The new Foodstuff North Island Distribution Centre at the Landing in Auckland Airport is the largest warehouse ever built in New Zealand. Completed in 2021, this building services over 100 supermarkets and stores up to 80,000 pallets at a time.

The main contractor Macrennie Commercial Construction understands the importance of the floor slab in the efficiency of such buildings, and selected Conslab as Design & Build flooring contractor for the project.

The safety and efficiency of warehouse operations are largely dependent on the quality of the floor slabs. The floor is the surface upon which all warehouse operations take place, and if it isn't right the building will never operate at its full potential.

Conslab got involved early in the project offering advice on slab design and detailing to ensure the slab could be built efficiently within the project timeframe, without compromising on quality or performance.

The final design is a 180mm thick post-tensioned slab, which was constructed over 31 pours ranging from 1670m2 to 2940m2. The slab and joint layout were developed to maximise the pour sizes and keep the number of movement joints to a minimum. Movement joints are Conslab's patented Rhino Joint to accommodate large joint openings and eliminate the risk of slab curl.

The finished product is a durable, low-maintenance floor slab that will allow Foodstuff to efficiently service its stores around the country. It also happens to be the largest warehouse floor slab in the country, something that the Conslab team takes great pride in. 

Project Stats:

• 74,000m2 Post-tensioned slab, design & build by Conslab
• 25,753m2 Combi Slab External pavement, design & build by Conslab

Photo Credits: RDT Pacific, Foodstuffs, Macrennie Commercial Construction, Conslab.