Photo courtesy AGC of Washington Safeway’s distribution center in Auburn contains more than 3 miles of storage racks.

The Safeway distribution center consists of five buildings totaling 1.2 million square feet covering over 60 acres. The project was completed ahead of schedule and under budget.

Finishing the structures in 19 months was challenging for Turner, which had to work with the high water table in the Auburn Valley. Utilities were dug and installed in the summer while the water table was at its lowest. This allowed on-site materials to be used for pipe bedding and trench backfill.

To help protect the environment, an on-site storm system was constructed to handle more than 8.6 million gallons of water.

Also, an on-site concrete batch plant was set up, eliminating more than 35,000 concrete truck trips to the project. The center includes a grocery warehouse that can store more than 55,000 pallets. Storage racks stretch for more than 3 miles. In the refrigeration warehouse, an ammonia glycol system is used to provide several temperature zones.

Other facilities include a meat warehouse, produce and perishable warehouse, banana ripening department, a frozen food warehouse, recycling center, truck/plant maintenance building, administration building, fire water pump house, and a fueling station.

Turner and the design team used a Web-based project management system that stored all CADD files and project documents. The project included 611,950 labor hours with no lost-time accidents.