Huge concrete floor slab forms firm base for Tesco
January 1st 2008

Specialist flooring contractor Twintec Industrial Flooring has completed what it believes is the UK's biggest steel fibre reinforced concrete floor slab project for Tesco in Livingston.

Jointless SFRC floor slabs were designed and constructed in the ambient, chilled and freezer warehouses, as well as the vehicle maintenance unit and resource recovery unit. The mining history of the area required the ground under the ambient slab to be suspended on driven precast concrete piles.

Using a Twintec jointless SFRC design, the team was able to achieve a 75% reduction in the amount of joints required and thereby reduce opportunities for joint breakdown and associated costs and disruption.

The paving benefits from improved ductility and the reduced possibility of standing water is a safety benefit. Twintec chose to produce the concrete itself, with batching carried out by partner company, Sitebatch Technologies using a continuous mixing plant capable of outputs to 70m3/h. This gave the company total control of the entire process. The delivery rate (in excess of 600m3 of concrete per day) to the work face suited the fast track nature of the works.

All internal floor slabs were specified as FM2 special (TR34 3rd edition) and the company describes the survey results as outstanding. The tolerance has been verified by independent floor survey specialists and UKASaccredited Face Consultants.

The project followed the Twintec D-B-I formula (design, build, insure) and was constructed by a skilled workforce who laid almost 250 000m2 of concrete flooring using 50 000m3 of concrete incorporating 2000t of steel fibres, contributing to a total project value in excess of £7 million.