Chefs Culinar, Nijmegen | Complete concrete shell from a single source

Behind the current premises of Chefs Culinar in Nijmegen, right next to the A73 freeway, a completely new distribution center with a large freezer cell was built in a short period of time. As a total supplier of precast concrete, Preco was responsible for the delivery of the entire concrete shell. Despite the substantial and structurally very heavy construction, the challenge in this project was in a completely different aspect. An interview with Theo Kool of Preco.

Available space on this project was very limited.

The new Chefs Culinar building is 18 meters high, 17,500 m² in size and is connected to the existing building by a walkway. During the period between summer and Christmas 2019, Preco was commissioned by Wijnen Bouw Horst to supply, among other things, the beams and columns for the construction of the building. "In consultation with the structural engineer, we made some optimizations here and there during the preliminary phase in order to make production and assembly as optimal as possible," says Kool. "The available space on this project was very limited. It was really building on a postage stamp."

Constructively very strong

The concrete shell was assembled in a time frame of only about 12 weeks. "To keep up with that high rate of construction, we built our own stock at our production site," Kool explains. "Often this is done on site itself, but there was no room for that. So the precast concrete columns and beams were delivered just-in-time and assembled directly from the trailer."

In consultation with the design engineer, Preco made a few more optimizations here and there during the preliminary process to make production and assembly as optimal as possible.

Preco was responsible for supplying a total of 157 columns, 250 beams, 2,800 m² of precast concrete wall, 26 docks, 22 stairs and 16 landings. "The beams and columns in particular were hefty specimens. Structurally, the storey floor was very strong. The precast concrete walls also required sometimes substantial lengths, up to 11 meters. The fact that we provided the entire precast concrete shell as a total supplier was a great added value for the contractor. After all, he only had one point of contact. All in all, it was another great reference for us as a total supplier."