ON SITE
Traffic jams were everyday occurrences in the constricted conditions .
says Marx . This was supplied by Harrowgate from any one of several nearby quarries , the one selected at any one time being dependant on weather conditions and which quarry was accessible .
The contractors commenced on site in July 2017 , and the wet 2017 / 18 rainy season meant the loss of 16 workdays , with each wet day often
" When we lose days to rain , we mitigate it by working longer hours whenever we can .”
Hardus Marx . also causing the subsequent loss of the succeeding day . “ The clay in the ground meant that drainage was poor , and we had to use water dumps extensively to continue work . The terms of contract limited us to a total of 20 days lost to rain for the full duration of the contract , but we have already used 16 of them .” The contract concludes in February 2020 , so another full rainy season has to be managed .
Rain being a natural phenomenon , it is something that contractors such as Liviero lose out on , says Marx , although he adds that “ when we lose days to rain , we mitigate it by working longer hours whenever we can ”.
Another challenge was the physical tightness of the site . The entire 1 950m 2 footprint is used , with building taking place right up to the building line , and just a small walkway for students to enter . As is common when working in builtup areas , construction took place virtually under the shadow of adjacent buildings . There is also a 3m-wide servitude road at the back of the site ( the opposite side to Jorissen Street ), which will only be usable once the building is complete . Logistics is consequently a problem , eased only slightly by a permit obtained to use one lane of Jorissen Street . This is the only space where containers and materials could be delivered and stored . When multiple deliveries take place , trucks have to queue and park each other in .
“ This requires extremely tight , short-term planning as we could not store too much material on site . We have to keep access to the site free at all times , as well as having sufficient materials on site to continue working ,” says Marx . “ We could not use the standard practice of leaving sufficient sand readily available on site — instead , we opted for having pre-mixed sand delivered just in time from AfriSam , even though this came at a marginally higher cost . It is something we had to do so that no mixing would take place on site and further aggravate the cramped
20 - CEC October 2018