Construction World December 2023

CIVIL ENGINEERING CONTRACTORS

stockpiled for a couple of days for use. Conventional methods of road construction may usually include large teams of people involving hours of work with graders, watercarts and rollers working tirelessly to construct a road. KMC has instead endeavoured to construct roads with much greater accuracy and efficiency using aggregate/asphalt pavers kitted out with highly accurate autonomous 3D guidance systems. This combination precludes the need for graders and countless hours of construction. It provides an opportunity for meticulous millimetre-precision in constructing road layers. The benefits of this include consistently improved levels of rideability and much greater accuracy of products delivered to our clients. One of the largest components of the Project was the construction of an underpass bridge at the N4 Freeway. This underpass serves as the extension of Hazeldean Drive effectively linking the area north of the N4 with the already well-established Silverlakes area South of the Freeway. As the name suggests, an underpass traverses under the freeway instead of over it like a bridge normally would. This underpass, while not uncommon in freeway construction, holds some qualities unique to this project. This sizeable structure was required to be constructed without disrupting or reducing the capacity of the national freeway. For that reason, the bridge underpass was designed with soldier piles tied into the deck slabs to act as the abutment. These piles were drilled and installed by redirecting traffic from the Eastbound carriageway of the freeway onto a temporary section of road constructed alongside the Westbound carriageway, rendering the Eastbound carriageway free from vehicles. During this time our specialist piling subcontractor

22 22 nd Best Projects Awards 2023