Costa Coffee, Anglia retail park

Dice structural engineers were instructed to complete the design of the new drive thru pod, which included a small steel frame for the extension, as well as the foundation slab design for the ground floor.

Our engineers chose a steel frame structure for this project due to the overhanging roof and the fully glazed frontage that curved around the side of the corner of the building. This was all modelled in REVIT as a 3D model, which worked well with the non-uniform shape of the structure.

Meanwhile, the foundation design needed to work in harmony with the existing drainage infrastructure on the site. To accommodate the new structure, some alterations were also required to the existing building, such as some additional doorways adding in.

Although this extension was fairly straightforward structurally, our team needed to work to tight deadlines and a strict construction schedule, as the works needed to be completed during the one week of closing that Costa had allocated for them.

This meant the works needed to be completed quickly, in order to minimise disruption to the store and maintain their operations. The project went to plan in that regard and the client was pleased to be able to maintain a relatively normal service while the works were completed.