CTS Shopfitting LtdSainsbury’s LeedsTrain Station

Leeds 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.

History and Future Plans forLeeds Train Station

CTS Shopfitting Ltd

Overcome Complications

Once 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 storepremises.

CDG4 drawing- Showing

the layout of the store.

Work starts at Sainsbury’s latest retail venture

Given 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.

Once 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 han-

dover.

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.

New Sainsbury’s store inLeeds was completed ontime and ready to open

The grand opening of the new Sainsbury’s store