CTS Shopfitting Ltd Sainsbury’s Leeds Train Station
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History and Future Plans for Leeds Train Station
eeds railway station, which is also known as Leeds City Station, is the mainline railway station serving the city centre of Leeds in West Yorkshire, England. The station in 2008/2009 was voted the busiest railway station in the North of England and the third busiest in the United Kingdom outside of London after Birmingham New Street and Glasgow Central. With 17 platforms, this makes Leeds train station the largest station in England outside of London. The station itself provides connections to; London, Bristol, Plymouth, Nottingham, Birmingham, Newcastle upon Tyne, York, Edinburgh, Manchester, Liverpool and Doncaster as well as to local regional destinations within Yorkshire. According to Network Rail who manages the station, over 36.8 million people use Leeds train station annually. The station is situated on a hill falling down to the River Aire and Leeds canal basin on New Street Station. Much of the station is supported by a large number of Victorian brick vaulted arches, which locals refer to as the “Dark Arches”. Under the “Dark Arches” in Granary Wharf is a large shopping centre which consists of cafes, restaurants, shops and exhibition spaces. Retail facilities within the station includes; Starbucks, Wetherspoons, Burger King, McDonalds, two branches of WH Smiths, Boots, Upper Crust and a Marks and Spencer simply foods store. A British Transport Police station was originally situated on the North concourse housing offices, which policed the West Yorkshire railway stations, however, the British Transport Police have celebrated the opening of a new state of the art police station at Leeds Railway Station, which has been designed to improve the service the force offers. The new British Transport Police station is located outside the station’s main entrance. With the British Transport Police moving in to new premises leaving their old premises vacant. This was an ideal opportunity for Sainsbury’s Ltd to open a new store on the concourse area of the station with a ready-made daily customer base and an excellent business opportunity for Sainsbury’s Ltd in Leeds.
CTS Shopfitting Ltd
Overcome Complications
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nce an approach was made by Sainsbury’s regarding the vacant premises, Network Rail agreed to undertake the necessary internal demolition work in order to provide Sainsbury’s with a shell. However, due to the age of the building and its historical importance the demolition work was not without its complications. Inside the former police station were art deco ceilings and friezes, together with five fluted columns, ornate architraves and storage cupboard, all of which had to be retained as part of the store refurbishment works. This in itself would cause challenges in designing the layout of the store, nothing could be fixed to the art deco ceiling, nor could the usual suspended ceiling be installed to hide all the electrical cables, air conditioning and ventilation pipe ducts. Yet, the planners wanted the customers to be able to see the ceiling and columns whilst shopping. It was agreed that a Gripple system consisting of eye bolts and catenary wires stretched across the front to back wall would be used and all the electrical and mechanical equipment would be hung off this system, thus, protecting and keeping the art deco ceiling intact. Other complications included the different types of floor finishes, the strength of the floor to take the normal weight of the gondolas and fridge cases, store layout, insufficient electrical power and water supplies. All of the above challenges had to be overcome and therefore solutions had to be found. With regards to the power and water supplies, Network Rail agreed to upgrade these items as part of the shell specification previously submitted to them by
Sainsbury’s. Network Rail also undertook the structural load calculation of the floor area to see if it would meet Sainsbury’s specification and requirement. The problem with the floor was that beneath it, were the cellars and storage areas of the Queens Hotel and inside the proposed store the floor was a mixture of Parquet flooring, loose mosaic tiles, concrete and timber. The floor loading calculation was calculated at only 4Kn/m2 when Sainsbury’s standard specification was 7Kn/m2. In order to overcome this situation the structural engineers calculated that with the use of steel spreader plates underneath the fridge cases and gondola racking, this situation could be overcome as the weight of the fridges and racking would be spread evenly across the floor. With the above in mind a pre-start meeting was requested by Network Rail and attended by them together with Sainsbury’s Project Manager, and representatives from the Main Contractor CTS Shopfitting Ltd and its nominated subcontractors for Mechanical and Electrical installations Airkool. During this meeting it was evident that Network Rail had not installed the new electrical power supply nor upgraded the water supply. At the same time CTS Shopfitting Ltd had not had their Risk and Method Statements approved by the Health and Safety Consultant working on behalf of Network Rail. Consequently the proposed start date on site of May 9 2011 could not be achieved. It was agreed by all parties that it would take approximately two weeks to get all the necessary upgrades and approvals in place, a site date of Tuesday 31 May 2011 would be achievable to start work on the retail store.
Drawing- Showing the original layout of the store premises.
CDG4 drawing- Showing the layout of the store.
Work starts at Sainsbury’s latest retail venture G
iven the location of the proposed store Network Rail imposed a restriction that no materials or large pieces of equipment were to be taken across the concourse area during 6.00am to 10.00pm. This was deemed a peak period for members of the public using the concourse area to access the appropriate trains and other retail facilities. Work commenced on the new store on Tuesday 31 May, as agreed, and this involved undertaking the site set up of welfare facilities, storage facilities and skip location for removal of rubbish etc. The first item on the programme was to remove all the loose mosaic floor tiles and plane the floor to leave a level finish ready to receive the vinyl floor covering. In order to carry out this work specialist machines with a weight restriction being placed on them because of the floor situation had to be taken in to the proposed store. The machines were delivered to site at 4.00am on Wednesday 1 June and were taken across the concourse area from the short stay car park area and
this operation was concluded by 6.00am. A temporary power supply was installed for the machines to use as well as providing power for the Main Contractor to commence work in cleaning and clearing out the existing building. By midday on Thursday 2 June it became evident that once the loose mosaic floor tiles had been removed, the sand and cement bed on which the tiles had been laid, was loose in several areas. Consequently all of the bed approximately 15 to 20mm had to be removed to get down to a solid base. All the work in removing the existing floor materials was completed on Friday afternoon 3 June 2011. On Monday 6 June, again it was an early start as the specialist floor machines had to be removed and the necessary floor screeding materials taken in to the store before 6.00am and by Wednesday night the replacement floor screed had been completed. On Thursday 9 June, the installation of the Gripple system commenced together with the building of the internal walls as per the drawing. The store had begun to take shape.
New Sainsbury’s store in Leeds was completed on time and ready to open O
nce the Gripple system had been completed, the installation of both the lighting and mechanical systems could commence. These installations brought about their own challenges in achieving level service ducts and trays to receive the numerous cables etc which would normally be concealed by a traditional suspended ceiling, however, due to the Art Deco ceilings we were not allowed to install a suspended ceiling. On completion of the lighting system the Conservation Officer visited the site to check on progress and during this visit, the Conservation Officer was unhappy with the lighting in the checkout area, as it did not highlight the Art Deco ceiling. As a result of this, the lighting design was amended to incorporate eight number uplighters in the checkout area with two uplighters being installed on each wall to enhance the appearance of the ceiling. The fit out of the store continued in accordance with the programme of works, with lots of additional hours being worked both early in a morning and late evenings in order to get the materials and equipment in to the store. As the work progressed and with the store hand over date of 15 July 2011 rapidly approaching everyone pulled together
to ensure the handover date was successfully achieved. The store received its first stock delivery in the early hours of the morning on 15 July and following a successful handover. The store manager and colleagues set about stocking the shelves with produce over the weekend. Additional deliveries of stock arrived over the next few days and the store began to take shape and look like a Sainsburys Local store. On the morning of Wednesday 20 July the store commenced trading at 6.00am and the launch of the store took place at 10.30am the same day. Representatives from the Yorkshire New Age Kurling Team, who are members of the Federation of Disability Sports Organisation, officially opened the store. As part of Sainsburys on going Community Spirit programme, the Federation of Disability Sports Organisation (FDSO) were presented with two New Age Kurling Kits to be used by children during their preparations for the 2011 championship. Kevan Halliday-Brown Chief Executive Officer from the FSDO was delighted with Sainsbury’s kind donation and stated how their previous kits had reached the end of there life expectancy and the new equipment would enable the children to continue playing the game they really enjoyed.
The grand opening of the new Sainsbury’s store