Modern Quarrying October-November 2017

LAST BLAST

‘Natal Crushers’ saves the day

M Q is always on the lookout for historical information on our quarries, and received this from Alan Cluett who took some photographs of the then Natal Crushers’ 30 t Euclid D45, D46 and D47 dumpers on their way to the N3 north-bound bridge crossing the Umgeni River, below the Midmar Dam. The operation is now Afrimat Pietermaritzburg. “Heavy rain across the Natal Province on the proceeding Sunday caused widespread damage with the Natal Crushers quarry being flooded with about 9,0 m of water,” he says. “Fortunately I had asked the quarry foreman Kevin Baines and the production foreman Mike Auths to drill a round of holes on the top bench a week before the floods hit. This chance decision enabled the quarry to be in full production and despatching stone by around 12:00 on the day following the storms, despite suffering severe damage to the entrance road and some support infrastructure at the plant.” Cluett continues: “In the early afternoon we received a call from Hippo Quarries’ GM Ray Weber instructing us to load three quarry dumpers with boulders and to take them all the way to the N3 north-bound bridge at Midmar, which was in imminent danger of being washed away by flood waters in the Umgeni, immediately downstream of the Midmar Dam. “This followed a request by the then Administrator of Natal to Ray Weber, for urgent assistance in an effort to save the bridge. We obliged and along with a police escort proceeded to Midmar.”

The D46 tipping boulders on the highway at the approach works to the bridge that were being eroded. These were then pushed in the waters by a D6 dozer. The boulders could be heard bashing into each other by the swirling water behind the concrete approach works. They eventually packed together, stopping further erosion and the bridge was saved. If the north-bound section had collapsed, a domino effect was expected. The south-bound would have followed as well as possibly the adjacent rail bridge. The main arterial route between Durban and Johannesburg would have been severed.

Photograph shows the level of the river between the north-bound and south-bound (right).

The Euclid dumpers en route to the bridge.

The Howick falls on the afternoon of 29 September 1989.

AfrimatSharedServices..............................................39 ASPASA...............................................................................7 Babcock........................................................................30 BBF Safety Group.........................................................IBC Bell Equipment...............................................................42 Booyco Electronics.........................................................9

CDE Global Limited..................................................OBC Doosan..................................................................IFC ELB Equipment..............................................................36 Kemach JCB......................................................................40 Martin Engineering– RSA.........................................29 Odebrecht Global Sourcing....................................43

Sandvik..............................................................OFC Scania..................................................................2 Scania...........................................................................23 -26 WeirMineralsAfrica......................................................20 Wirtgen.......................................................................35

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MODERN QUARRYING October - November 2017