The Civil Engineering Contractor June 2019 | Page 8

PROJECT OWNERS Project: Client: Location: It’s sunny in Waterloo Park Renewable energy Old Mutual North West Province, South Africa Juwi Renewable Energies plans to commence construction of a solar plant near Vryburg in North West Province during the first half of 2019. The development will comprise ground mounted, single axis tracker solar, photovoltaic (PV) panels with a substation, offices, warehouse and associated infrastructure. The proposed Waterloo Solar Park covers approximately 150ha portion of Waterloo Farm. The geotechnical investigation was carried out for Sunedison. The area of the proposed development includes a 3ha area set aside for a substation, offices, warehouse and other associated infrastructure is situated on the northern corner of the site. The site is currently used as grazing for cattle, and is accessed through farm tracks, which run from the Amalia gravel road (running between Vryburg and Amalia). Access to the site is only practically Solar projects. achievable in a high rise vehicle. A timber-supported overhead electricity cable runs along the north eastern boundary of the site and a fence separates the eastern and western sections of the site. nn Ethiopia’s USD700m highway project Project: Client: Location: Road infrastructure Ethiopia Government Ethiopia The Modjo to Hawassa highway project is underway with an estimated cost of USD700-million. The 218km road is divided into four phases and the construction of one of the phases kicked off in 2015 at a cost of USD3.6-billion. Construction is ongoing on the project, which has entered its second phase: Zeway-Hawassa section, Lots 2 & 3: Arsi Negele- Hawassa and Batu (Zeway) ­ Arsi Negele section of the road. The works comprise the construction of the main line freeway from Arsi Negele to Hawassa, which is about 55.3km in length and 57.1km in length for Lot 3 and includes the construction of roundabouts, an overpass and underpasses. The proposed section is part of about 202km long new Modjo­ Hawassa Highway, which is entirely located in the Oromia National Regional State in the south-central part of the country. Performance of the 201km highway project has been slow due to problems associated with rights of way and input supply shortages. The Modjo-Meki segment of the project has reached 70%, but only 14.7km of the 37km Meki-Batu section has been built so far. Similarly, the level of performance of the 57km Batu-Arsi Negele is now at 1.5%. The project is expected to be completed by 2021. nn 6 | CEC June 2019 www.civilsonline.co.za