Construction World December 2015

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 for The COSAC Project, Newtown

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

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.

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

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CONSTRUCTION WORLD DECEMBER 2015