South African Fuit Terminals (SAFT)

Project Details:

Value: R179.0m 
Date: 2019
Client: Abland
Architect: Joe de Villiers Architects

Isipani Construction completed a new industrial cold store for South African Fruit Terminals (SAFT) in the Atlantic Hills Business Park at the intersection of the N7 and M12. The build for SAFT had a total floor area of 14,291 m² with two double-storey office blocks (1,037 m²) and a storage facility (13,200 m²) with the capacity to accommodate 5,500 pallets of fruit destined for the export market accounting for most of the floor space. A guardhouse and surrounding civil works were also included in the contract.

The cold storage facility had very industry-specific requirements such as an undercover off-loading area, twenty air-locked loading bays, as well as rapid-cooling tunnels. The cooling system was designed to put fruit entering the warehouse through either a short re-cooling period or a sterilisation process where temperatures are dropped to minus 0° C and kept there for 48 hours, depending on the requirements of the destination country.

The project’s external finishes, a combination of face-brick, plastered walls and shiplap cladding, required good and accurate workmanship, with some of the concrete elements being off-shutter.