Construction World September 2019

PROJECTS & CONTRACTS

T his is considering the depth of skills and extent of the capabilities housed within the group that have enabled the various construction divisions to significantly accelerate construction times while maintaining extremely high levels of precision throughout the project lifecycle. These are complemented by M&D Construction Group’s ability to assist its industrial clients to optimise their engineering designs to improve construction efficiencies and save costs. A sound example is the critical role that the group’s Building Division recently played in helping the FX Group enhance the engineering design of the many structures for its new engineered-particle board factory that is being developed in Lothair, Mpumalanga. Funded by the Industrial Development Corporation and part of the Black Industrialists Scheme, this state-of-the-art plant represents a sizeable investment in an extremely underdeveloped region of the country. It will feature the latest international pressed-board production technology, as well as a co-generation plant with a capacity to generate up to 6 MW of energy from the operation’s residues to reduce reliance on grid electricity. M&D Construction Group’s Building Division was appointed by this leading participant in the South African timber products value chain to undertake all of the building works for this high specification project. The division’s scope of work includes constructing the 16 factory floors – totalling about 28 000 m 2 under roof, as well as the administration centre, a large ablution facility and retention dam on the 12 ha site. “Our involvement in this project started with providing the client with a more cost-effective alternative design for the various structures without compromising the extremely high quality standards required by a world-class manufacturer of engineered- particle board. The group’s willingness to become involved in the very early design phases of a project as the contractor remains a tactical competitive edge,” Rory Clark, Head of M&D Construction Group’s M&D Construction Group’s Building Division mobilised to site to commence building the various structures in late October 2018. The extensive site establishment operations also included the procurement and installation of the eight large generators required to provide power to this outlying area of the province. This is in addition to fully-equipping the various boreholes that are being used to supply water for the project. Notably, site establishment was completed in only eight days where after the contractor undertook its first concrete pours for the concrete floor slabs. Shortly thereafter the Building Division also quickly adapted to accommodate the extended work scope, which included the construction of the 1,4 km concrete-surface road that will service the new factory, as well as the installation of ancillary infrastructure. Building Division, says. Site mobilisation

Led by Remi De Meyer, M&D Construction Group’s Site Agent, the Building Division team has made swift progress on this complex project which is well on track for completion in October 2019. De Meyer attributes most of the success achieved thus far to the extensive preplanning undertaken by the Building Division ahead of the initiation phase. “M&D Construction Group’s Extensive Integrated-Management Procedures play a critical role in pre-empting risk and implementing robust contingency plans long before we commence working on the project. Certainly, one of the biggest risks on this project has been the extremely remote location of the development, situated just outside Chrissiesmeer. Transport and logistics has to, therefore, be carefully co-ordinated to ensure full truck loads, both in terms of construction equipment and materials, such as the 900 t of structural steel, 400 t of rebar and 16 000 m 2 of steel-metal cladding required for the project,” he says. The buildings comprise concrete columns with a 1,5 m high brick infill and then sheet-metal cladding to the roof, an apex structure that consists of purlins, supported by rafters. They span parallel to the building eave and reinforce the steel roof sheeting. These structures house the main mechanical equipment and there is, thus, minimal scope for error. To ensure high levels of accuracy, close contact is maintained between the mechanical co-ordinator, a representative of the international original equipment manufacturer, and the Building Division. This has also ensured that unforeseen problems are resolved swiftly to avoid delaying the works programme. A case in point is the decision taken by the professional team to install piles to support the heavy base of the particle-board hot press machine in the main building. The very complex ground conditions were only discovered once the contractor had already started blasting for the concrete pit, and Gauteng Piling was swiftly appointed to install the 10 piles with a loading capacity of 1 000 t. In addition to achieving 5 mm tolerances on all cast-in structural steel components, the concrete floor slabs of the factories are being constructed to a FM2 specification, a finish with extremely high levels of flatness and levelness to accommodate the mechanical equipment. Moreover, the 15 concrete pits, six of which located in the

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CONSTRUCTION WORLD SEPTEMBER 2019