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CONSTRUCTION WORLD
DECEMBER
2015
2 15
BEST
PR
O
JECTS
Project information
• Company entering: Gauteng Piling
• Project start date: 13 May 2014
• Project end date: 30 May 2015
• Client: The Market Theatre Foundation
• Main contractor: Solidaire Construction
• Architect: KMH Architects
• Principal agent: Solidaire Construction
• Project manager: Badat Developments
• Piling contractor: Gauteng Piling
• Project value: R810 000
Piling is not normally an indoor
assigment, nor is a piling com-
pany usually required to preserve
the walls of a relatively small
98 m
2
'room' while driving piles as much as
7 metres into the ground inside such a small
enclosed area.But to provide new founda-
tion elements for COSAC Building, which
comprise extensions to the Market Theatre
complex in the Johannesburg CBD, Gauteng
Piling had to do piling inside an old, land-
mark restaurant famous for defying the
racial laws in the days of apartheid.
The
Market
Theatre
Foundation
commissioned the alteration and demo-
lition of some of the buildings on a city
block bounded by Bree Street to the north,
Miriam Makeba Street on the east, and
Margaret Mcingana Street on the west.
COSAC Building, the new development
east of Mary Fitzgerald Square, will provide
additional facilities for the Market Theatre
precinct, including a new theatre, rehearsal
rooms, library, gallery space, classrooms
and offices. It has been designed by KMH
Architects.
The construction site is located among
some early Johannesburg buildings and
façades, including Schlom’s Eating House,
and the Graffiti Building, east of Mary
Fitzgerald Square.
Schlom’s Eating House dates back to
1914 and has, according to leading heritage
consultant, Herbert Prins, ‘strong social
significance’. Graffiti Building, which was at
one stage a grain warehouse before its walls
were over the years adorned with graffiti by
some talented street artists, was built a few
years after Schlom’s.
As the Market Theatre Foundation
had re-arranged the large-scaled redevel-
opment of its property to preserve these
historic buildings, particular and stringent
piling precautions were essential to avoid
damaging the revered heritage structures.
The contractor utilised a bored piling
rig, equipped with an 800 kg hammer,
which was then dropped from a height
within the building itself to create 14 piling
holes, between 6 m and 7 m deep, and
410 mm in diameter. Reinforced steel cages
were then placed in the piling holes prior to
these being filled with concrete.
The use of the ‘old-fashioned’ compact
rig was essential because a normal rig obvi-
ously would not have been able to access the
old restaurant without damaging its façade.
For COSAC Building, Gauteng Piling
was subcontracted by the main contractor,
Solidaire Construction, to provide 73
auger cast piles and 14 bored piles, varying
in depth from 8 to 12 metres, and 250 mm
to 850 mm in diameter, on the de-
velopment site of about 2 000 square metres
in Newtown.
Piling for The COSAC Project, Newtown