Lancashire Business Park, Leyland

Client: Lancashire County Developments Limited

Architect: Hurd Rolland

Contractor: Bramall Construction and Conlon Construction

Value: £16 million

Thomasons was appointed as lead consultant in the redevelopment of Lancashire Business Park in Leyland, near Preston, to replace a building destroyed in a fire. The business park is one of the North West’s premier business locations with a variety of offices, shops and industrial workplaces.

The fire was said to be the worst in Lancashire for a decade. At the height of the blaze, around 150 firefighters were on site and the main 45,000 sq. ft. warehouse was razed to the ground.

After making the site safe, the priority was to restore and divert the gas and water services. Our engineers then arranged localised demolition and asbestos removal, so that a forensic examination could take place before full demolition to clear the site.

Early planning consent was procured to allow rapid reconstruction. Thomasons designed four new units, ranging from 64,600 sq. ft. to 172,200 sq. ft., to replace the original footprint but set across the business park to minimise future fire risk. Within just one year of the incident, two of the buildings were already partially erected and were fully completed the following year.

The buildings, which measure 39 ft. high to the eaves, have a conventional steel-framed construction with optimal grid spacing and spans to maximise efficiency. They are fully serviced and provide total sprinkler protection.

To minimise excavation, Thomasons salvaged the floor slab of the original building, saving the time and cost of installing a new one. The slab was overlaid for robustness. Piled foundations were chosen as the most suitable solution for the variable ground conditions and to avoid excavating in contaminated ground.

Our engineers also managed to salvage the existing drainage system, thereby avoiding expensive attenuation. This was achieved through a detailed investigation of the existing system, careful location of the new buildings and reconnecting the drainage in key locations only.




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