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CONSTRUCTION WORLD
AUGUST
2016
PROJECTS AND CONTRACTS
Introduction
From a geotechnical perspective, the complete overhaul of the Village
Walk site has been sufficiently challenging for Franki project manager
Paulo Alves to say that this was one of the most incredible projects he
has ever worked on. “It has been a complex, often difficult and unpre-
dictable project with both logistical and technical challenges that, in
combination, made this a unique task,” says Alves.
The project
At one time the ‘Mecca’ of Johannesburg fun-loving teenagers, the
Village Walk complex is well known to the residents of Johannesburg.
Of course – and central to this story – its fame was enhanced by its
neighbour, the iconic Balalaika Hotel and more recently by other famous
names like Nedbank, Protea Hotel, Holiday Inn, HSBC and others. With
the centre struggling commercially, the savvy Eris Properties took the
opportunity to develop and construct a totally new office/retail hub in
the middle of the most valuable square mile in Africa.
The initial demolition of the above-basement part of the building
to street level took place in 2013-2014. In October 2014 Franki was
approached by SIP Project managers and AECOM Quantity Surveyors to
provide a solution to demolish the basement section of the building and
to provide a holistic lateral support solution for a new ‘super-basement’.
“In essence this is the short description of this project,” Alves says,
“however the challenges were complex and numerous.”
The first thing that Franki had to do was to support the existing
basement walls neighbouring the Balalaika and Protea Hotels. “This
first phase was crucial, as these walls supported those buildings and
any mistake in calculation would have been disastrous,” Alves says.
The action on this first phase was to support the walls with
249 no. four-strand anchors and, simultaneously, 82 no. soldier piles
were installed on the northern and eastern faces i.e. Maud Street and
Rivonia Rd respectively. This took from 1 December 2014 to the middle
of April 2015. Shortly before the end of this phase permission was given
to proceed with Phase II, which was to demolish the existing four-base-
ment parking garage, excavate according to the new plans and then
laterally support the remainder of the site.
This description of the scope of works gives the impression that
there was a neat chronology to the various activities on the site. The
reality was that the three main disciplines – geotechnical, earthworks
and demolition – were working together on a small site and this
presented enormous challenges, which were overcome by Franki’s (the
principal contractor) strong leadership and the excellent co-operation
between the contractors. “This job epitomised the excellent relation-
ships that existed between all who were involved,” says Alves. “From
the client, Eris Properties, through to the project managers SIP, AECOM
(quantity surveyors), Aurecon (engineers), Boogertman + Partners (archi-
tects) through to the contracting team of Franki, earthworks specialists
Zero Azania, Phoenecian Demolition, Pro-Frag Drilling and Blasting and
Diamond Cutting and Coring Company, there was a co-operation and
understanding that made the success of this job possible.”
In fact, one of the most important, and intricate, tasks – and one
which happened almost ‘behind the scenes’ – was the separation of
the basement from the existing structures of the Balalaika and Protea
Hotels. Alves explains: “This was achieved through precision cutting
and sawing by the Diamond Cutting and Coring team under the super-
vision of Aurecon who ensured that the cuts were made in exactly the
correct positions. There was absolutely no extraneous damage in this
critical operation.”
Other works that involved the surrounding buildings were civils
jobs that, although relatively minor, were critical in that they made it
possible for these neighbours to continue their day-to-day business
uninterrupted. These included: the regrading of the Holiday Inn Hotel
entrance; the creation of emergency walkways for safe passage to and
from all the surrounding hotels; erection of all the hoarding around the
site and making safe the common areas with the surrounding buildings;
and the relocation of stormwater and sewerage pipes.
Being cognisant of the needs of these surrounding buildings was
integral to the overall challenge of this contract. In addition to all the
ancillary civils work, Franki had to control the noise level and the dust.
“This was exacerbated by very hard granitic rock that we encoun-
tered which required drilling and blasting. One can imagine just how
controlled this operation had to be in order to do it not only safely,
Village Walk: a story of
GREAT TEAMWORK
LEFT:
Anchor drilling along Maude Street face, below the contaminated material area.
RIGHT:
Lateral support walls in close proximity to the Holiday Inn Hotel.
“Moreover, the contaminated soil was hard up
against the lateral support face; restricting the
progress of this critical-path operation. However,
with some creative lateral thinking we were able to
make up the time lost and the building contractor
was able to establish by the required date.”