Caunton supplied the steelwork for one of the biggest warehouses to be built in the North West over the last 10 years. The site is located in Greater Manchester, on Rochdale’s flagship Kingsway Business Park near J21 on the M62. The end user is retail giant JD Sports and as the group has now grown to well over 400 stores, covering sports and branded fashion, this new distribution warehouse is going to be very much in demand. Main Contractor Winvic Construction constructed the building for Wilson Bowden Developments, which features a 616,000sq.ft distribution centre and 250,000sq.ft mezzanine space. Steelwork erection is shown in the photograph.

The steelwork roof framing comprises a five bay portal structure, each bay 37 metres span and 17 metres to eaves. The building is a massive 300—metres long and incorporates nearly 3000te of steelwork.

Steel is fast, flexible and has excellent strength to weight qualities – resulting in this massive warehouse being built in the shortest possible time. Caunton supplied the steelwork on a design and build basis which further accelerated the programme and significantly drove down cost.