The Civil Engineering Contractor July 2019 | Page 25

ON SITE
List of professionals
Client: Montrose City Mega
Development
Project manager:
SCM Project Management
Engineering manager and
technical co-ordinator:
SMEC South Africa
Town planner:
Midplan and Associates
Environmental: Enviro Xcellence
Land surveyor:
Nonyane and Associates
Geotechnical engineers:
Geopractice and Enviro Xcellence
Electrical Infrastructure
design: Risimati engineers
Electrical, mechanical and
fire engineers on buildings:
BES Africa Engineers
Water reticulation, roads
and storm water designer:
Siyathunya Consulting
Quantity surveyor:
Baloyi QS and Vusimuzi QS
Architecture:
SCM Project Management
Occupational health and
safety: Bophepha Consultant
Marketing and
communications: Nungu
Marketing and SIV Marketing
Legal services: Adams and Adams
Transactional advisers:
Sizwe Ntsaluba Gobodo
www.civilsonline.co.za
geotechnical, Surveyor-General and
more. For instance, in respect of
the school we are entering into a
partnership whereby we build a smart
school which will align with education
department goals.
A final challenge, common to
all developments, is that the units
— including proposed industrial,
commercial and retail spaces — have
to be fully occupied. “It will not be
viable if only 50% is occupied. Our
role as facilitator is therefore to create
a conducive environment which
makes the mixed-use components
commercially attractive. Then we will
move on to phase 2, because the
demand for housing will automatically
increase,” says Mhlaba. nn
FEATURE
Water in a concrete mix.
Concrete is part
of our culture
By Eamonn Ryan
Concrete is the single most widely used material in the world
— and is frequently pilloried as having a carbon footprint
to match. In reality, the reason there’s so much concrete
is because it is in fact a very low impact material. If you
replace concrete with any other material, it would have a
bigger carbon footprint.
C
oncrete is used in such
quantities because it is a
remarkably good building
material: not just for basic road
construction or basements, but also
for more glamorous projects. The
construction industry has pioneered
ultra-strength varieties from which to
build earthquake-proof structures in
regions such as Japan and California
— apartment blocks that form some
of the most expensive real estate in
the world.
Humans have been using concrete
in their architectural designs for
millennia. The basic ingredients —
sand, aggregate, binding additives
such as cement, and water — were
used as far back as ancient Egypt, and
the Romans were well-documented
masters of the material. The Pantheon
is still the world’s largest non-
reinforced concrete dome at more
than 2 000 years old.
Modern concrete was only
rediscovered just 200 years ago
in the early 19th century with the
discovery of Portland cement, the key
ingredient used in concretes today.
Making concrete
The process of roasting, and then
grinding to a powder, limestone and
clay to make ‘artificial stone’ was
patented in 1824 by Joseph Aspidin
of Leeds, UK, and later refined by
his son into a material close to the
cement used today.
Mixing water with the cement,
sand, and aggregate forms a paste
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