New DC on 'remnants' of old factory

This also applies to Metal Valley industrial park in Drunen, right on the A59 between Waalwijk and Den Bosch. Commissioned by ASK Romein, Van Berlo recently realized the precast foundation construction and industrial floors for the new Metal Valley DC. Quite a puzzle, given the remnants of the former buildings below ground level.

"Upgrading an old industrial site is an excellent development, but it does require attention," begins Michiel van Zon, commercial technical consultant at Van Berlo. "You have to take into account the existing foundation and remnants of foundation piles below ground level. ASK Romein deliberately chooses to be 'relieved' by us in the area of foundation construction and industrial floors. That gives peace of mind in the organization. We therefore have direct contact with principal structural engineer Goudstikker de Vries with regard to the engineering. After demolishing the old factory halls, the contractor followed our advice to apply soil improvement. The new pile plan for the foundation construction was also coordinated in close consultation. The floors, on the other hand, are founded on steel."

Mini Screed

The complete foundation structure of DC Metal Valley was prefabricated by Van Berlo. Van Zon: "It involves a total of 740 meters of foundation beams and 95 piers. The 42 docks, the loading pit construction, 207 meters of gutter and the drive-up reinforcement are also completely prefabricated. It provides significant time savings and efficiency improvements. The warehouse floor of 27,000 m2 is executed in a traditionally reinforced VB Hecta® Multifunctional jointless floor in accordance with NEN 2747, Class 3. We achieve this flatness by using our Mini Screed machine, an entirely in-house development. Incidentally, we recently put a new remote-controlled Mini Screed into operation. A real first! In DC Metal Valley, we also provided 3,900 m2 of shipping floors, a 4,100 m2 mezzanine floor and 800 m2 of office floors. The outside loading pit à 3,400 m2 is equipped with VB Tera® Terrain Paving."

ASK Romein is a longtime client of Van Berlo. "Together we are already pretty far along in digital file creation. All specifications of the work are recorded in a quality file. From the flatness measurements and measured foundation structures to concrete recipes at daily level. In this way we are already preparing for the Quality Assurance Act that is in the air," Van Zon concludes.