Northern Ireland: Caterpillar NI Headquarters

DAWSON-WAM Ltd were appointed principle contractor for the design and construction of a new headquarters complex and distribution depot for the Caterpillar Agents for Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland – McCormick MacNaughton Ltd.

A complete package was supplied to the client which consisted of the construction of specialised workshops, stores and two-storey administration accommodation.  Access roads, concrete hard standings, hard landscaping and installation of associated utilities were also completed.

The warehousing consisted of a steel portal framed building with facing brick and 4000 m2 of profiled metal cladding.  The main warehouse building was subdivided into various parts with specialist roles – each section’s design was tailored to suit the varied applications such as main workshop (835 m2), track workshop (270 m2), spray room (70 m2), parts store (585 m2), tyre store (310 m2) and administration offices (870 m2).

The site required large scale cut to fill earthworks with over 10,500 m3 of material being moved to allow construction to commence.  Large quantities of stone were imported onto site to provide a suitable formation for the warehousing.  600m3 of reinforced concrete was placed during the construction of the ground floor slab, pad and strip foundations.

Speed of construction was a project driver during design and construction with profiled metal decking with an insitu reinforced concrete deck employed for first floor construction.

Construction of 1400 m2 of blockwork walls and 660 m2 of brick faced cavity walls completed the facade of the building.

The extensive groundworks package included construction of access roads to the front of the building including laying 450 m2 of bitmac and placement of over 2,300 m2 of brick paviors.

The client’s heavy construction plant and equipment business designated the yard to the rear of the building as an area of high loading and abrasion, which was the key element within the design of the 3,150 m2 of concrete placed within this area.

Installation of 1,000 m of foul and storm drainage and associated manholes and gullies were installed around the complex.

To showcase the client’s plant and equipment a 4m high secant piled retaining wall over 200m in length was constructed to provide prominent split level hardstanding visible to traffic along Northern Ireland’s busiest motorway.  This installation was carried out using DAWSON-WAM’s specialised cased CFA piling system and was finished with the installation of a capping beam and crash barriers to maximise the potential area available to the client.

The complex was finished by providing full landscaping around the site involving sowing grassed areas and tree planting to blend the industrial unit into its surroundings.

A rapid construction programme balanced the building’s functionality with high aesthetic qualities thus providing the client with an ideal purpose built headquarters and distribution depot.