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CONSTRUCTION WORLD
FEBRUARY
2017
challenges during construction stage.
“All these high rise sites are space
constrained, as they tend to be in
established suburbs where buildings are
close to each other,” says Probuild contracts
manager (buildings) Matthew Simmonds.
“Logistics in this environment are quite
demanding, as contractors have to deal
with all the same volumes of material as
any building construction, but with less
space for storage, deliveries and moving
material around.”
He says this demands better planning
and co-ordination to ensure an efficient
sequence of operations, so that material is
at the right place at the right time.
In the case of Capital on the Park, says
Simmonds, about 3,5 million bricks will
need to be moved into place to construct
the building; at 500 bricks per pallet, that
means moving about 7 000 pallets to where
the bricklayers are, and the bricklaying will
go as fast as their material supply will allow.
“This is the reason why we added
another tower crane – a Potain flat
top MCT85F5 model – to our on-site
infrastructure in November to augment the
larger Potain MD310B unit set up early in
the contract,” he says. “While the primary
crane is dedicated mainly to convey
formwork, reinforcing and concrete, the
second, smaller crane was brought on
board to serve the wet trades – mainly
brickwork and plaster.
“Cranes are a substantial consideration
when planning preliminary and general
(P&G) costs for a project,” says Buck, “but
we have learnt from experience on this
kind of contract that there are times when
logistics – moving material to where it is
needed – can become a severe constraint
to the work programme. Tower cranes
facilitate rapid movement of materials,
especially on space constrained sites, to
help keep the work programme on track.”
The Potain MD310B crane is on hire
from SA French, while the flat-top crane
was acquired by Probuild this year and is
expected to be kept busy on a number of
This photograph aptly illustrates a major
advantage of a topless crane. It shows the
jib foot being lifted with the trolley and
hook block already pre-reeved.
Safety is the foundation of
all tower crane erection at SA
French. This photographs shows
a rigger doing operation.
the company’s projects going forward.
“The purchase decision was based on
the fact that we will be using it a great
deal,” says Buck. “The market for high
rise, urban residential projects is relatively
active in Johannesburg, and we expect that
it will continue to be put to frequent use.”
Working alongside the busy Katherine
Street is an added challenge, as concrete
mixers and low bed trucks have only a
slither of pavement to pull off onto and
discharge their loads.
“Careful planning combined with
cooperation from our suppliers ensures
that we have seldom had to request traffic
disrupting lane closures,” says Simmonds.
He says one of the advantages of the
flat-top crane in this environment is that
its jib can be assembled in-situ, rather than
having to be done on the ground before
lifting, which takes more space and lifting
capacity, and invariably leads to greater
congestion on the site.
Louw Smit, sales manager SA French, Kobus van der Merwe, site agent
Probuild and Matthew Simmonds, contract manager Probuild.
5376 Balance
of the counter
weights being
fitted.