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NEW MD FOR LIVIERO
CIVIL ENGINEERING
Martijn Groot has been appointed
managing director of Liviero Civil
Engineering.
Martijn
was
pre-
viously the business unit’s acting
managing
director
and,
prior
to that, he was the Liviero Civil
Engineering operations executive.
LOERIESFONTEIN WIND FARM TURBINE FOUNDATIONS
AMONGST THE WORLD‘S GREENEST
Loeriesfontein Wind Farm has announced that its wind turbine foundations are utilising one
of the world’s lowest quantities of Portland cement in the concrete formulation. According
to head of Murray & Roberts’ Concrete Centre for Excellence, Cyril Attwell, the foundations
are designed using an 89% replacement of cement, resulting in what is believed to be one
of the world’s lowest carbon footprints for any wind farm foundation.
The first two bases, which were completed in October 2015, utilised an 80% replacement
of Portland cement, whilst the remaining foundations use a unique design comprising 35kgs
of high grade Portland cement per cubic meter, an 89% reduction from a standard concrete
mix. This composition has resulted in the wind farm’s carbon footprint being reduced to
approximately 90.7kg of carbon dioxide per cubic meter. Ground Granulated Corex Slag
(GGCS), a by-product from the iron industry, is used to replace 89% of the cement. “Cement
manufacturing is typically a highly energy intensive process. By substituting the cement
with a by-product such as GGCS, we are able to reduce our carbon footprint considerably,”
said Leo Quinn, Project Manager for Loeriesfontein Wind Farm.
A twenty-eight day compressive strength test has been completed, which indicated that
the 80% replacement ratio achieved an impressive strength of 55MPa (megapascals), and
an expected ultimate strength of 100MPa, within a fifty-six day period.
Traditionally, 30 MPa concrete requires between 300kg and 350kg of ordinary cement per
cubic metre. But now scientists working for Murray & Roberts have developed a technology
that meets the 30 MPa standard using just 25kg of cement or even less. To date strengths
of up to 52 MPa have been achieved on other sites using Murray & Roberts’ patented ARC
(Advanced Recrystallisation) technology.
Loeriesfontein Wind Farm is situated within the Hantam Municipality and will comprise
61 wind turbines each with an output of 140MW.
“Since joining Liviero Civils more
than 10 years ago, Martijn has
been involved in many of our key
projects, including the Bapong
Traffic Centre, Woodmead Retail
Park, Witkoppen Corner, Gauteng
Freeway
Improvement
Project,
Simon Vermooten and Ganyesa
contracts,” reveals Liviero Group
CEO, Neil Cloete.
“His appointment signals a new
era for Liviero Civil Engineering.
The
executive
team,
under
Martijn’s leadership, is youthful,
vibrant and energetic. These are
the positive characteristics that
Liviero Civil Engineering needs as
we implement a strategy to extract
value in a depressed market.
Our aim is to enable our clients
to reap the benefits of a more
transparent and communicative
civil engineering operation, which
is also better aligned to the goals
of the group,” Cloete concludes.
6
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