Opened in November 2014, the Boughton Retail Centre is a mixed use development on a brown-field site located between the A51 and the Shropshire Union Canal on the east side of Chester, Cheshire.

Waitrose has worked closely with Cheshire West and Chester Council to produce a comprehensive development that features a beautifully designed Waitrose supermarket with a sales floor of approximately 2,790 m2 (30,000 ft2). A 192 space customer car park plus smaller retail units and a pedestrian footbridge are also included in the scheme. HOW Planning LLP together with Architects Broadway Malyan were asked to work on the supermarket and surrounding area, which has achieved a BREEAM excellent rating.

Conceived to enhance and regenerate the whole area, the Boughton development is built on land that slopes down from the A51 towards the Shropshire Union Canal. With extensive paved, concreted and asphalted areas, surface water drainage was an important consideration in the general landscaping of the site.

Aesthetic demands meant the surface water drainage for the paved concourse and pedestrian walkways had to be as unobtrusive as possible yet fully meet the drainage requirement; this was achieved by installing over 73 metres of Hauraton RECYFIX® STANDARD SLOTTED CHANNELS fitted with symmetrical stainless steel covers. A further 180 metres of SLOTTED CHANNEL with asymmetrical covers were installed along the glazed façades of the supermarket building. Due to the limited depth available to the groundwork contractor, Cilmec Limited, in some areas such as the window façade, various depths of channel had to be used to ensure water flow was maintained throughout the channel runs. Once installed this system provides an unobtrusive, narrow line of slots in the paved surfaces. Ensuring a pleasing effect, 186 metres RECYFIX® STANDARD 100 Channels with Elegance stainless steel perforated gratings were also used along the colonnade at the rear of the building.

Having a loading Class of D400, a total of 50 metres RECYFIX® PLUS 100 channel with HEELSAFE (6mm slots) ductile iron gratings were installed at the entrance to the under-croft car park. A further 60 metres of FASERFIX® KS Type 1 channels, also with HEELSAFE gratings but with a loading Class of E600, were installed in the car park area itself.

Two sizes of Hauraton RECYFIX® PRO channels fitted with FIBRETEC® gratings were chosen for the plant rooms and outside to drain the area where the AC units are located. The PRO channels have a loading Class of C250 and are highly resistant to wear and corrosion.