Tesco sets speed construction record in flood-hit town

A new record has been set for speed construction after a 13,000sqft Tesco store was delivered and installed in just 18 hours.

The interim supermarket in the flood-hit town of Workington in Cumbria was built from scratch and delivered by Johnson Construction and an off-site specialist and Portakabin subsidiary called Yorkon.

The contractors worked though the night and completed the installation by 6am in time for the fit-out process to begin.

The store opened this week and will operate in addition to Tesco’s main store in Workington which remains open but is now out of reach to the thousands of residents cut off on the north side of the River Derwent.

Daniel Frith, Tesco development manager, said: “This is the first time we have ever built a store in such a short time. At this time of year our customers are busy enough without a three-hour journey just to get to the supermarket. Many of our own staff have been badly affected by flooding so the temporary store will help them too.”

Yorkon craned 26 14m long modules into position in an accelerated programme of one unit every 30 minutes. This involved two teams of 10 Yorkon site staff working in shifts through the night.