Construction World November 2016

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Tubular category winner Siesa Ramabodu Stadium

Scooping the award for best Tubular Steel structure was Siesa Ramabodu Stadium in Bloemfontein. Home to Bloemfontein Celtic, the Stadium was renovated to better serve the community by increasing its capacity, comfort and quality as a sporting venue. When interviewed regarding this project, the first aspect architect Aadil Bham commented on was the professional and excellent manner in which the team collaborated while executing this project. “All contrac- tors and subcontractors really came together well to give us a good final product.” says Bham. The project came about from a collaboration between the Mangaung Municipality and the Freestate Department of Sports, Arts, Culture and Recreation, and the Department of Public Works. They identified this site as a priority for development within the municipality and developed a wishlist in terms of what they wanted to achieve. Their main priority was the upliftment of the sports offering from this facility, bringing it to a contemporary standard. They also wanted to create a facility that provided a quality experience to the community, with soccer being such a loved sport in the area. The structural frame of Seisa Ramabodu Stadium consists of main raker beams, frames or columns which are founded on solid rock, with seating panels and a box gutter frame bolted to a structure cast into the concrete, carrying a cantilevered roof. The cantilevered roof spans about 30 m and consists of triangular trusses, constructed from circular hollow sections. The trusses vary from 2 m at the back to 500 mm at the nose cone, with a curved bottom member. It has IPE profile purlins that span 9 m (more or less the span of the raker beams) with curved cladding rails fixed to the back of the concrete frames, which carry the circular purlins that support the curved cladding. The main challenge was casting in the structure that carries the gutter boxes at the back. This resulted in variable items, and the need to align trusses in order to create an even visual line, which contributes to the aesthetic of the stadium. Between the engineer, contractor and archi- tect a three member connection was designed to solve this challenge. All aspects were surveyed, and each section had its own cleat made to align the trusses and achieve an even visual alignment.

Mining and industrial category winner Husab Uranium stockpile cover & ancillary structures The Husab Uranium Stockpile Cover & Ancillary Structures entailed the detailing, fabrication, corrosive protection, delivery and installation of two thousand six hundred tons of steelwork, as well as twenty-one thousand square metres of IBR sheeting. The project duration including on and offsite activities was fourteen months with the site duration being eleven months. There were a number of interesting challenges to overcome, i.e. short lead times, high specifications required by client, galvanizing of trusses, for the logistical challenges due to cross border distances, lifting and jacking in the 140 ton gantries and sheeting the building on forty-five degree slopes. We pioneered some ideas at each phase to overcome the challenges and ultimately bring the project home safely and in time. Some highlights were: • The logistical concern of delivering this volume of steel and sheeting was overcome by partnering with a local transported and dedicated trucking supplemented our in-house fleet. • The development of the idea and plan to strand jack the gantries (50-meter span and 140 tons) into place forty meters above ground level, as opposed to using the traditional method of cranes, allowing for this part of the project work to be done faster and safer, ultimately saving the project time and the client monies. • The development of sheeting gondola platforms, which supported a four-man team, tools and materials. These working platforms allowed for the sheeting installation crews to achieve around one thousand two square metres of sheeting installation per day. The safety risk of working on the steep slope was totally eliminated and went a long way in ensuring that Union Steel achieved another incident free project. • Preassembly of truss box section allowed for the site crews to lift into place bigger sections of steelwork, minimising works being carried out in the air, again target our approach to ensuring that our focus on all projects is safety first, and driven with this mind-set.

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CONSTRUCTION WORLD NOVEMBER 2016