44
PROJECT
Booysens Magistrate’s
Court: long-lasting
and efficient
When constructing government buildings, all by-laws
and standards need to be considered, particularly if that
building is a court. Completed in 2018, the Booysens
Magistrate’s Court needed a system that would ultimately
save on running costs and stand the test of time.
By Warren Robertson
The Booysens Magistrate’s Court was completed
and handed over to the Department of Justice last
year October at a cost of just over R240-million as
part of the contract awarded to the Independent
Development Trust by that department to plan, design,
and construct new courts across the country.
Building began in June 2016, and the building consists
of 10 courtrooms, including one civil court, two family
courts, and one child, domestic violence, and peace
order court; administration offices; 15 magistrate offices;
and 10 holding cells with a provision for juvenile males
and females and adult males and females.
The work included construction of 69 parking bays for
staff, 54 parking bays for visitors, and an additional four
parking bays per 100m² of office space on a 20 478m²
property with a height restriction of three storeys and
building coverage of 5 850m².
Uhuru Wetu Consulting were the wet engineers on the
project, taking charge of a system that, in addition
to outfitting all the bathrooms, taps, and other basic
February 2019 Volume 24 I Number 12
plumbing, also needed to offer a domestic water
storage tank that could store two days of supply and a
fire emergency water storage supply, all provided from
the same sectional tank.
“We have two water meters, one for fire and another for
domestic water, at the entrance of the court. It therefore
made sense for the sectional tank of backup and fire
emergency water to be stored on that side,” says Uhuru’s
Samkelo Tsabedze.
From that tank the system uses Grundfos pumps to move
water into Geberit Mapress Stainless Steel pipes, which
were chosen due to the promised high level of protection
against corrosion, and long-term tightness of fittings.
These in turn feed into Geberit Mepla pipes, which are
easy to install while also being inherently stable, flexible,
and resistant to pressure and corrosion. A fire pump and
a jockey pump are also in use for the emergency water
needed in the case of a fire.
“We didn’t have to worry about doing a water analysis,
which, together with the ease of installation, meant our
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