SADC Inland Logistics Mega-Hub
A 75 000 m² clear-span portal frame distribution centre with 48 m unsupported lattice trusses and integrated runway beams for twin 35-ton overhead travelling cranes.
Project data
- Client
- Gauteng Freight & Distribution Group
- Location
- Ekurhuleni, Gauteng, South Africa
- Year completed
- 2024
- Tonnage
- 2 450 t
- Clear span
- 48 m unsupported
- Steel grade
- S355JR structural carbon steel
- Coating
- Hot-dip galvanized to ISO 1461
- Crane class
- SANS 10160 Class 4, twin 35 t
- Programme
- 9 months
The client needed a fully racked, crane-served facility operational before a contracted retail peak, on a site where the foundation contractor was already twelve weeks behind. Any fabrication error would consume float that no longer existed.
We ran the detailing programme in parallel with civils, using automated anchor-bolt layouts generated from the Tekla model so the foundation contractor could pour to our setting-out drawings while steel was still on the drill line. Trusses were shop-assembled in pairs, match-marked, dismantled and shipped as flat-pack modules to maximise load factor on each abnormal permit.
Steel erection completed in 19 weeks. The galvanized frame requires no maintenance repaint within its 40-year design life, and the racking contractor took occupancy of the first three bays while the last bay was still being erected.
Engineering highlights
- ▹48 m clear span with zero internal columns
- ▹Automated anchor-bolt layouts issued ahead of civils
- ▹Shop-assembled, match-marked truss modules for flat-pack transport
- ▹Full hot-dip galvanizing — no maintenance repaint cycle
Related infrastructure
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