The Civil Engineering Contractor January 2019 | Page 29

TECHNOLOGY
Corestruc has built more than 50 reservoir roofs of various sizes since its inception in 2010.
builds the walls of the structure and
associated infrastructure while we
construct the roof. This does away
with the need to erect and install
tons of scaffolding and formwork.
Higher degrees of accuracy are
also achieved by manufacturing the
concrete elements in a controlled
setting. Another advantage of
building the roof in this manner is
that it contributes towards a more
robust final structure, considering
that all of the pre-stressed elements
exceed 50MPa,” says De Jager.
“More recently,” adds De
Jager, “we launched a reservoir
wall system to complement this
technology. It is already being used
by a municipality to build two 10Mℓ
reservoirs. By constructing the
walls and roof of the structure in
this manner, the critical path of
the programme runs through the
earthworks and foundations. The
www.civilsonline.co.za
construction of the floor overlaps
the installation of the walls and roof
on the works programme. We are
able to construct the walls and roof
in three months on site. Meanwhile,
the manufacture of the structure
takes place at our factory during the
earthworks and construction of the
foundations.
“This will be a major focus for
us moving forward, considering
the interest that both consulting
engineers and client bodies have
shown in our offering thus far.
In terms of other water-related
infrastructure, we are appointed
to design, manufacture, and build
sections of the infrastructure to
help reduce construction times.
This is just one of the known merits
of precast concrete technologies
and hybrid concrete construction,
which are starting to gain
momentum in the country.”
De Jager continues to say that the
design of the infrastructure can be
standardised to better incorporate
precast-concrete
technologies.
Corestruc has been talking to
various public sector client bodies
to develop such a modular system.
They anticipate being ready to
launch this technology within two
to three years. It will also provide
a more cost-effective solution to
conventional construction methods.
“For larger plants of up to 600Mℓ,
we have designed a precast-concrete
roof and wall system to accelerate
construction and provide a more
cost-effective alternative to in situ
techniques. However, there is still
a lot of scope to construct other
sections of the infrastructure with
precast-concrete technologies,” says
De Jager. nn
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