Construction World August 2018

PROJECTS & CONTRACTS

WHITTLESEA ROAD gets upgrade

A busy section of the R67 route between Whittlesea and Queenstown in the Eastern Cape will soon be safer for motorists and communities alike, as Concor Infrastructure, under the supervision of KBK Engineers, makes good progress on its contract for the South African National Roads Agency SOC Limited (SANRAL) to widen the roadway and improve vertical and horizontal alignments.

Lwandiso Reve, Concor Infrastructure site agent on the Whittlesea contract.

S cheduled for completion in the first quar- ter of 2019, work has been ongoing since November 2016 on a 15,4 km stretch of the road between Whittlesea and the Swart Kei River, including a 740 metre section that runs through the town of Whittlesea. According to Concor Infrastructure site agent Lwandiso Reve, the road remains a single lane carriageway, but a three metre shoulder is being added on each side, making for safer driving conditions. The wid- ening has also meant extensions to culverts and cattle crossings under the roadway. “SANRAL wanted us to ensure that traffic flow was disrupted as little as possible, so we have created six diversions around the areas where culvert and other extensions were necessary,” says Reve. “This has al- lowed us to keep any stop-go arrangements to a minimum.” Even in town, where the main street is a hive of activity during daylight hours, Con- cor Infrastructure is conducting roadwork at night to ease the disruption for residents and motorists. While this section of the road is receiving patching and a 40 mm asphalt surfacing, the rest of the work involves the full recon- struction of the roadway.

New wind farms contracts Concor Infrastructure has been appointed, in a consortium with Conco, by global wind and solar company Mainstream Renewable Power as the construction contractor for two large scale wind farms. The wind farms, located in the Northern and Western Cape, represent an investment of approximately R6,6-billion and construc- tion will commence in June 2018. Eric Wisse, managing director of Concor Infrastructure, says the company is well positioned to undertake these two major projects with its depth of experience and expertise. He points to the successful com- pletion of the Loeriesfontein and Khobab Wind Farms in 2017 and prior to that the Jeffreys Bay and Noupoort Wind Farms. “Concor Infrastructure has an estab- lished reference base that speaks to our ca- pability and responsiveness, which enables us to deliver complex projects on schedule, within budget, and most importantly safely,” he says. The 140 MW Kangnas wind farm is situ- ated 52 km east of Springbok in the North- ern Cape while the 110 MW Perdekraal East wind farm is about 80 km northeast of Ceres in the Western Cape. The wind farms are expected to begin commercial operation in 2020.

Aggregate has been quarried, crushed and screened at a nearby source, providing material for two 150 mm selected layers of G5 material, one 300 mm sub-base layer of G5 material with G4 grading, and a 150 mm G1 base layer. AfriSam’s Roadstab is being utilised for road stabilisation, and the surface is completed with a bituminous single seal with 20 mm aggregate and slurry, or Cape seal. Infrastructural work includes the exten- sion of seven major culverts, as well as six livestock crossings under the road. Partner- ships with small businesses from the local communities including the Enoch Mgijima local municipality, the Chris Hani District and the Eastern Cape Province are key to the project as part of Concor Infrastructure’s transformational focus on enterprise devel- opment, says Reve. This is also a SANRAL requirement. Some 45 SMMEs have been contracted for work including subsoil drains, concrete line drains, kerbing, gabions and permanent fencing for the road reserve. Local enterpris- es have also been engaged to manufacture precast concrete bricks, blocks and kerbs, and have also laid paved roads in the com- munities themselves. 

Concor Infrastructure is widening a section of road between Whittlesea and Queenstown in the Eastern Cape.

A number of culverts are being extended as part of Concor Infrastructure's road widening work on the R67 near Whittlesea.

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CONSTRUCTION WORLD AUGUST 2018