The new Morrisons Regional Distribution Centre at Bridgwater in Somerset is, by any standard, vast. The site covers nearly 60 acres and provides over 71,000 square metres of warehousing (over 3/4 million sq ft) to distribute Morrisons goods to 63 stores in the West and South West of England and South Wales.

DLA Architecture specified over 2.5km of safety barriers from Berry Systems to protect people, plant and equipment throughout the site. This specification not only met the approval of the client – Morrisons- but also the main contractor, Bowmer & Kirkland, who have worked with Berry Systems a number of times previously and have confidence in the Berry installation teams.

Just over 1.5km of barrier has been installed inside the warehouse and nearly 1km outside. Interior locations included nearly 800m of Berry’s Spring Steel Buffers on which a small “warehouse rail” is mounted below a standard barrier rail to provide protection to pedestrian walkways from forklift trucks and other warehouse vehicles. The extra lower rail prevents the forks penetrating into the walkway below the standard barrier. In addition extensions were fitted to the 610mm high buffers to carry a handrail at 1100mm height.

A further 600m of Barrier rails were fitted right down at ground level, mounted onto 330mm spring steel buffers, 100m at the standard 610mm height and 24m of Berry’s unique double rail design in the frozen foods warehouse. The double rail features two standard barrier rails overlapped to form an absolutely impenetrable barrier from floor level to 610mm.

The varying styles specified reflect the different risks identified in specific areas and illustrates how the Berry Systems’ range can cope with virtually any requirement with a barrier that has been independently tested to prove its performance to the appropriate level.

Other specialist applications included 60 column protection units in 3 different versions and 41 metres of heavy duty barrier to protect the LPG store from passing HGVs. The main external barrier specification was 650m of heavy duty barrier installed along the main perimeter road to and from the loading bays to protect HGVs from the drainage ditch running beside the road.

The site has been built to the highest sustainability standards with its own rainwater recycling plant. Photovoltaic cells on the roof generate power for the interior lighting which supplements the very high level of natural daylight available inside the building. The interior lighting is controlled by IR sensors that automatically turn off artificial lighting in unused areas.

There is also a waste recycling centre to deal with all the cardboard and paper waste inevitably generated and the access ramps to this part of the facility are, naturally, protected by Berry Systems’ barriers.

Construction work was completed last October and the site handed over to Morrisons who have contracted DHL to run this regional distribution centre. It is now gradually working towards full capacity and is expected to handle over 2 million cases in 2012 from up to 800 vehicle movements per day.

Morrisons’ Contract Manager Len Rumble said “Safety is absolutely paramount to us and the Berry Systems barriers are already proving their worth protecting colleagues, plant and equipment.”

Berry Systems MD Ian Darlington said “We’re delighted to have the opportunity to prove again that Berry Systems can undertake projects large and small with the supply and installation of the right barriers into the right place at the right time.”

Berry Systems

Tel: 01902 491100

Email: sales@berrysystems.co.uk   

www.berrysystems.co.uk

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