Project Industria is an innovative steel-framed industrial project in East London. It has been described as “a vertical trading estate delivering 45 units within a four-storey structure”. The building in it entirety will deliver approximately 10,000m2 of industrial space. The structure is steel framed and consists of two wings, one three storeys and another four storeys with a service yard in between. As this is one of the first stacked industrial buildings in the UK, similar projects across Europe were inspected and it was decided that steel-framed design was the most efficient and cost-effective solution. BHC designed the steel frame to allow for high loadings, enough to allow in the future for an additional mezzanine level.
As part of the steel construction BHC brought the main columns, spanning up to 25m high to as site as complete members. The heaviest individual steel member within this project weighed in at 17T, 18m x 1,500m deep.
There were a number of locations where the column locations had to be adjusted to suit vehicle access routes, and this resulted in some of the service yard beams having to be cranked, to suit / maintain the drainage falls within the service yards. Some beams required an actual crank, and others only required localised pack plates.
Over the recessed double width Entrance into the structure, there needed to be a 25m span truss, to allow the columns to be removed from the entrance area and to support the floors and structure above. The truss was also prepared to support the canopy over the entrance area. Due to the span and depth of the truss and its close proximity to the main road, the truss was broken down into individual elements, to be assembled on the ground on site, before being craned into position.
