the Extraordinary Achievement Award from FEDESSA