PROJECT
39
Any project that takes place in
the heart of the Sandton CBD
is going to elicit attention.
The area is growing at a
staggering rate with new
buildings altering the skyline
annually. One such project is a
new mixed-use development
named Acsiopolis.
The limited spaces meant that everything needed to be precise and
that traditional methods were not necessarily the best option.
By Warren Robertson
Acsiopolis will provide high-end accommodation
for residents of Sandton and a hotel for those
visiting for the short term. Begun in September
2017, Acsiopolis is located at 6 Benmore Road, next
door to one of the landmarks in the area, Benmore
shopping centre.
The building consists of 1 040 units, of which 533 are
residential and the remainder will make up the hotel.
Retail will occupy the ground- and lower ground areas.
Acsiopolis has an in-house gym, two swimming pools,
a laundry, and conference facilities, with the entire
building’s products and specifications designed for high-
end occupation.
It is a massive building that once complete will use
approximately 1 200 toilets and showers and 515 baths
in the residential section. Overall, more than 76km of
Mepla pipe will be fitted throughout the building, along
with 5 956 Mepla fittings, 5 653m of HDPE pipe, and
6 070 HDPE fittings.
Abbink Consulting is in charge of the wet services
on the site. In a manner that is relatively unique,
they are both the engineers and the installers —
a system they insist has streamlined services,
ensured kinks or challenges are discovered and
corrected quickly, and overall, resulted in a much
smoother installation.
“As a result of us being on site, we are still able to
foresee any changes to not just the installation, but the
programme as well. Forming close relationships with the
architect and the contractor has also assisted us in
terms of managing the delays,” says wet services
consultant, Rob Abbink.
www.plumbingafrica.co.za
“The communication process from installer to consulting
engineer usually takes a few days. Given that any problem
usually has to be reported to a supervisor, then from
supervisor to manager and only then from the plumber’s
manager to the consulting engineer, the timelines initially
provided to us on this job would have significantly delayed
the whole installation process. Also, with regard to the level of
accuracy required and the number of design variables involved
with the structure, we felt that by keeping the installers and
the consulting engineer’s representatives together, the overall
timelines and accuracy of the installation would be better.
And we are happy to say that we achieved this,” he adds,
explaining that by bringing the gap between installer and
designer closer, better standards were maintained and they
had no problem meeting the SANS requirements.
This bringing together of the designer and the installer was
fortunate and paid almost immediate dividends when the
time came to tackle the installation.
REVOLUTIONARY SYSTEM
“The thickness of the walls and the initial choice to use the
Imison wall system meant that there wasn’t a lot of space in
walls for us to put drainage pipes. The majority of our drainage
pipes are 56mm and 63mm pipes, which would not have
fitted in any wall cavity, given the size of the pipe and size
of the walls. The initial Imison is also polystyrene based, so
the installation of horizontal pipes would have affected the
structural integrity of the walls,” explains Abbink, adding that
the decision was taken to use cast-in drainage.
“The duct consists of a steel frame that provides support
for the pipes and the cistern, made up of 2 × 40mm Mepla
pipe — one hot and one cold — and 1 × 110mm HDPE
main drainage pipe to which all the 56mm/63mm pipes
from the unit were connected,” says Abbink.
January 2019 Volume 25 I Number 1