Port services company Transit Medway Ltd has almost doubled its level of undercover storage space at Rochester following phase one completion of a £1.2m timber barn.
The 75,000ft2 high-eaves building, designed for flexibility, has been constructed over an existing smaller warehouse currently being used to store Trus Joist I-beams for Puhos Structural.
Transit Medway managing director Mark Lay said: “There is a growing demand for undercover storage for products coming from northern Sweden and northern Finland.”
He said the project was a way of offering better facilities to the softwood trade and provided extra capacity for future growth in machined and engineered timber products.
The 67m single span barn is believed to be the biggest building of its type possible. Its current storage capacity is 37,000ft2, about 3,200m3 of sawn timber, but the older building may be demolished in the future to open up its full capacity.
Phase two, to be finished within eight weeks, will involve sheeting one side of the structure to improve weather protection. It may be converted into a conventional warehouse at a later date.
