African Design Magazine October 2016 | Page 70

Awards Husab Uranium Stockpile Cover & Ancillary Structures, Mining and Industrial Category Winner The Husab Uranium Stockpile Cover & Ancillary Structures, winner of the Mining and Industrial Category, entailed the detailing, fabrication, corrosive protection, delivery and installation of two thousand six hundred tons of steelwork, as well as twenty-one thousand square metres of IBR sheeting. “What really made it special for me is the fact that you have this structure that’s two soccer fields long, and the best part of a soccer field wide put up in a matter of weeks – purely because the job was planned so well.” – Spencer Erling, Retired SAISC Director. There were a number of interesting challenges to overcome, i.e. short lead times, high specifications required by client, galvanizing of trusses, for the logistical challenges due to cross border distances, lifting and jacking in the 140 ton gantries and sheeting the building on forty-five degree slopes. We pioneered some ideas at each phase to overcome the challenges and ultimately bring the project home safely and in time. Some highlights were: • The logistical concern of delivering this volume of steel and sheeting was overcome by partnering with a local transported and dedicated trucking supplemented our inhouse fleet. • The development of the idea and plan to strand jack the gantries (50-meter span and 140 tons) into place forty meters above ground level, as opposed to using the traditional method of cranes, allowing for this part of the project work to be done Click here to read more about the project