Construction World August 2016

PROJECTS AND CONTRACTS

Village Walk: a story of GREAT TEAMWORK

Introduction From a geotechnical perspective, the complete overhaul of the Village Walk site has been sufficiently challenging for Franki project manager Paulo Alves to say that this was one of the most incredible projects he has ever worked on. “It has been a complex, often difficult and unpre- dictable project with both logistical and technical challenges that, in combination, made this a unique task,” says Alves. The project At one time the ‘Mecca’ of Johannesburg fun-loving teenagers, the Village Walk complex is well known to the residents of Johannesburg. Of course – and central to this story – its fame was enhanced by its neighbour, the iconic Balalaika Hotel and more recently by other famous names like Nedbank, Protea Hotel, Holiday Inn, HSBC and others. With the centre struggling commercially, the savvy Eris Properties took the opportunity to develop and construct a totally new office/retail hub in the middle of the most valuable square mile in Africa. The initial demolition of the above-basement part of the building to street level took place in 2013-2014. In October 2014 Franki was approached by SIP Project managers and AECOM Quantity Surveyors to provide a solution to demolish the basement section of the building and to provide a holistic lateral support solution for a new ‘super-basement’. “In essence this is the short description of this project,” Alves says, “however the challenges were complex and numerous.” The first thing that Franki had to do was to support the existing basement walls neighbouring the Balalaika and Protea Hotels. “This first phase was crucial, as these walls supported those buildings and any mistake in calculation would have been disastrous,” Alves says. The action on this first phase was to support the walls with 249 no. four-strand anchors and, simultaneously, 82 no. soldier piles “Moreover, the contaminated soil was hard up against the lateral support face; restricting the progress of this critical-path operation. However, with some creative lateral thinking we were able to make up the time lost and the building contractor was able to establish by the required date.”

were installed on the northern and eastern faces i.e. Maud Street and Rivonia Rd respectively. This took from 1 December 2014 to the middle of April 2015. Shortly before the end of this phase permission was given to proceed with Phase II, which was to demolish the existing four-base- ment parking garage, excavate according to the new plans and then laterally support the remainder of the site. This description of the scope of works gives the impression that there was a neat chronology to the various activities on the site. The reality was that the three main disciplines – geotechnical, earthworks and demolition – were working together on a small site and this presented enormous challenges, which were overcome by Franki’s (the principal contractor) strong leadership and the excellent co-operation between the contractors. “This job epitomised the excellent relation- ships that existed between all who were involved,” says Alves. “From the client, Eris Properties, through to the project managers SIP, AECOM (quantity surveyors), Aurecon (engineers), Boogertman + Partners (archi- tects) through to the contracting team of Franki, earthworks specialists Zero Azania, Phoenecian Demolition, Pro-Frag Drilling and Blasting and Diamond Cutting and Coring Company, there was a co-operation and understanding that made the success of this job possible.” In fact, one of the most important, and intricate, tasks – and one which happened almost ‘behind the scenes’ – was the separation of the basement from the existing structures of the Balalaika and Protea Hotels. Alves explains: “This was achieved through precision cutting and sawing by the Diamond Cutting and Coring team under the super- vision of Aurecon who ensured that the cuts were made in exactly the correct positions. There was absolutely no extraneous damage in this critical operation.” Other works that involved the surrounding buildings were civils jobs that, although relatively minor, were critical in that they made it possible for these neighbours to continue their day-to-day business uninterrupted. These included: the regrading of the Holiday Inn Hotel entrance; the creation of emergency walkways for safe passage to and from all the surrounding hotels; erection of all the hoarding around the site and making safe the common areas with the surrounding buildings; and the relocation of stormwater and sewerage pipes. Being cognisant of the needs of these surrounding buildings was integral to the overall challenge of this contract. In addition to all the ancillary civils work, Franki had to control the noise level and the dust. “This was exacerbated by very hard granitic rock that we encoun- tered which required drilling and blasting. One can imagine just how controlled this operation had to be in order to do it not only safely,

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LEFT: Anchor drilling along Maude Street face, below the contaminated material area. RIGHT: Lateral support walls in close proximity to the Holiday Inn Hotel.

CONSTRUCTION WORLD AUGUST 2016