Construction World December 2018

pedestrian and his or her experience with the retail outlets. The tenant mix was also well considered to ensure that the development was evenly spread with even footfalls throughout. Road accessibility is easily achieved from the surrounding highways and the centre was designed in mind to include an access road to the new bridge, currently under construction, which connects the centre and the greater Cornubia precinct to the northern part of Umhlanga Town Ridge centre. Environmental Impact Consideration Regional shopping centres are challenged by a difficulty of expansive footprint and the provision of large numbers of parking bays to meet local Town Planning requirements. Health & Safety Buildings can present a significant number of possible risks both in construction and operation. A Health and Safety officer was employed to the project as a consultant to provide oversight and expertise in managing a safe and secure site during the construction phase. This approach is typically mandated and legislated by the Government with regard to compliance with basic laws, rules and regulations of the Occupational Health and Safety Act 85 of 1993 (OHSACT) and the Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases Act (COIDA). Ultimately this reduced the risks relating to injury of a member of the public, construction team or consultant team, reduction of working days because of health and safety failings and a possible compromised project and delay to opening. Quantifiable time, cost and quality During the design and construction phases, the costs and construction

time management were strictly controlled to make sure that the project was to be ready ‘on time’ and ‘on budget’ and ready for the various retailers to take their occupation of their spaces for fit-outs prior to opening of the centre. Thus the programming aspect was extremely crucial to the success of the project and the meeting of contractual obligations by Developer and retailer alike. Programmingwas also critical with regard to procurement and lead-times required of various components for the building during construction, and for approval procedures required by Local Authority relating to the various submission process and requirements, including the occupation certificate at the tail-end of the project. With regard to the quality management, it was also crucial, during the construction phase in particular tomake sure that the consultant teamwere playing a quality assurance and control function inmaking sure that the quality of the building construction was to an acceptable and high standard for future sign-offs and issuing the relevant completion certificates. Risk Management Prior to construction, a full report, feasibility and costing analysis was completed, and a pre-letting requirement for the retailers was put in place to make sure that the development was feasible prior to the start of construction. The Client employed the services of a professional team, who had large amounts experience in the design and construction of a building such as Cornubia Mall – this added to the reduction in risk for the Client with respect to cost and programming issues which might arise should an inexperienced team have been employed. Further, 88% of the centre’s gross lettable area (GLA) is occupied by national tenants and national franchise offerings affording an extremely strong covenant and mix of tenants across the categories of retail offerings. 

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