In a mammoth undertaking spanning just four months, Kwikspace completed the manufacture, delivery, and installation of 300 prefabricated modular classroom units across three of South Africa’s provinces. Having successfully been awarded a turnkey project for the supply of 93 units by the Limpopo Department of Education in late February this year, Kwikspace was subsequently awarded contracts by the North West Department of Education (146 units) and the Northern Cape’s Department of Education (61 units).

By June Kwikspace had completed the project which summaries to 16 800 m2 of classroom and office space completed within 120 days. In addition to the electrical connections, each classroom features verandas, air conditioning, pinboards and writing boards. It is important to note that during the execution of these projects Kwikspace still had to prioritise all the other urgent deliveries for other customers. These included a local university that required a double-long and double-wide prefabricated modular building measuring 190 m2 and one Kwikspan prefabricated modular building measuring 370 m2.

Adding these buildings to the various education departments’ projects means a total of    17 360 m2 of prefabricated modular buildings were executed and handed over by June 2022, most of it during severely inclement weather which typically slows operations. “As the market leader in the supply of prefabricated modular buildings,” points out Xolile Kubheka, Sector Manager, Kwikspace, “we can produce up to 4 500 panels each week, which is equivalent to approximately 180 classrooms. Even though the weather caused significant delays to our finishing, such as paintwork, loading of the buildings, site access, and external service installation, we were still able to complete the projects within the required timelines.”

Capacity and flexibility

“Kwikspace has two factories that give us tremendous capacity and flexibility to support multiple jobs and keep projects on track,” Kubheka explains. 20 Classrooms for the Northern Cape were manufactured at our Cape Town Branch and delivered to the Namakwa District. The balance was manufactured in our main factory in Klipriver and delivered to the ZF Mgcawu District and Frances Baard District, and included 93 units for the Sekhukhune District in Limpopo. Over 100 buildings were delivered to the North West Province in the districts of Bojanala, Dr. Kenneth Kaunda, Ngaka Modiri Molema, and Dr Ruth Segomotsi Mompati, which were also manufactured at the main factory in Klipriver.

Kwikspace’s main manufacturing plant comprises 30 000m² of floor space, which consists of a foam panel plant and a fully equipped steel fabrication workshop, including welders, hydraulics forming machines and cutting equipment. This facility can manufacture chassis, suspended floors, apex beams, security bars/doors, and steel-related components. The main plant includes a sheet metal plant that processes all the required trims for the buildings, and a fully equipped assembly line that can be ramped up according to demand also forms part of the plant.

“It is this capacity, along with dedicated personnel, which enables us to complete even huge jobs in relatively tight turnaround times,” says Kubheka. He adds that as a contingency measure, the company retains stock of all materials. “These reserves enable us to produce approximately 1 000 m2 of units without sourcing additional material,” Kubheka concludes.