Underground utility survey of Denbigh Royal Mail

About the project

The current sorting office in Denbigh is located on Bull Lane, in a large, Victorian building, that can no longer supply the demand of the people of Denbigh and surrounding areas. Due to the ever-growing population, there is a bigger demand for Royal Mail services.

Royal Mail has purchased land and property on a new site, located in an existing and thriving industrial park in Denbigh. They have plans to refurbish and adapt an existing warehouse, to meet their business needs.

The proposed plan is to convert the current warehouse from Class B2 (General industrial and waste management facilities) to Class B8 (warehouse and distribution) to allow for Royal Mail to use the building as a Delivery Office and Customer Collection Point. There are no plans to demolish the building, instead, Royal Mail is utilising the current warehouse and making amendments to suit their requirements, with considerate interior planning and extensions. The new Delivery Office is located just a mile away from the current sorting office’s location. As Denbigh has the only sorting office in North Wales, extra space is needed to be able to meet demand.

Our involvement

The Powers team were requested by their Client to conduct an underground utility detection survey on the proposed, new site. Before any construction work could begin on site, the Client needed to know what utilities were buried underground.

The Challenges

The new site consists of a warehouse and a disused car park, that sits away from the main building. To be able to expand the warehouse to meet the measurement requirements for the new sorting office and customer collection area, the Client’s team needed a highly accurate 2D underground utility detection survey.

Drainage is a key part of development. Sitting away from the main warehouse is an external car park, that will be used for staff. There are plans, to install a Hydrobrake (which prevents flooding by holding back excess water in temporary flood storage areas) to capture runoff from the new parking area. For the Hydrobrake to be installed, understanding where it could be positioned in the car park most cost-effectively was vital.

The Client was provided with a highly accurate 2D underground utility drawing, that was able to give them a clear picture of the utility services under the car park. By providing this underground information to the Client’s team, they were able to excavate the car park, safely and avoid having to move key underground services to fit the Hydrobrake in. Their team was able to dig in the knowledge that there would be no damage to their team or any underground utilities.

The outcome

The development will deliver significant benefits to Royal Mail and the people of Denbigh and the surrounding areas, who rely on the growing postal service. They will have a new fit-for-purpose warehouse, that will be able to keep up with ever-increasing demand.

The whole project is due to be completed by November 2022, with a duration of 16 weeks. The new Delivery Office and Customer Collection Point will welcome employees and customers into the new warehouse before the Christmas period.

Quote

Paul Harris, Contracts Manager for MC Construction – “As the contracts Manager for MC Construction, I’m responsible for overseeing several sites and schemes at once, and I am also involved in the design development. For MC Construction to be able to help Royal Mail develop this existing site, we needed a lot of vital underground information on the location. Powers were able to provide us with an underground utility survey, that was clear and accurate, enabling us to be able to place the Hydrobrake in the most efficient position and excavate the car park, without putting our team and others in danger.”