Bristol XL

Avonmouth, Bristol is well tracked ground for the rigs of
Aarsleff’s UK business, Aarsleff Ground Engineering. The
ever-developing commercial hub sees a new warehouse or full
logistics park go up each year and Aarsleff has installed the
foundations for nearly all the existing mega sheds on the flat
plain near where the Bristol Channel meets the River Severn.
This work provided the perfect background for what has become
the UK business’ largest ever project.

Working for ISG, the Driven Piling division started in September
2022 installing an estimated 15,216 driven precast concrete piles
using five of Aarsleff’s Junttan piling rigs. The work continues
with a projected project timeline of 18 weeks, due to be finished
at the start of February 2023, with a potential for an additional
300-400 piles to be added prior to completion. Coming in at
around 190,000 linear metres of Centrum UK’s precast concrete
piles, coordination and logistics have had to play a major role.
Managed by Major Project Manager, Parth Patel, the project was
initially won in July 2022 by Bid Manager, Dan Coe. The project
has been an ongoing collaboration between the entire Driven
Piling department in the UK, headed by Driven Piling Director,
Mark Fuller, and Operations Director, Dan Broadley. The team
have worked tirelessly to ensure communication has been
maintained with the client and programmes have been met or
exceeded. A project on this scale requires expert coordination
and that’s where the Driven Piling team excel.

The logistics park will offer two grade-A opportunities of
406,000 and 882,000 sq. ft, with one of the sheds being the
largest ever speculatively built warehouse in the UK. The park
will total 1.3 million sq. ft of space, providing significant scale to
the under-supplied national market.

For the end client, a key scheme theme is sustainability. Both
units will target a BREEAM ‘Excellent’ and EPC ‘A’ rating, along
with benefiting from standard sustainability features such as a
roof-mounted solar PV array, 15% warehouse rooflights and EV
charging points. They want to be at the forefront of the green
transition of the commercial sector in the UK, and Aarsleff have
been proud to contribute to this effort by providing CO2e data
for the piles installed and their transport to site from Centrum’s
Newark factory.

Speaking on managing the project, Parth Patel, Major Projects
Manager, said, “Bristol XL has been challenging to manage due
to the number of changes to the end structure by the client. The
communication within our department (Driven Piling &
Commercial) has been excellent as we were able to capture each
and every variation and communicate this clearly to our client,
ISG. This positive collaboration has meant we have received
instructed variations of over £700k, increasing the value of this
project to £8.4m. Centrum were also able to supply these
additional special cast piles in a timely manner to ensure no
delays on site. A great project for all involved.”