Construction World December 2023

CIVIL ENGINEERING CONTRACTORS

V&A WATERFRONT EAST PIER PRECINCT (EPP) CIVIL SERVICES (PACKAGE A)

C ape Town’s V&A Waterfront attracts over 24 million visitors a year and accounts for over 60% of tourist spending among the top 20 Cape Town attractions. There are several tour companies offering helicopter sightseeing trips from the V&A’s East Pier Precinct. V&A Waterfront required construction works to upgrade the Pierhead Precinct and these include a new heliport building and helideck, desalination building and additional parking areas at the East Pier Precinct. As part of this work, Civils 2000 were appointed to carry out civil engineering construction works for Package A, which included a rock revetment, seawater intake pipelines (for the desalination plant), brine pipeline, district cooling infrastructure, helipad layerworks and a 4x4 road. The works outside Civils 2000’s scope include the desalination plant building and fitting out, heliport building, helideck, parking structure, and seawater intake screens. This contract was undertaken under the JBCC Minor Works Contract and administered by Igual Project Managers. Rock Revetment The reinstatement of the existing informal rock revetment where disturbed due to construction works, which involved excavation and stockpiling of suitable armour rock from the site, benching the foundation and placing fill, installation of a geotextile lining, placing a 400 mm thick filter layer of imported rock, then construction of the revetment armour layer using the rock recovered earlier. Additional armour rock was imported to complete the revetment, before disposing of the surplus material from the excavations. Seawater Intake Pipelines The purpose of the seawater delivery pipeline is to convey abstracted seawater from the seawater intake pump station (by others) to the desalination plant. The seawater intake pipelines involved trenching and laying a 240 m long 400 mm diameter PN10 HDPE de-beaded pipeline. New Brine Pipeline Constructing the brine pipeline required trenching and laying a 185 m long 315 mm diameter uPVC pipeline, including valves, valve chambers and a concrete headwall. Construction of a Temporary Helipad Platform and Sea Wash Channel To accommodate the relocation of the helicopter operators a temporary helipad area was constructed. This work

included the diversion of the existing sea wash channel, earthworks for the platform using crushed material from the site, placing and compaction of layer works and asphalt surfacing. District Cooling Infrastructure The contract also included the construction of 2 200 m of 450 mm diameter, 1 500 m of 400 mm diameter, 600 m of 315 mm diameter and 2 450 m of 280 mm diameter PN 12,5 pipelines. This is to transport cold seawater to the V&A Waterfront cooling services, to assist in the reduction of electricity required for air-conditioning. Construction of Helipad Layerworks and 4 x 4 Road Layerworks were placed in layers and compacted to 93% MDD and surfaced before constructing the 4x4 road around the perimeter, immediately behind the revetment. The construction works required the members of the project teams to use of BIM 360. This software provides significant advantages over traditional methods of contract communication and ensures transparency when sharing of information and ensures open communication with the project managers. As part of the pipe works, a grouping of 6 No. 450 mm diameter PN12,5 HDPE pipelines were laid around the sea-side perimeter. Due to other construction operations in progress, such as placing levelling and compacting the granular layer materials, space for construction was limited and the 3 m deep trench would have required each section of pipe to be placed in the trench then positioning the pipe welding team to complete each joint, with very limited working space. 

PROJECT INFORMATION

• Company entering: Civils 2000 • Client: V&A Waterfront Holdings • Main Contractor: Civils 2000 • Project Manager: Igual Project Managers • Design Engineer: MH & A Consulting Engineers

24 22 nd Best Projects Awards 2023