Casula Woolworths Open
Melbourne Cup day saw the Grand opening of the Casula Woolworths supermarket on Hume Hwy. In the usual festive way, Woolworths brought in a celebratory cake, with local primary school student singing the national anthem and council support cutting the ribbon to open the new great addition to Casula.
The $11.5 Million, 4200sqm store is a welcome asset to the area, providing around 170 new jobs and receiving positive reviews from the local community.
With more than 180 car parks and an in-store cafe, this supermarket is sure to ease the congestion and limited parking at the nearby Casula mall. The new store houses an in-house bakery, deli, seafood, fresh food and meat departments, celebrating the ‘market place’ atmosphere for shoppers to enjoy.
Some earlier design challenges include:
Council wanting larger setbacks from the boundary, due to the proximity of residential housing along the north and west fence lines. The height of the parapet along the North boundary was kept at a minimum to reduce the visual impact of the boundary wall and maintain a residential scale.
A narrow landscaping area to promote the growth of creepers and vines will help soften the edges. The Western corner was also utilised as a Landscape transition between the shopping centre and the neighbours. A new colorbond fence and retaining wall provides additional security and privacy.
An extension of Ingham Drive and a new intersection on Hume Highway introduced traffic lights to allow for safer access to the site.
Stormwater bio detention swales have been used extensively throughout the carpark, due to the general slope in gradient of the land, to allow for stormwater run-off. Perforated pavers were installed in sections of the car park that flowed into the central bio swale to provide natural watering and aerating of the landscaping and trees. The permeable paving also acts, visually, as a textural break up from the bitumen usually seen in carpark design.
The slope falls naturally approximately 2m diagonally across the site. To enable a 1:40 slope in the car-park extensive cut and fill was required. The Loading Dock sits approximately 1m above the trading floor and two scissor hoists were installed as a loading solution. Bin lifters are also being used to address the height difference between the trading floor and bin room.
A café with seating for approx. 20 people has been included within the development and allows shoppers a place for respite and that much needed coffee and cake fix.
The alucobond awning and powdercoat aluminium battens are a design feature, being a key in grabbing driver’s attention along Hume Highway. The colourful pallette to the concrete panels and provide interest to the façade and with an array vibrant colours, the store yells out with a nice splash of colour.
Mainbrace did an excellent job delivering the job early, on budget and, as usual, at a very high quality standard.
Well done to the entire team at i2C for their diligent work.
Project Name: Casula Woolworths
Client: Fabcot
Cost: $11.5M
Location: Casula, NSW
Status: Open for Trading