Construction World February 2016

CONSTRUCTION WORLD

FEBRUARY

2016

The project is a good fit within with

Aveng Grinaker-LTA’s growing portfolio

of coastal projects, some of the most

significant being the Dr Pixley Ka Isaka Seme

Memorial Hospital in KwaZulu-Natal, the exten-

sion to the Cape Town International Convention

Centre and Aspen Pharmacare’s manufacturing

facility in Port Elizabeth.

The site was handed over to Aveng Grinaker-

LTA’s Coastal division on 2 November 2015 and

is scheduled to be completed by 15 November

2016. Aveng Grinaker-LTA offers multidisciplinary

services across the construction and engineering

value chain to its clients in South Africa, Mozam-

bique, Mauritius and other selected markets in

the rest of Africa. It offers a range of standalone

or integrated services which range frombuilding,

civil engineering and earthworks, to mechanical

and electrical engineering.

CONTRACT FOR

UCT HOUSING

Aveng Grinaker-LTA has recently

been awarded a contract

worth R165-million for the

construction of a 602 unit,

seven storey student boarding

house and three levels of

basement parking. The site is

within walking distance of the

University of Cape Town and

the new accommodation is

specifically targeted at students

enrolled at the University.

ABOVE:

Phase I was handed over to the building contractor with the Rivonia Road face complete and rock

profile exposed on the West Street face.

BELOW:

Stepped platforms over the Gautrain servitude.

and the first hand-over date was 8 May

2015 with final completion set for 9 October

2015. However during November 2014 an

industry shortage of strand for the manu-

facture of anchors resulted in a three-week

delay to operations on the critical path of the

programme. The client elected to pay for the

importation of strand from the USA to mitigate

any further delays and this was procured over

the December break.

“On our return in early January, the

anchor supplier had received the material and

had sufficient stock for the anchoring works

to recommence. An extension of three weeks

was granted, with the revised final contract

hand-over date now agreed to be 31st October

2015,” concluded Alves.

Changing of the guard

Meanwhile there has been a changing of the

guard at Franki Africa with Errol Braithwaite

taking over from Roy McLintock as managing

director. “It’s been a very smooth transition.

The company has firm foundations of good

people, sound financial management and

world class technologies and runs like a well-

oiled machine,” Braithwaite says.

McLintock, who retired at the end of last

year, says that decentralising operations

has also been key in the efficient running of

the business. “Each of Franki’s divisions, big

businesses in their own right, is run autono-

mously by experienced and highly competent

managers and, of course, with them its busi-

ness as usual. From a central management

point of view Errol is an ideal replacement for

me. Apart from his immense experience in the

field, he and I share the same fundamental

views in terms of how a business should be

managed,” McLintock says.

Braithwaite is ‘delighted to be back’

after having previously been at Franki from

1996 to 2000 as a senior design engineer. He

says Franki Africa is stronger, more focused

and better equipped in skills and machinery

than when he left in 2000. “I appreciate the

informal yet disciplined management style

which shuns micromanagement and espouses

the adage ‘empowerment with accounta-

bility’, a concept which says it all,” he says.

Braithwaite is aware that he takes over

the reins at Franki at a difficult time in the

global economy in general and the South

African economy in particular but, while

recognising the stiff challenges ahead, is in

no way pessimistic about the future. “Firstly

we are now part of the Keller group, the

world’s largest independent geotechnical

engineering contractor. This means we have

access to a range of technology, information

and skills, which not only enables us to offer

cost effective alternatives using state-of-

the-art technology, it also puts us in a unique

position in our industry throughout Africa,”

he concludes.