Construction World December 2021

BUILDING CONTRACTORS

PROJECT INFORMATION

• Company entering: WBHO • Project start date: 19 March 2021 • Project end date: 29 July 2021

• Client: Hensoldt Optronics • Main Contractor: WBHO • Architect: Nsika Architects

• Principal Agent: Nsika Architects • Project Manager: Nsika Architects • Quantity Surveyor: QS Consult Africa • Consulting Engineer: DG Consulting Engineers

HENSOLDT OPTRONICS – CUMULUS BUILDING UPGRADE

H ensoldt Optronics is an innovative, German-owned company which specialises in the development and manufacturing of UAVs, gimbals, sub-marine periscopes, long range ordinance guidance systems, cyber security and surveillance equipment. The equipment is supplied to military, policing and private sectors worldwide. Hensoldt is currently tenants at three buildings inside Denel’s Centurion Office Park, which is a National Key-Point facility. The Cumulus Building, constructed in line with Nuclear Building Codes in the 1980s, is an ideal facility to produce the wide variety of Hensoldt’s products. WBHO were tasked with upgrading the existing Cumulus building to ISO 5, 6 and 8 quality production areas, fully upgrading the toilet cores, introducing an Agora Café as well as upgrading the existing office spaces. All access, demolition, service installation, wet works and finishes to the 7 900 m² footprint were rolled out while the tenants were still fully operational. The site condition requirements were extremely specific, which made the project execution very unique. WBHO was literally operating as a

areas before the client production proceeded. Laboratories and office areas were boarded and sealed in drywall segments. These segments needed to be fully complete before starting a new area. Based on the project’s extreme sensitivity to dust, noise and vibration, the use of vacuumed power tools was implemented where possible. New floor and wall chasing as well as grinding was kept to a minimum. Any gaps at the working perimeter were sealed with masking tape and were only opened at lunch times and at the end of shifts. The HVAC system was manipulated to create positive pressure in the areas where the client was busy with production. With the building being over 30 years old and having several previous upgrades, no as-built information or drawings were available to do service installation from. Reusing and tying in to existing services proved to be an incredible challenge. Very few electrical circuits were labelled, services ran in the floors, walls and ceiling voids with little respect to current building best practices. Manufacturing the kind of products that Hensoldt is responsible

building site inside a clean room quality environment. Each morning started at 6:30 with screening contractors outside of the main facility entrance gate. Planning, access, logistics, safety requirements and protection of existing works were discussed prior to work starting at 7:00. The contractor would begin by laying down carpet protection on top of the existing ESD Vinyl Flooring, protecting walls with cardboard and covering sensitive equipment with plastic sheets. The project was split into eight sections which included: ablution blocks, office quadrants, an external covered walkway, production laboratories, a laser laboratory, storage facilities, change-rooms, blacked-out rooms and new staff canteen. Each scenario had to be treated differently based on the direct implication to client production requirements. Ablution blocks were demolished from the inside out with the doors and grilles sealed until the dust-producing works were complete. Work inside open areas were scheduled for weekends and after hours with daily tenant cleaning teams processing the sensitive

22 20 th Best Project Awards 2021