The Civil Engineering Contractor August 2018 | Page 25

TECHNOLOGY
G
autrain is not only the largest
underground
transpor t
infrastructure project ever
undertaken in South Africa, it is the way
of the future. South Africa has in the
past generally been considered rather
backward in respect of underground
infrastructure; yet, South Africans
— in the form of Henry Greathead,
Jack van der Merwe, and Elon Musk
— all play central roles in the past,
present, and future of underground
engineering.
When South Africa was first
mooting the Gautrain project,
international project managers told
Jack van der Merwe, CEO of the
Gautrain Management Agency (GMA),
there was “no chance”. Yet, there it
is today. “The construction of the
80km Gautrain rapid rail system was
completed in July 2011, and now
phase two — with 150km and 19
new stations — is before the National
Treasury with nobody doubting
South Africa’s technical engineering
skills and capacity to develop what is
more extensive works. We’ve done
the feasibility studies and the detailed
budget is with National Treasury,” Van
der Merwe says. There is no timeline to
the project as yet, he notes, as Treasury
has “ten times as many project requests
before it as it can realistically fund”.
Why underground?
Today, more than half of the world’s
population lives in cities. Sub-Saharan
Africa (SSA) is often described as the
world’s fastest urbanising region, with
its urban areas currently containing
472-million people. This is projected
to double over the next 25 years. The
global share of African urban residents
is forecast to grow from 11.3% in
2010 to 20.2% by 2050, according
to the 2017 Drivers of Migration and
Urbanization in Africa report by the
United Natio