McLaren Docklands data centre: design and delivery notes for project engineers
Reviewed by Joe Ashwell
First reported on The Construction Index
30 Second Briefing
McLaren Construction has secured the shell-and-core contract for the first 70MW data centre building in Ada Infrastructure’s 210MW Docklands campus at London’s Royal Docks, with completion of this phase due mid‑2028 and first occupancy targeted by year end. The package covers campus-wide infrastructure, foundations and steel frame, with Keltbray and Menard delivering piling, Gallagher handling groundworks and civils, and William Hare providing the structural steelwork. The AI‑ready campus will use air and liquid cooling without water evaporation, low‑carbon materials, and is pre‑engineered for a future district heating interconnection.
Technical Brief
- McLaren’s scope includes campus-wide utility interfaces, enabling future connection to a district heating network.
- Keltbray and Menard will deliver the piling package, indicating substantial deep-foundation demand on the Royal Docks site.
- Gallagher is responsible for groundworks and civil engineering, coordinating with piling and steelwork programmes in constrained Docklands logistics.
- William Hare will fabricate and erect the structural steel frame, critical for high-load data hall floor capacities.
- Cooling design uses closed-loop air and liquid systems without evaporative towers, reducing on-site potable water infrastructure.
- Low-carbon construction materials are specified, implying early engagement on cement substitutes and recycled steel content.
- The campus is engineered for AGPU-intensive loads, so electrical and cooling risers must accommodate high future power densities.
- McLaren cites experience exceeding £1bn of data centre builds across UK and Middle East, de-risking complex MEP and commissioning interfaces.
Our Take
A 210 MW campus in the London Docklands puts Ada Infrastructure into the same power bracket as the largest hyperscale-style facilities in our infrastructure database, which typically face grid-connection and cooling constraints that drive early engagement with UK power and water regulators.
McLaren Construction’s track record of delivering over £1bn-worth of data centres suggests it is positioning as a specialist Tier III/Tier IV contractor in the UK and Middle East, which usually translates into tighter supply-chain relationships with firms like Keltbray, Menard and William Hare for repeat geotechnical and steelwork packages.
Locating the Ada Docklands Campus in the Royal Docks aligns with a cluster of London data-centre projects in our coverage that are being pushed to waterfront or brownfield sites, signalling that central grid capacity and land availability are increasingly dictating site selection over pure latency considerations.
Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.
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