2016 CON JUNE FINAL LOW RES PDF with links

49 / 72

47
2016
not as integrated as for instance European
border control. In addition, distance becomes
a real issue. We currently have a project in
Zambia – the transportation of bitumen from
South Africa to the site takes between a week
and 10 days.
Many of these cross border projects are
large projects funded by government. When
governments run into financial difficulty,
infrastructure plans, which are incorrectly
viewed as less necessary for the financial
well-being of the country, are downscaled
or cancelled. Unfortunately infrastructure
plays a vital role in unlocking the potential
of those countries.
What specialised services do you
offer your road clients?
Basil Read historically contained a number of
subsidiaries – these subsidiaries have been
disposed of or merged into the company
which has been restructured into a number
In Mpumalanga the division is upgrading a section of the road between Greylingstad and Standerton and the road between Standerton and Platrand.
of divisions now focussed on what we call the
heavy construction environment and mining.
Some of the thought processes and intellec-
tual property of these subsidiaries, particu-
larly the design and build and engineering
processes that went into why we acquired
them, still exists within the divisions and we
leverage off this capability.
In addition, our Roads Division is unique
as not all the staff come from a construction
only background – some are engineers with
significant experience in the design and
management of infrastructure projects while
we even employ a former client.
Equipment does not make a differ-
ence – the people of a company makes the
difference. We have a vast amount of intel-
lectual property – from experienced project
managers to young engineers who we are
assisting in getting professional registration.
We are fortunate to have experienced and
highly capable people from senior managers
to final level grader operators who have over
20 years’ service with the company.
One area where we can add value is in
design and build. For example, the St Helena
Airport project has two senior designers –
they work for Basil Read and are therefore
not subcontracted. Our ability to undertake
design build provides us with flexibility in
terms of looking at alternatives.
How do you decide between a
concrete or bitumen pavement?
I have been fortunate to work worldwide.
In developed countries – Europe, North
America, Australasia, there is a difference in
philosophy and in the order of how planning
flows from the client, to the engineer and
to the contractor. Africa is quite traditional
when it comes to the design and construc-
tion concept. Most of the time the design is
already completed for the contractor ahead
of time – the client has made a decision with