One of the fastest growing supermarket brands in the UK was building a new 70,000m2 Regional Distribution Centre in Peterborough. Like other modern warehouse structures the metal clad building acts as a Faraday Cage to mobile signals. The building itself has a single level office on the 3rd floor of the building, consisting of administrative areas, meeting rooms, training rooms and a canteen. The goods out area protrudes from the main building and comprises an office space and driver check-in desks on the ground floor.
All existing cable tray was located at high level above suspended ceiling throughout, making cable installation challenging in many areas. There were also a number of fire-stopped partitions that needed penetrating, which posed another challenge. Due to the Grenfell disaster aftermath and new regulations, it was important that all of these penetrations were identified so that they could be re fire- stopped by an accredited company to ensure they complied with the new regulations.
It was crucial that continuous, stable, mobile connectivity was present prior to the site becoming operational in August 2020 as many of the tasks undertaken by staff rely on voice and data services due to a limited number of desk phones. Staff often take calls on their work mobiles in the main offices and move into meeting rooms to continue the calls. Unreliable services can be disruptive as it results in staff having to leave their work areas to find signal near a window as well as numerous dropped calls, which reduce productivity.
