Construction World February 2017

PROJECTS & CONTRACTS

CULVERTS for road D528 REHABILITATION project in Limpopo

In addition to the quickly deteriorating road surface and bridge, a sinkhole had developed under the road’s surface threatening a complete collapse of this section of the D528. Rocla’s SAR culverts were selected for the rehabilitation of the bridge section. Polokwane-based Batlagae Investments was awarded the contract to commence the rehabilitation of the D528 road in April Re-occurring potholes from flooding in the Limpopo Province over the past few years and damage from the constant weight of heavy articulated trucks made the rehabilitation of the D528 road in George’s Valley near Tzaneen essential.

2016 and the expected completion date is November 2016. Thapelo Chuene, project manager at Batlagae Investments said, “This 30 km section of the road became known as the ‘deathtrap’ because of the disintegrating bridge and road surface. Many challenges faced us on this project such as the accommodation of fibre optic lines, bad weather, the development of a ‘safe road’ for the duration of the project and excavation of 30 000 m 3 of soil. “The removal of old and collapsed pipes had to be conducted with cutting torches due to a bridge collapse on a section of the D528 road. “Rocla’s SAR culverts were chosen due to their quality, longevity and capacity. Ninety three units of 2 000 x 2 000 SAR culverts (5-10 m fill height) were supplied for the flood damaged bridge element of the project.” “Because the Rocla’s SAR culverts were custom designed to our

requirements they were loaded onto tipper trucks and then off-loaded individually, in order to ensure that no damage was caused to each culvert,” said Chuene. “When handling any concrete products, it is important to remember that, as concrete is a heavy and somewhat brittle material, bumps or shock loads of any description are liable to damage the product. “When offloading custom designed products such as our SAR culverts, whilst placing the product on the ground, no portion of the culvert should be suspended in the air. While off-loading individual culverts one- by-one for the D528 project took some time, it was essential to maintain the integrity of the culvert at all times,” said Robert Hill, sales representative for Rocla in Limpopo. Hill continued “This particular project certainly threw up some challenges from inclement weather to traffic constantly trying to use the damaged and collapsed sections of the road but nothing that could not be overcome by the contractors and our technical support team.”

The SAR culvert is most suited to be used in stormwater applications with high loadings but can be applied in any application where excessive fills must be accommodated. Units consist of a deck and two legs which are placed on a concrete base. This base can be cast in-situ or prefabricated. Rocla is Southern Africa's leading manufacturer of precast concrete products for infrastructure, which in addition to culverts includes pipes, manholes, poles and various other related products. All Rocla products are ISO 9001/2008 certified and have the applicable SANS recognition. The company has a sophisticated Quality Management Systems which are continually monitored and upgraded to ensure standards are maintained. 

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CONSTRUCTION WORLD FEBRUARY 2017