Our prefabricated commercial storage shade canopy keeps harvested lettuce and spinach from wilting!

 
Fresh Express Inc (division of Chiquita Brands) uses the structure to shade the crop before washing, drying and bagging.  Fresh Express manufactures the bagged vegetables found at Safeway grocery stores.  During harvest, hundreds of trucks bring large vegetable bins from the fields where they are temporarily stored under the fabric canopy until further processing.  Huge forklifts move these bins into and out of the canopy.  Everything moves quickly so product quality remains fresh.

Entry height of the shade canopy is 16' to accomodate the forklifts, which move several bins stacked on top of one another.  Peak height is 24'.  Total footprint measures 84'x52' (i.e. 4,368 square feet) with 2 tensioned fabrics measuring 2,184 square feet each.  The structure has only 6 columns (i.e. 10"x10" structural steel); each having 36" diameter x 9' deep concrete piers.

We constructed 4' tall x 24" diameter concrete bollards around columns in case forklift drivers make mistakes!