Cape Fruit Coolers

Project Details:

Value: R97.5m
Date: 2019
Client: Cape Fruit Coolers
Architect: Boogertman & Partners

The Cape Fruit Coolers warehouse is situated in Richmond Park, a mixed-use commercial development just off the N7 highway in Cape Town’s West Coast growth node. The 10,500m² cooling facility was designed to accommodate 5,000 pallets of fruit in a total floor area of 9,000m², with ten docking bays for delivery trucks, 14 individual tunnel coldrooms, six multi-tunnel coldrooms, five holding rooms, a plant room and office facilities.

The project started in May 2018 and was completed within ten months. From the onset the project presented a number of environmental challenges. Early on, while the foundations were being constructed, a large volume of unsuitable material had to be removed while trying to erect the structural steel trusses. Construction during the early phases of the development was further delayed by twelve days of very bad weather. The project’s main challenge came with the installation of the tunnel racking that could only be done once the concrete surface beds and roof trusses and sheeting were done. The height of the tunnel racking in relation to the building’s overall height below the steel trusses required the subcontractor to manufacture customised lifting frames in order to erect the structural steel.