UPS Willowbrook Distribution Center

Project summary provided by submitting company.

The UPS Willowbrook Package Center is a 258,000 square foot facility that is on a 68-acre site. The site consists of 4 individual tilt-wall structures totaling 279,156 square feet. This facility serves as a regional hub for housing and distributing packages, a customer service center (4,164 SF), office areas, truck wash with a water reclamation system (3,861 SF), and an automotive repair shop (13,353 SF). The package sorting facility also features the signature UPS finger loading docks, an intricate conveyor belt design used to achieve maximum efficiency. All structures are built with tilt wall and steel, including the fingers. Additionally, the project included a 56,000 SF mezzanine in a 52' clear high section of the building. Many challenges related to this site were overcome during the development and construction process through constant communication and collaboration by all team members. Initially, this site was in the 100-year flood plain and was later removed via an approved LOMR. Several underground utilities and easements had to be relocated a second time, after being relocated for the first phase of construction under a different developer. UPS had a goal to make this facility operational by November 2018. All teams worked together to develop creative solutions to get the project through permitting and into construction. Alston Construction knew they had to start footings in August of 2017 if they were to meet the critical date so the conveyor installation could begin. Hurricane Harvey posed additional challenges for the team personally and for the project, however the team focused on solutions rather than excuses and met the deadline. The new facility in greater Houston expands UPS’s network to better serve customers in one of the nation’s ten fastest growing cities. It’s location provides strategic transportation network access to air, rail, major interstate highway corridors, cross-border and commercial cargo shipping lanes. Now operating at full capacity, the new facility will significantly increase UPS’s delivery fleet serving Houston, the fourth most populated city in the United States. Home to the largest medical complex in the world, Houston area healthcare and life sciences businesses will benefit from enhanced delivery speed and accuracy from the new Willowbrook center’s advanced package scanning and sortation equipment. For parcels requiring strict temperature environments, from CRT to cryogenic, and those requiring around-the-clock monitoring, UPS has solutions such as UPS Temperature True™ and UPS Proactive Response™ services. The new UPS package delivery operation has created 575 full- and part-time jobs in Houston’s Willowbrook area.