The Inside Story Of Building JLR's Midlands Shed
How do you squeeze a 10-year phased development into a single-phase, two-year project to build 2.94M SF?
The answer: using special earthmovers and nearly 8 miles of drains.
IM Properties has appointed contractor Winvic Construction to work in partnership with its in-house project delivery team to construct Jaguar Land Rover’s global parts depot at the 238-acre Mercia Park site at junction 11 of the M42 motorway.
The 2.94M SF development is being forward funded by Intermediate Capital Group in a £330M deal.
“Typically a scheme of this scale would be delivered in separate phases over a five-to-10-year period,” IM Properties Project Director Jason Jasper said. Instead, this scheme will be delivered in one mighty phase ending in September 2022.
The accelerated development programme includes remodelling of 1.5M cubic metres (53M cubic feet) of material to accommodate the development plateaux using a pioneering crawler excavator, one of the first of its kind in the UK. It is capable of moving vast quantities of earth.
Additionally, 25,000 feet of underground drainage was installed and utilities were brought in from up to 7 miles in either direction of the scheme to connect up with 9 miles of electrical infrastructure, 7 miles of mains drainage and 6 miles of gas infrastructure.
The new global parts logistics centre for Jaguar Land Rover will include six buildings, ranging from 30K SF to 1M SF, enabling the company to consolidate 19 warehouses in 10 different UK locations into one global aftermarket parts operation.
