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Ground broken on large speculative logistics warehouse designed by Hydrock

6th Dec 2017

This autumn, Hydrock joined the celebrations for the ‘ground-breaking event’ for Altitude, a 574,258 sq ft warehouse by Gazeley at Magna Park, Milton Keynes, reported as the UK’s biggest speculative shed development since the recession.

Altitude is the latest project at Magna Park by Gazeley, a leading investor and developer of logistics warehouses and distribution parks.

The new building, which will have a clear height of 21m on completion, will include state-of-the-art features such as LED lighting, solar thermal heating and rainwater harvesting. The building will provide optimised natural light and power charging stations for electric vehicles using energy from solar panels and battery packs.

Strategically located between junctions 13 and 14 of the M1, Magna Park is home to many major distribution, logistics and retail companies, and Hydrock has previously delivered the engineering design for schemes for John Lewis, Waitrose, and AG Barr on the park, amongst others.

Speaking about Hydrock’s role in the project, Sarah Burrows, Director, Infrastructure and Civils, in Hydrock’s specialist logistics and distribution team in Manchester, said: “It’s great to see this development breaking ground. We are proud to have supported Gazeley from initial site due diligence all the way through detailed civil and structural design, highways design and the site supervision of the earthworks amongst many other aspects of the engineering works. This continues our long association with the development of Magna Park which began for us in 2008.”


Working alongside Chetwood Architects and Readie Construction, Hydrock has delivered: site due diligence, detailed design for the enabling works, civil and structural engineering design, highways and infrastructure design, flood modeling, site investigation, earthworks, drainage studies, and site supervision.

Commenting on the speculative development, Alex Verbeek, Senior Vice President and Managing Director UK for Gazeley, said: “This asset will undoubtedly attract strong interest from potential occupiers not only because of its great location and supply of labour, but also because of its unrivaled sustainability credentials. Energy efficiency is fundamental to our design process, and this development goes far beyond what is required from building regulations in terms of sustainability.”

For further information on Altitude, please visit: Altitude Magna Park.