Project Overview
The Pick ‘n Pay DC is the largest logistics development agreement to date at the Eastport Logistics Park, near OR Tambo International Airport, Gauteng. The goal of the new distribution centre is to make Pick n Pay’s supply chain more centralised and aid in fulfilling its customer value project. It also offers 50% more capacity than the current Longmeadow facility. It is the largest single-phase warehousing development in South Africa. This 165,000m² structure includes an ambient environment building (Dry Goods) of 94,000m², a cold storage building (Perishables) of 46,000m² and a returnable building (RRU) of 25,000m². The Dry Goods building would house approximately 14 rugby fields under its massive roof which spans approx. 280m and its widest part of the building. The main structural frame is a double portal system where trusses & lattice girders were designed as part of portal frames to provide stability in two directions.Trusses occur at 8.175m centres and lattice girders occurs every 32.2m. Internal column grid is therefore 32.1m x 32.7m. Trusses for the Dry Goods and RRU Warehouse are 1.9m deep and lattice girders are 3.4m deep. The Perishables Warehouse has an insulated ceiling below the steel frame and all trusses and lattice girders are 2.4m deep to allow for maintenance to occur within the ceiling void. The Perishables Warehouse roof structure was designed to support heavy cooling units. There are 80 cooling units of 1700kg and 24 cooling units of 1100kg suspended from the steel roof structure – A total of 162 tons of cooling units are suspended from the steel roof structure. Dry Goods Warehouse has the highest apex of 25m and is the biggest warehouse at the Pick ‘n Pay site, with plan dimensions of 279m wide and 411m long.