> 800 acres
site area
Logistics North
We have been appointed to deliver master planning, architectural design, project management and cost consultancy services on this former surface mine site.
Logistics North is seen as the North West’s largest live logistics and manufacturing development comprising 4 million ft2 of employment space across 250 acres with direct access to Junction 4 of the M61.
The quality of the development and the site’s excellent location at the heart of the region’s motorway network has been key to attracting some of the world’s leading logistics companies including Aldi, Amazon, Lidl and Whistl, where 5,500 people are now employed on site. One of the unique attributes of Logistics North is the 550 acre Country Park that we have planned and constructed, providing unique surroundings for businesses and further providing the employees and local residents with a recreation opportunity with 18 kilometres of new footpaths, bridleways and cycle paths.
Once fully developed, the site is expected to deliver over £300m of Gross Value Added to the local economy in addition to over 7,000 jobs.
Key details
Project name
Logistics North
Client
Harworth Group plc
Location
Bolton
Services provided
- Masterplanning
- Architecture
- Civil and Structural Engineering
- Project Management
- Cost Consultancy
- Employers Agent
- Principal Designer
- Landscape Architecture
Challenge
The development preparation and enabling required the teams to resolve many conflicting facets prevalent with the restoration of decommissioned mining facilities, however this was made more complex due to the land sitting within the boundaries of three adjoining councils (Bolton, Wigan and Salford.).
Bringing forward the development land as well as the creation of a 550 acre country park brought many coordination challenges dealing with complex planning conditions relating to ecology, watercourse diversion, third party rights along with the most complicated re scheduling of Public Rights of Way in the UK.
And, whilst creating a complex delivery strategy to satisfy legislation and approving authorities the approach had to be able to provide flexibility for the marketing of the development and the access for the occupiers.
Solution
The key to success when delivering such a complex project with a large and diverse team is to create effective reporting with good communication allowing informed decision making throughout the project.
Promoting a collaborative, positive and flexible team ethic is essential to be able to react to the demands of a changing overall development strategy whilst considering the need for specific deliverables to be met and integrated into the overall project plan.
Project statistics
250 acres
being developed for employment
4.5 million
ft2 of bespoke distribution centres
550 acre
country park
