PROJECT
INCORPORATING COLD CHAIN
Continued from page 1
Imperial Logistics’ healthcare business
invests in its cold chain
I
mperial Logistics’ healthcare
business stores medical supplies for
southern Africa, with a network of
cold storage facilities extending as
far as Kenya, Malawi and Nigeria. This
particular facility is an operational
hub, storing the lion’s share of goods
including everything from run-of-the-mill
medication, right up to extremely high-
value vaccines.
As Imperial Logistics’ healthcare
business grew, so did its need for bigger
facilities.
The refrigeration part of the project
happened in two phases with Phase 1
being a brand new cold room, airlock,
loading cold room as well as a freezer.
This part of the project commenced in
February 2018 with initial demolition of an
existing warehouse.
Phase 1 was completed within
schedule to be commissioned on 30 April,
taking a mere three months from the
demolition starting to the commissioning
of the new cold rooms.
It is an amazing feat that Abbeydale,
as the developer, managed to get all the
different stakeholders to come together
and finish the project without any major
delays on such an ambitious timeline.
Phase 2 kicked off in June 2018, a
month after the completion of Phase 1.
This phase of the project involved the
demolition of an existing 1 500m² cold
store (6.5m high), plant and warehouse
structure and then the reinstallation of a
1
2
new warehouse structure plus a series of
cold rooms. The new structure was similar
to the old one, except that the height was
increased from 6.5m to 14.5m high. This
phase was completed five months later
with commissioning and handover taking
place by the end of October 2018.
Thanks to the great teamwork, all
timelines were achieved, even though
most contractors initially thought it was an
insurmountable task.
CLIENT BRIEF
Imperial Logistics has a long history in cold
chain management and has run facilities
like this successfully for many years. As
such, Lara Haigh, the managing director
of the South African healthcare business,
and her team were very knowledgeable
and specific about what they wanted.
Of critical importance was ensuring
total cold chain integrity, as the value of
product in these rooms is quite significant
and losses have to be prevented at all
costs. Another important consideration
was the standards to which the client
must adhere for achieving the desired
certification, which are extremely stringent.
As such, all holding rooms are completely
self-sustainable, with standalone systems
in place. An added feature to reduce
turnaround times on breakdowns was
that the large cold rooms all have the
same model of compressor in their various
condensing units and there is a spare
compressor on site at all times.
3
1. Door from cold room to airlock, complete with strip curtains.
2. Entrance to airlock from parking lot.
3. Remote boards for each room tying into plant alarms.
4. Plant room mezzanine level with a view on condensing units.
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www.coldlinkafrica.co.za
COLD LINK AFRICA • July/August 2019