The Civil Engineering Contractor January 2018 | Page 10

INFRASTRUCTURE AFRICA

NORTHERN AFRICA

EGYPT

Egypt to build Africa’ s tallest skyscraper

Egypt will construct Africa’ s tallest skyscraper as part of the new administrative capital project. The new building will be worth a whopping USD3-billion. State-owned China State Construction Engineering Corporation( CSCEC) will develop the 345m-high skyscraper and, once complete, it will replace South Africa’ s 223-metre-tall Carlton Centre. The development will also comprise 12 business complexes, five residential buildings and two hotels over half a square kilometre. In total, the new capital will cover an area of 50km. The Chinese ambassador to Cairo, Song Aiguo, explained that the project will symbolise Egypt and China’ s mutual cooperation for future generations. It will also enhance their bilateral relationship. China Construction is well known globally for undertaking super highrise, grand scale, cutting-edge and novel projects. They have built many landmark projects in China and around the world including Africa. Earlier, Egypt sought to develop the project with a Dubai real estate company before reaching a deal with the Chinese developer. The project is estimated to be completed over the next four years. Source: Egypt Independent

Egypt’ s new capital city will host Africa’ s tallest skyscraper.

Egypt Independent

Vox

South Africa is set for another nuclear plant.

SOUTHERN AFRICA

SOUTH AFRICA

Nuclear site license set for June 2018

South Africa’ s National Nuclear Regulator has announced that an installation site licence could be expected in June 2018 for the construction of a nuclear power plant. Reuters reported in October, that the Environmental Affairs Department has granted authorisation to state-owned power utility Eskom to build a new 4 000MW nuclear power plant in the Western Cape province. According to the media agency,‘ Construction at Duynefontein, close to South Africa’ s only existing nuclear site Koeberg, will only go ahead once the regulator has granted an installation site license.’ Speaking at an international nuclear conference in Abu Dhabi, CEO of the National Nuclear Regulator, Bismark Tyobeka, says,“ We have progressed in earnest the work of licensing the site and we will be issuing hopefully the siting licence by June 2018.” However, South African finance minister, Malusi Gigaba, stated in an exclusive interview with City Press that the country’ s new nuclear build programme is not affordable and unnecessary. Gigaba explains,“ There was a time when it was felt that nuclear is necessary and it must be implemented, and programmes were started. But it became clear, as the economy took a serious dip, that we were not going to afford nuclear, that the country couldn’ t afford it and the budget couldn’ t afford it.” He adds,“ It is quite clear that, at present, we can meet our electricity needs and we can even meet them into the future, given the excess electricity that we have. High uptake of electricity from intensive users, when we can see that we are reaching the stage where existing capacity is being fully utilised, and the demand and supply margin is very narrow,” is when the need for added nuclear capacity will arise, according to Gigaba. Source: www. esi-africa. com

8- CEC January 2018