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CONSTRUCTION WORLD
OCTOBER
2015
READYMIX
Lafarge South Africa is the local
presence of the international
Lafarge Group, a world leader in
building materials. The Group’s
brand baseline ‘Building better cities’ is
founded on the huge global trend to urbani-
sation and reflects Lafarge’s commitment to
help create cities that are desirable, sustain-
able environments for all people.
This means contributing to better solu-
tions that meet the needs of communities
for decent housing, hospitals, schools and
offices, together with the associated infra-
structure to connect and service cities, such
as roads, airports, water and power utilities.
All round support at Eteza
A recent example of Lafarge South Africa’s
efficient integrated service was on the
SANRAL contract to construct an overload
control facility and full diamond interchange
at Eteza on the N2 in KwaZulu-Natal. The
main contractor was concerned about two
main concrete issues.
The driver of the project was their ability
to place the Continuous Reinforced Concrete
Pavement (CRCP) on time and within
specification, when the closest commercial
ready-mixed concrete plant was 45 km from
the project site. The second concern was
ameliorating the Heat of Hydration (HOH) in
the extremely hot, humid conditions.
Lafarge’s successful offer to supply all
main building materials, concrete, cement,
fly ash, and 165 000 t of road aggregates, as
well as 4 500 t of the company’s specialised
cementitious roadbinder, RoadCem 32,5N,
made it viable to provide a Lafarge mobile
concrete batching plant on site. This enabled
the required combined total of 13 000 m³ of
CRCP mix and other Conventionally Vibrated
Concrete (CVC) to be supplied without
compromising the quality or integrity of
the concrete.
The solution to assisting the contractor
to control heat of hydration was the supply
of 6 500 t of Lafarge’s Powercrete Plus CEM
II 42,5R premium technical cement. This
unique product is not only a Low Heat
Cement with a typical Heat of Hydration
value of 227 J/g (compared with the EN 197-1
criterion of < 270 J/g at 41h), but it can also
be extended further on site with fly ash to
meet the various mix requirements.
Meeting a tight durability
specification
Similar support was provided to the main
contractor on the SANRAL contract to
upgrade Section 14 of the N1 freeway
between Trompsburg Interchange and
Fonteintjie, a distance of 20,8 km. The site
is some 120 km from the nearest fixed
commercial ready-mixed concrete plant and
this represented a potentially significant risk
in terms of compliance with the tight dura-
bility specification.
The solution from Lafarge South Africa
was to position a mobile concrete batching
plant optimally on site to service the major
concrete pours and take on the durability
risk. This was conditional on being awarded
the full supply package of building materials.
The successful outcome was the supply of
10 000 m³ CVC concrete, on-specification and
on-time. This involved the supply 3 500 t of
Lafarge Powercrete Plus 42,5R cement, 7 000 t
of aggregates, 1 000 t of fly ash, as well as
8 000 t of cementitious roadbinder, RoadCem.
“Our construction contractor customers
are appreciating the benefits of having their
building materials supplied and managed
from a single reliable source,” comments
Lafarge South Africa’s, Mike Fisher, infrastruc-
ture road & rail development manager.
“By matching the extensive capabilities
of Lafarge South Africa with the needs of
the specific construction project and the
individual construction company, we achieve
consistent quality and better value all round
for the stakeholders.”
COMPLETE
OFFERING
Lafarge South Africa is in a unique position to provide
the construction industry with building materials
and solutions through having a strong presence in all
of its construction related business lines of cement,
aggregates, ready-mixed concrete, fly ash and gypsum
plasterboard. The company focuses strongly on the
needs of its customers and their projects to develop
innovative holistic product supply solutions.
The approach is proving to be highly effective, offering
customers peace of mind and better value in a
competitive marketplace.
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