The Civil Engineering Contractor September 2018 | Page 21

ON SITE
“The location poses
multiple challenges,
which we have dealt with:
there is limited laydown
space, while access and
traffic management have
not been easy. The built-
up nature of the area
requires environmental
monitoring and compliance,
particularly controlling
noise and dust within
acceptable levels.”
Fanie Stadler, Concor
Project challenges
It is a site not without its challenges,
says Stadler: “With the site being
located in a highly built-up area,
logistics requires careful planning.”
One of the challenges in managing
this project is the logistics created
by having a corner site located at
the busy intersection of Rivonia
Road and Melville Street, as well
as having a local school (St David’s
Marist, Inanda) across Rivonia Road
on one side, a popular conference
site (Summer Place) on the other
side across Melville Road, as well
as the close proximity of a built-up
property next door.
“The location poses multiple
challenges which we have dealt with:
there is limited laydown space, while
access and traffic management have
not been easy. The built-up nature
of the area requires environmental
monitoring and compliance,
particularly controlling noise and
dust within acceptable levels,” says
Stadler.
At the time of the site visit,
drilling was taking place, yet the
air felt perfectly clean. “We have
water pipes connected to the drill
rigs, which suppress the dust,”
he says. On the credit side of the
ledger, Stadler reports that they
encountered no underground water,
and the site had at most one or
two millimetres of rain during the
month they had been on site (from
1 May to 4 June, at the time). The
result was no material delays to the
project, and the presence of good
underfoot conditions.
The material from excavations has
been removed by a fleet of 16 trucks,
to be used to rehabilitate an old quarry
hole at the Crown Mines golf course,
while good soil that comes from the
excavations will be used on other
projects, says Van Jaarsveld.
No piling was necessary on the
site as conventional lateral support
was found to be sufficient. Concor
was responsible for the major lateral
support within the three below-
ground parking basements. The
basements’ retaining walls are made
of ready-mix Shotcrete (gunite)
sprayed on by a nozzle gun.
Apart from 16 trucks, the site has
two excavators and two drilling rigs. The
total construction period is 22 months,
with the civils component taking three
months ending the first week of July.
FWJK Developments will deliver
the new building to its investors during
the first quarter of 2020.
other photos:
The full site from the north-east corner.
Sumé van Jaarsveld, quantity
surveyor for project developer FWJK
Developments, says the R500-million
total development is a ‘co-development
at cost price’ project.
CEC September 2018 - 19