IMIESA June 2020

www.infrastructurenews.co.za

IMESA The official magazine of the Institute of Municipal Engineering of Southern Africa

I N F R A S T R U C T U R E D E V E LO P M E N T • B U I L D I N G • M A I N T E N A N C E • S E RV I C E D E L I V E RY

Thought Leadership

INDUSTRY INSIGHT

Working through the troughs

Transforming the paradigm Simon Tetley

Director, ARRB Systems

Smart Cities

Crushing & Screening

Optimising throughput and quality

Asset Management

Getting infrastructure management right

An evolution in urban development

IN THE HOT SEAT Geography, science, engineering and property law combine to deliver a unique value proposition and a single point of contact for our clients.”

Chris Carter Managing director, GeoAfrika Technologies ISSN 0257 1978

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VOLUME 45 NO. 06 JUNE 2020 www.infrastructurenews.co.za

IMESA The official magazine of the Institute of Municipal Engineering of Southern Africa

I N F R A S T R U C T U R E D E V E LO P M E N T • B U I L D I N G • M A I N T E N A N C E • S E RV I C E D E L I V E RY

Thought Leadership

INDUSTRY INSIGHT

Working through the troughs

Transforming the paradigm

Crushing & Screening

Simon Tetley

Optimising throughput and quality

director, ARRB Systems

Smart Cities

Asset Management

Getting infrastructure management right

An evolution in urban development

52

VEHICLES & EQUIPMENT Optimising throughput and downstream quality

IN THE HOT SEAT Geography, science, engineering and property law combine to deliver a unique value proposition and a single point of contact for our clients.”

Chris Carter, managing director, GeoAfrika Technologies ISSN 0257 1978

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IN THE HOT SEAT GeoAfrika Technologies is a leading GIS company with a focus on both geospatial solutions and application development. IMIESA speaks to managing director Chris Carter about the geospatial industry. P6

FOCUS ON

Regulars Editor’s comment President’s comment Africa round-up Index to advertisers

3 5 8 55

Hot Seat Linking spatial information to big data

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Thought Leadership Working through the troughs

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Roads & Bridges New thoughts on bitumen age prediction Greener paving made simple Works progress at Msikaba Bridge

SMART CITIES

26

Cape Town leads the way

Geotechnical Engineering Improving ground properties with PET

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Smart Cities 6

Industry Insight Transforming the paradigm

Trenchless Technology

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Underpinning urban development Water’s new value Digital transitions in the public sector Intelligent tolling 3 ways SA can build a better post-Covid-19 transport system Creating an African auto city Inside Africa’s smartest city

32 35 36 37 38 40 41

Asset Management Getting infrastructure management right

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Energy Water & Wastewater Finding wastewater solutions for Africa 19 Creating water-smart cities 20 Malukazi provides essential service 22

INSIDE Underpinning urban development

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Water’s new value

35

Digital transitions in the public sector

36

Intelligent tolling

37

3 ways SA can build a better post-Covid-19 transport system

38

Creating an African auto city

40

Inside Africa’s smartest city

41 IMIESA June 2020

31

Health & Safety Rethinking cannabis policies in the workplace

12

32 THOUGHT LEADERSHIP Working through the troughs

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ROADS & BRIDGES Greener paving made simple

45

Cement & Concrete Protecting your concrete Mastering the art of plastering

49 50

Vehicles & Equipment 23

Dams & Reservoirs Unique spillway for Garden Route Dam

Overcoming the household energy gap in South Africa

24

Optimising throughput and downstream quality Care package unlocks customer benefits A versatile workhorse

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INDUSTRY INSIGHT

Automated and synchronised data acquisition practices for full-spectrum road condition assessment transcend manual inspection techniques from time, cost and safety perspectives.

ARRB Systems has pioneered developments in the field of automation. P10

IMIESA June 2020

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EDITOR’S COMMENT MANAGING EDITOR Alastair Currie SENIOR JOURNALIST Danielle Petterson HEAD OF DESIGN Beren Bauermeister CHIEF SUB-EDITOR Tristan Snijders CONTRIBUTORS Shylet Chivanga, Denis Kalumba, Randeer Kasserchun, Priscilla B Monyai, Estimé M Mukandila, Bryan Perrie, Ivan Reutener, Laxmee Sobhee-Beetul, Simon Tetley, Annejan Visser PRODUCTION & CLIENT LIAISON MANAGER Antois-Leigh Nepgen PRODUCTION COORDINATOR Jacqueline Modise GROUP SALES MANAGER Chilomia Van Wijk FINANCIAL MANAGER Andrew Lobban BOOKKEEPER Tonya Hebenton DISTRIBUTION MANAGER Nomsa Masina DISTRIBUTION COORDINATOR Asha Pursotham SUBSCRIPTIONS subs@3smedia.co.za PRINTERS Novus Print KZN +27 (0)31 714 4700 ___________________________________________________ ADVERTISING SALES KEY ACCOUNT MANAGER Joanne Lawrie Tel: +27 (0)11 233 2600 / +27 (0)82 346 5338 Email: joanne@3smedia.co.za ___________________________________________________

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Funding the future

E

quitable taxation, plus clear and accountable fiscal management, will be crucial factors in rebuilding South Africa’s economy. That in turn will be strongly influenced by how successfully government reins in public debt, which had already reached alarming levels prior to the lockdown.

Projected at around 65.6% of GDP in Februar y 2020, public debt could end up being as high as 81.8% during the 2020/21 period. In monetar y terms, that equates to some R4 trillion. By 2023/24, the goal is to stabilise debt at approximately 87.4% of GDP. This sobering news was presented during Minister of Finance Tito Mboweni’s Supplementar y Budget Speech in June 2020, which outlined key inter vention measures to combat the social and financial meltdown of Covid-19. According to Mboweni, “Out of ever y rand that we pay in tax, 21 cents goes to paying the interest on our past debts.”

Mboweni refers to the need to “forge a new economy in a new global reality”. This presents major oppor tunities to address past social imbalances, while forging ahead with co-funded public and private sector initiatives.

We need to grow businesses and effect lasting transformation in key industries such as tourism, mining, construction, agriculture, manufacturing and IT.

Spending and execution How the implementation phase is executed, though, depends on government’s readiness and willingness to facilitate a par ticipative management approach that includes all stakeholders. Potential private sector investors, and the public in general, remain deeply concerned about why corruption prevails despite assurances that it will be stopped in its tracks. Adopting a zero-based budgeting approach should help, since money will be released based on individual project readiness and merit. All related expenditure will then be rigorously monitored.

The ABC logo is a valued stamp of measurement and trust, providing accurate and comparable circulation figures that protect the way advertising is traded.

IMIESA is ABC audited and certified.

R20 billion for municipalities As budgets shrink, it’s obvious that ever y cent available for maintaining and constructing essential infrastructure must be well spent and accounted for. Used effectively, for example, the R20 billion Covid-19 relief funds allocated to municipalities could make a real difference. A por tion of this money will fund water and sanitation projects; however, the funding will also assist financially distressed municipalities. Many have experienced sharp drops in revenue, as households and businesses struggle to keep up with their rates, water and electricity payments.

Municipalities are the socio-economic enablers in their regions. For this reason, it’s vital that finance and engineering work together, managing each municipality as a self-suf ficient ser vice deliver y business. Placing defaulting municipalities under administration is an interim measure. The sustainable solution is to have the right team in place to ef ficiently execute the infrastructure-led growth we need to rebuild our economy.

Alastair To our avid readers, check out what we are talking about on our website, Facebook page or follow us on Twitter and have your say.

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urenews.co.za

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IMESA

Infrastructure News

The official magazine of the Institute of Municipal Engineering of Southern Africa

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Ending wasteful and irregular expenditure within municipalities and state-owned enterprises is a key priority. Despite stern instructions from the Auditor-General, recent audit outcomes continue to reveal widespread non-compliance. This pressing issue is now being tackled head on by the Depar tment of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs for those municipalities with negative audit outcomes for the 2018/19 financial year.

NT R E D E V E LO P M E

AINTENANCE • BUILDING • M

INDUSTRY INSIGHT Transforming the paradigm Simon Tetley

director, ARRB Systems

Smart Cities

V E RY • S E RV I C E D E L I

Though t Leader ship

Working through

the troughs

Crushin g & Screen

Optimisin g throughp

ing

ut and quality

Asset Manage ment cture

Getting infrastru managem ent right

An evolution in nt urban developme

IN THE HOT SEAT

to deliver a property law combine engineering and clients.” of contact for our Geography, science, and a single point unique value proposition Technologies director, GeoAfrika Chris Carter, managing 8 ISSN 0257 197

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IMIESA June 2020

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PRESIDENT’S COMMENT

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orking within the Covid-19 crisis cer tainly highlights some infrastructure shortfalls. It also challenges our current thinking on town planning and what our smart cities of the future should look like.

Urbanisation has and will continue to be a desired outcome as societies embrace digital intelligence in all spheres of life. Whether it’s artificial or machine driven, that trend promises unparalleled advancement and functionality. It also presents unrivalled opportunities to use intelligent systems to construct, manage and maintain civil infrastructure.

In the meantime, and working within the constraints of our current reality, South Africa’s municipal engineers are experiencing ser vice deliver y demands that go off the charts in terms of their normal experience and key per formance outcomes. But we are far from being alone in this respect. Ever y municipal engineer worldwide is being stretched to capacity to ensure that critical infrastructure, transportation, waste management, water and sanitation ser vices continue unabated.

For those that do have access to intelligent systems, this is proving to be major strategic advantage.

Global lessons As we respond to the crisis, we continue to share and learn from shared experiences via IMESA’s membership of the International Federation of Municipal Engineering (IFME). Countries represented

IMESA

Learning and adapting include China, France, Italy, the UK and USA, each with their own unique exposure to Covid-19.

In May 2020, John Thomson, president, IFME, published an article, entitled ‘Never let a good crisis go to waste’. He refers to the unprecedented and devastating socio-economic impact of Covid-19, as well as the opportunity it presents to pause and reflect. A key question he asks is, “How will our cities evolve following this pandemic?” Public transport models, for example, will need to be revisited to combat the typical congestion found on trains and buses the world over.

As a parallel alternative, there’s a big mobility drive to encourage the greater use of bicycles. E-bikes are especially viable, powered by advances in lithium batter y technology that progressively extend their range and speed. Greater bicycle use will, in turn, influence road designs to make provision for dedicated bike lanes.

Covid-19’s enforced working-fromhome culture might also become more permanent, as employers and employees adapt and see benefits. That will increase demand for more investment in bandwidth and related telecommunications infrastructure. The lockdown will also inevitably influence future housing designs and developments, par ticularly within South Africa’s high-density townships and informal settlements.

Economic recovery Revitalising South Africa’s construction sector is an essential part of the process

in addressing failing infrastructure and plugging ser vices gaps. The upside is that government’s Covid-19 reconstruction plan places major emphasis on infrastructure investment, both as an economic enabler and as a means of tackling largescale unemployment.

Multibillion-rand stimulus packages are being proposed and priority infrastructure projects identified. These include digital infrastructure, healthcare, housing, energy, transpor tation, water and sanitation. A number of these will be implemented via public-private partnerships.

This project pipeline will prove invaluable in rebuilding our construction sector and in accelerating the development of our future smart cities.

Randeer Kasserchun, president, IMESA

IMIESA June 2020

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GeoAfrika Technologies is a leading geographic information system (GIS) company with a focus on both geospatial solutions and application (app) development.

IMIESA speaks to managing director Chris Car ter about the geospatial industr y.

Linking spatial information to big data

Chris Carter, managing director, GeoAfrika Technologies

What sets your company apart?

CC As GeoAfrika, we provide a broad range of professional services and products within the built environment arena, using the world’s best available technologies. Geography, science, engineering and property law combine to deliver a unique value proposition and a single point of contact for our clients.

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IMIESA June 2020

From a GIS standpoint, we are creators, recorders and providers of information, as well as users and consumers of this information. In turn, as specialist geospatial experts, we’ve led for over 40 years, and have always been progressive when it comes to technology. For example, we’ve been capturing, measuring, modelling and recording information in the twoand three-dimensional (3D) space from inception.

Overall, our core strength is in providing appropriate solutions tailored to the needs of the client. These could be systems-driven requirements and/ or a requirement for high data quality and accuracy. Essentially, we create simplicity within complexity and that invariably requires us to develop bespoke solutions. It’s an area in which we have considerable expertise. This also allows us to deliver appropriate detail at different levels, depending on the audience.

What hasn’t changed in the survey profession?

The baseline skills required to survey to prescribed millimetre, centimetre or decimetre accuracies, depending on the project requirements, remain the same. However, the tools of the trade have improved significantly – a prime example being in the field of drone mapping, as well as the use of laser scanners for internal and external building surveys.

Bespoke apps follow a systems approach, evolving in complexity as clients request additional functionality

How is GIS evolving?

GIS has evolved exponentially over the past decade, providing even greater precision and certainty when it comes to data analysis. In our field, we define the value of GIS data according to the three Cs, namely: Completeness, Coordinate Accuracy and Currency. Keeping data up to date is essential.

Major advances in information technology (IT) and computing power enable us to model and manipulate big data at unprecedented speeds. Cloud platforms, in turn, allow us to secure, update and share data with our client and their professional team.

What are key benefits of your bespoke apps?

Apps are designed to focus on a specific aspect of a business. A simple example would be the monitoring of streetlight functioning within a town or city. They are relatively quick to develop and can be updated 24/7. The benefits are immediate.

Within the public sector, for example, ‘eyes on the ground’ provide near-realtime reporting and verification of critical information required for municipal asset registers. Traditionally, municipal asset registers need to be updated annually. Using our apps, they can

HOT SEAT now be updated continuously. Within the construction space, the same applies to work in progress from a bill of quantities perspective.

What are the typical requirements for app implementation?

Completing a user requirement analysis (URA) at inception is the starting point. That will determine the level of investment and sophistication. A URA ensures that client expectations are managed up front, before development starts, for the best possible outcome.

We have some simple, standardised apps that require little if any customisation. Examples are apps we’ve developed for asset management.

Bespoke apps follow a systems approach. They evolve in complexity as clients request additional functionality.

Also, apps don’t function in isolation. The intention is that they interconnect with other IT processes.

How does your organization leverage the advantages of geospatial data?

The immediacy of GIS data is great, but that’s only the starting point. Within our group, there’s an interconnecting team of legal property experts, environmental and town planning professionals, and specialists in cadastral and engineering surveying, who work together to successfully execute infrastructure rollouts and property developments.

Accurate information is an asset. For this reason, we emphasise the importance of data workflow maintenance to support current and future decisionmaking processes.

How do these solutions positively influence smart city developments?

It all starts with collecting the right data sets. The refocus and re-scrutiny of data is essential for mapping out future town planning models. Spatial accuracy and quality GIS data are central to all building and property development initiatives, roads, telecommunications, pipelines, water, sanitation, and allied services.

KEY SERVICES • Software and system development • GIS consulting and enterprise GIS implementation • GIS training • GIS web development and system hosting • Mass data capture (field and office), conversion and analysis • Project and programme management • Land audit, valuation and asset registers • Mobile app development

Completeness of data is essential, but there are still major gaps in municipal infrastructure archives.

Infrastructure data set gaps have major downside implications when it comes to decision-making.

Major advances in IT and computing power enable the modelling and manipulation of big data at unprecedented speeds

What does PIMS offer?

Our Property Information Management System, or PIMS, enables users to view and query municipal property-related information from multiple departments via a single web portal.

PIMS is particularly popular with national and provincial roads agencies, where it’s highly effective in, for example, managing the complete property survey, acquisition and transfer process from start to finish.

PIMS is a very effective workflow system displaying both spatial and textual information. The system pulls information from a variety of sources. Examples include GIS-based cadastre data, title deeds, municipal financial data, building plan information, Surveyor-General diagrams and town planning registers.

How are your custom solutions helping to roll out key municipal services?

Our IT systems typically result in solutions as a service for our clients. Whether for those in the municipal space or in the private sector, the solution marries the products of our professional services work in a single web-based portal that is maintainable to ensure longevity and therefore provide ongoing returns on the investment made. More recently, mobile apps have added an additional dimension to these solutions by enabling our clients to interact with and maintain their data on the go.

Clients with a strong property focus – such as Msunduzi Municipality in Edendale, SANRAL and private developments such as Palm Lakes Estate – have immediate access to the status of every land parcel in their portfolio, with details such as land tenure and inspection statuses, sales stage within the workflow and commercial value details. The field inspection app, for example, will enable field inspectors to upload photographs and conduct property inspections to a pre-established schedule according to property type and risk – a latter example being illegal settlement.

Clients with a service infrastructure focus use the same technology to manage and maintain water and sewer networks, road infrastructure, road furniture and other fixed assets. We are seeing a similar demand from our facilities management clients to achieve tighter control over their movable assets.

Importantly, and in closing, it’s essential to note that clients must ensure that they have the capacity in place to maintain and update their data investment.

PIMS enables users to view and query municipal property-related information from multiple departments via a single web portal

Advancements in drone mapping, as well as the use of laser scanners for internal and external building surveys, have greatly enhanced the tools used by geospatial practitioners.

GeoAfrika

Built Environment Solutions www.geoafrika.co.za

IMIESA June 2020

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INFRASTRUCTURE NEWS

FROM AROUND THE CONTINENT

MADAGASCAR Securing clean energy

CAMEROON & CHAD Bridging the divide With funding secured, a new bridge will be constructed to connect Cameroon and Chad across the Logone River.

The funds will co-finance the costs of construction of the bridge between Yagoua in Cameroon and Bongor in Chad, access roads and feasibility studies.

Once completed, the bridge is expected to bolster bilateral and subregional integration and cross-border trade, safeguard life and property during river crossings, and boost sociocultural ties between the two countries.

Specifically, the project aims to reduce travel time and transportation costs and improve accessibility of basic services for nearby communities.

The African Development Fund has approved a €4.02 million (R78.15 million) loan with a grant component to finance the Government of Madagascar’s €30 million (R583 million) equity investment in the Sahofika hydropower project.

Additional funding is expected to come from the EU and the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa.

The Sahofika project is located on the Onive River, 100 km south-east of the capital Antananarivo. It entails the construction of a 205 MW hydroelectric power plant on a build-own-operate-transfer basis and includes the construction and rehabilitation of 110 km of access roads and the construction of a 75 km, 220 kV transmission line.

Once commissioned, the Sahofika project is expected to contribute to the avoidance of 900 000 tCO2e annually.

The project will generate affordable, clean energy for roughly 8 million people, and the government has committed to plough back the returns from the project to reduce electricity tariffs.

ETHIOPIA Ethiopia-Sudan railway investigated Ethiopia will conduct a two-year feasibility study into a standardgauge railway link between Ethiopia and neighbouring Sudan.

The comprehensive feasibility study will assess the proposed railway’s technical, economic, environmental and social viability, and alternative financing arrangements, including a publicprivate partnership.

The railway line will link Addis Ababa in Ethiopia to Khartoum in Sudan, with an extension to Port Sudan on the Red Sea. The route, agreed on by both governments, stretches some 1 522 km from Addis Ababa to Port Sudan.

The current absence of a regional arterial route linking Ethiopia, Sudan and other countries in the Horn of Africa is a brake on trade, development and regional integration. The movement of goods and people between Sudan and Ethiopia often requires the use of several modes of transport, which increases costs and lengthens journey times.

If feasible, the rail project will affect a large proportion of the 110 million people living in Ethiopia and the 43 million inhabitants of Sudan, as well as those further afield, as this route will be connected to the Horn of Africa transport network.

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IMIESA June 2020

1 522 km

The railway line will link Addis Ababa in Ethiopia to Khartoum in Sudan, with an extension to Port Sudan on the Red Sea. The route, agreed on by both governments, stretches some 1 522 km from Addis Ababa to Port Sudan

TANZANIA & UGANDA Protest over pipeline

SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

Concerns have been raised over the stalled East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline (Eacop) project, with civil society organisations trying to prevent funding for the project.

More than 100 civil society organisations from across the world have asked the African Development Bank (AfDB) to reject a request by Tanzania and Uganda to help finance the Eacop project.

The multinational lobby group has also launched an online petition against plans by Standard Bank, through its subsidiary Stanbic Uganda, and Japan's Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) to jointly raise a US$2.5 billion (R46.3 billion) loan to revive the project.

If completed, the 1 445 km pipeline from Hoima in Uganda to the port of Tanga in Tanzania would become the longest heated pipeline in the world, carrying an estimated 216 000 barrels of crude oil per day.

Opposers have pointed to the potential harm of emissions to surrounding communities, human rights violations from large-scale land acquisition and resettlement, as well as threats to livelihoods, biodiversity and natural habitats along the pipeline route.

Boost for renewables projects The Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa (SEFA), managed by the African Development Bank (AfDB), has approved a US$760 000 (R14 million) grant to Empower New Energy AS (EmNEW) to develop at least eight small renewable energy projects, with capacities ranging from 1 MW to 10 MW, towards bankability and construction.

The grant will support a broad range of project preparation and development activities, including technical feasibility studies, legal due diligence, environmental and social impact assessment, quality assurance, and risk management.

“There are many strong small- or medium-scale projects across Africa that remain unrealised because they can’t access competitive financing.

Our approach enables us to bridge this gap and, working with SEFA, will help us to accelerate this process and support more high-quality projects.

Together, we can bring impactful investment to Africa, while helping the continent to meet its electrification, carbon-reduction, and sustainable development targets,” says Terje Osmundsen, CEO, EmNEW. Wale Shonibare, acting vice president: Power, Energy, Climate and Green Growth at the AfDB, notes, “Accelerated deployment of distributed solar power and small hydropower is one of the fastest and most cost-efficient ways to bridge the energy access gap, fight climate change and promote sustainable development in subSaharan Africa.”

ZAMBIA Major boost in electricity production Thanks to a robust hydraulic and solar power generation industry, Zambia is now self-sufficient in energy and could soon be producing a surplus.

Zambia generates most of its energy production from its own primary resources: biomass, coal and hydroelectricity. In the first quarter of 2018, and for the first time in its history, Zambia stopped importing electricity from neighbouring countries.

The next step includes plans for an energy surplus over the next two years.

The country’s new hydropower stations at the Musonda, Lusawaki and Kafue Gorge dams are important developments; in September 2018, the government

inaugurated a 50 MW power plant at a cost of US$60 million (R1.1 billion). An even more ambitious programme is under way, involving the construction of mini solar plants with an eventual overall capacity of 600 MW, at an estimated cost of $1.2 billion (R22.2 billion).

A strong partnership with Zimbabwe has seen the two countries working on a major energy project on the Zambezi River, which marks their common border. The project, which has a projected output of at least 2 400 MW, is to be built upstream of the Kariba Dam at a cost of $3 billion (R55.6 billion). Electricity output will be shared equally between Zambia and Zimbabwe, with excess production sold on to other SADC member countries.

IMIESA June 2020

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INDUSTRY INSIGHT Automated and synchronised data acquisition practices for full-spectrum road condition assessment transcend manual inspection techniques from time, cost and safety perspectives. Simon Tetley, director, ARRB Systems, expands on the company’s pioneering developments in the field of automation.

R

oads are the arteries through which an economy pulses and are vital to any country’s development. Defective road conditions have a significantly negative effect on road user costs due to increased travel times, fuel consumption and vehicle maintenance. This in turn is reflected in a country’s GDP, specifically its logistics costs, which further impacts on the country’s global competitiveness. It is therefore crucial – particularly given the severe economic contraction brought about by Covid-19 – that the road network is managed efficiently to keep road user costs as low as possible, while still maintaining positive cost benefits.

To achieve this, road agencies use a road asset management system (RAMS). The accuracy of input data is the most important component of any RAMS, as it ensures factual outputs and appropriate maintenance programmes. The quality of this data attests to the degree of efficacy. Nonetheless, data collection methods used by most road authorities in South Africa are the same today as in the early 1980s

Simon Tetley, director, ARRB Systems

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IMIESA June 2020

Transforming the paradigm Network survey vehicle incorporating LCMS

– this despite the advent of equipment enabling automated full-spectrum data acquisition.

Visual condition assessment In South Africa, the predominant method for road condition assessment is by physical, visual inspection. These assessments are carried out in accordance with the TMH9 Manual for Visual Assessment of Road Pavements. Requisite distress ratings are captured on to an electronic device or paper assessment sheets.

This requires experienced, skilled people who, by necessity, are exposed to not only potential bodily harm, but also psychological stress through traffic, noise and fatigue. The procedure is labour-intensive, with a typical production rate of approximately 70 km/day in a rural environment and around 20 km/day for urban roads. Furthermore, manual inspection is, by its very nature, a subjective exercise, which has a serious resultant effect on data validity.

assessed in terms of the TMH9 manual in the safety and comfort of an office.

Post-rating has become the norm in many parts of the world but is not generally utilised in South Africa. It is obviously much safer than undertaking physical field surveys, less stressful and significantly more productive (≈150 km/assessor/day).

The element of subjectivity is significantly reduced compared to field assessments primarily through the ability to reassess images, as required, while referring to the TMH9 document and, more importantly, the facility to use actual measurement in the evaluation of certain distresses – e.g. rutting, cracking, potholes, etc. Quality assurance is via independent ‘double rating’ of random road sections and field panel inspection. Validation algorithms are also built into the data capture software.

Structural condition data collection Semi-automated functional (surface) road condition data collection Many road authorities now collect functional condition data via the use of network survey vehicles (NSVs). These vehicles utilise digital laser profilers to measure riding quality, texture, rut depth and geometry. In addition, they record high-definition digital images used to post-rate the road condition. More up-to-date vehicles are also fitted with a laser crack measurement system (LCMS).

Compared with manual methods, the use of these vehicles – in conjunction with visual assessment post-rating – provides a significant increase in productivity (up to 500 km/day). More importantly, there is a marked improvement in safety while undertaking the road assessment. Using the post-rating technique, digital images from the NSVs are

Pavement structural data (if undertaken) is carried out using a falling weight deflectometer

Post-rating of visual condition

INDUSTRY INSIGHT

The ARRB Systems Africa iPAVe (Intelligent Pavement Assessment Vehicle)

(FWD), usually measuring at 100 m intervals staggered per direction. Typically, 35 km to 40 km of deflection measurements can be undertaken daily, meaning that even a modestly sized network will take an extended period to complete. Additionally, this is a static test requiring well organised and managed traffic accommodation that can only mitigate and not eliminate the inherent danger involved with this testing.

Automated full-spectrum pavement condition data collection ARRB’s development of the Intelligent Pavement Assessment Vehicle (iPAVe) transcends these limitations. iPAVe trucks collect continuous synchronised surface and structural pavement condition data at road speeds up to 80 km/h.

The iPAVe offers a fully automated and integrated, one-stop solution that generates all the condition information required by a RAMS at a much-improved production rate, lower overall cost, and at a significantly reduced health and safety risk, with the following data being measured simultaneously: • high-definition digital imaging • riding quality in terms of International Roughness Index (IRI) • road geometry, including longitudinal and transverse profile • rut depth measurements • surface texture • deflection measurements • automatic crack detection (ACD).

Depending on network characteristics, the iPAVe is capable of collecting approximately 70 000 lane kilometres of surface and structural condition data during a typical work year of 10 months. This compares very

favourably to around 10 000 lane kilometres using an FWD and NSV. It should be further considered that networklevel FWD testing is typically spaced at 200 m intervals, while the iPAVe provides continuous measurement, which can be delimited at any interval from 25 mm upward. At 5 m spacing, the iPAVe could measure 14 million deflection points per annum, compared to around 50 000 for the FWD. For the FWD to generate the same coverage of testing, it would take around 280 years!

Alongside iPAVe is ARRB’s development of the Intelligent Safety Assessment Vehicle (iSAVe) – a major advancement in measuring road surface skid resistance characteristics. In full compliance with the current British Standards, iSAVe utilises the ‘sideways force coefficient’ principle to measure skid resistance of road networks (up to 350 km/day) simultaneously with imaging, rutting, and riding quality, thereby providing the road authority with essential data with which to identify safety improvement projects.

Automated visual condition assessment The ability to undertake automated road condition data collection offers significant and meaningful benefits to road authorities in terms of cost, time, health and safety, and accuracy, with the logical progression being automation of the data evaluation, particularly for visual assessment.

A prime example is ARRB Systems’ Hawkeye software, which identifies and quantifies various distress mechanisms. As such, a smart visual assessment system (SVAS) has been developed using system conversion algorithms rather than machine learning.

By utilising the severity and quantity data processed by the operating systems in the NSV/iPAVe or iSAVe, it is possible to create a TMH9 compliant visual assessment that is completely autonomous.

The severity for the various distress items, established individually and in terms of TMH9 stipulations for rating ‘degree’, is based on direct measurement – i.e. width and density in the case of cracking; depth and size in the case of rutting and potholes; volume of aggregate lost for raveling, etc. The intensity (‘extent’) of the distress is based on the percentage of the length or area of the road segment.

The automated system is currently being verified and calibrated against individual and panel visual inspections. Once validated, the iPAVe-generated ‘visuals’ will be used on the more important routes – to provide deflection data for input to an SVAS model – with NSVs being used for the remainder of the road network.

Covid-19 compliance By automating any process, people are reduced or even removed from the production line, and the undertaking of road condition surveys is no different. Typical traditional methods involve several teams of visual assessors, FWD operatives and traffic control personnel. While not necessarily having constant interaction, close contact between team members and the public can and will occur, with an associated serious infection risk due to Covid-19.

By contrast, automated data collection provides a far greater degree of safety, since ARRB’s two-man teams remain in their test vehicles at all times.

Conclusion The world has firmly embraced the Fourth Industrial Revolution and with it a host of groundbreaking technologies. Within the road pavement sector, automated continuous and integrated condition data collection and evaluation has certainly broken the mould of conventional thinking.

Innovations like iPAVe and iSAVe provide the basis for material improvements and the appropriate management of South Africa’s road network.

The ARRB Systems Africa iSAVe (Intelligent Safety Assessment Vehicle)

www.arrbsystems.com

IMIESA June 2020

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THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

South Africa’s construction sector was under severe pressure long before the advent of Covid-19. Bheki Mdlalose, group managing director of industr y icon Grinaker-LTA, talks to Alastair Currie about the way for ward.

Working through the troughs Grinaker-LTA was recently acquired by the Laula Consortium. How will this influence the group’s future direction?

BM Grinaker-LTA was bought as a going concern, together with a strong pipeline of projects. We’ve strengthened our existing leadership with the appointment of key positions that include a new chief financial officer, senior commercial executive, a new divisional MD for our Civil Engineering Division, and a general manager to head up our KwaZuluNatal business.

We also brought on board Raymond Cele, forming part of the Bheki Mdlalose, group managing director, Grinaker-LTA

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IMIESA June 2020

consortium, as executive director with responsibility for Special Projects. He will be responsible for leading our focus within the water utilities and municipal infrastructure space.

The fact that Grinaker-LTA has been in business for some 130 years speaks volumes about our ability to adapt to changing market conditions. Going forward, selective diversification will continue to be our core strategy. Rather than taking a shotgun approach, we’ll continue to choose our projects carefully. The renewable energy market has obvious potential. Niche shopping centre investments are also on the cards.

Another important point to make is that we have retained our in-house skills in building, civil mechanical and electrical engineering, supported by a modern plant and equipment fleet. We remain a dominant player in the roads market, and the recent construction of iconic landmarks like the

Sasol headquarters in Sandton speaks volumes about our building expertise.

However, there is no doubt that the industry is experiencing serious headwinds due to stagnant growth, low business confidence, lack of investment and now Covid-19, but we remain positive. Private sector property investments will rebound, and government’s focus on sustaining our vital infrastructure pipeline is ongoing. Key investment areas include water, sanitation, transport, energy, digital infrastructure, human settlements, and agriculture.

What is your personal vision for effective transformation in the construction sector?

We are fully committed to driving internal transformation using a top-down and bottom-up approach. As a construction leader and a CIDB 9 graded contractor, we further acknowledge our responsibility to help nurture SMME subcontractors within the communities and regions where we operate.

To work effectively, SMMEs need to have foundational business skills to budget, market and manage their businesses, rather than just taking a bricks and mortar approach. We see the lack of experience coming through in the massive variance in pricing on tenders.

In response, we’ll soon be launching our own training school for SMMEs. It’s an exciting initiative accredited by CETA and Merseta. It’s an education process and we want our subcontractors to grow with us.

This is vital for employment creation and the growth of local economies.

Government in turn must ensure that issues around delayed payments to contractors are resolved, as this has a ripple effect on those across the supply chain, including subcontractors. Procurement frameworks also need to be streamlined and become more transparent to avoid incidences of corruption, wastage and rework on projects.

We need to be more flexible and sustainable, rather than adopt a feast or famine approach. Among the models that work well are framework contracts. Typically extending for a period of three years, framework contracts enable contractors, the municipality and its consulting engineers to tailor and deliver complete programmes rather than once-off projects in insolation.

An example would be the roll-out of lowcost housing developments.

What are some of the key takeaways from the recent construction downturn?

We’ve seen the demise of some of the big names in South African construction. We can only speculate on the reasons, which are external and internal. Growing too far and too fast in the quest to gain the largest possible market share has proved to be a fatal mistake for many. Companies get exposed unnecessarily looking for quick wins and taking on too many projects at once.

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP At Grinaker-LTA, we place great emphasis on operational efficiencies that translate into sound bottom-line results. Our responsibility as contractors is to deliver the best result in the shortest possible time. We remain true to our core expertise.

How can the private sector assist government in alleviating infrastructure bottlenecks?

There must be a paradigm shift, especially since the success of government’s Infrastructure Fund depends on crowdsourcing from the private sector.

The infrastructure backlog remains a major concern. Covid-19 exposes this within the housing, water and sanitation spaces.

We should have made more progress since 1994. Community unrest surrounding service delivery protests and construction work opportunities sends out a strong message that things need to change.

Community participation in terms of the 30% local content provision shouldn’t be a tick-box exercise.

As a country, the only practical solution is to collectively accept the problem and move forward. Let’s put an end to the blame game. Let’s replicate models that work well.

Will the roads sector be a major business focus?

Grinaker-LTA is renowned for its roads, bridges and earthworks capabilities. While the pickings have been a bit slim in the past two years, we are expecting major new work opportunities to flow into the market as Sanral mobilises new projects.

We continue to work nationally, with recent Sanral projects completed at Hartbeespoort Dam (North West), Ventersburg (Free State) and All Saints (Eastern Cape).

Sanral was particularly pleased with the exceptional quality of the work we delivered

during the upgrading of the R512-PWV3 route that transits through Pampoen Nek at Hartbeespoort.

The roads sector is still a good business space but companies must make sure to have local participation – embrace the community workforce component and make them part of your team. Otherwise, you are going to have shortcomings.

What’s the outlook for building?

We’ve been fortunate to have worked on some very impressive building projects.

These include the approximately R1.8 billion 129 Rivonia Road development in Sandton, constructed for Eris Properties. This mixedused development comprises 62 000 m² of office and 15 000 m² of retail space. We completed this fast-paced project in under 15 months, which is a real achievement.

We remain bullish about building. This could include a plan for us to own a selected commercial and industrial property portfolio, alongside the work we provide as a building contractor to the open market.

Does Grinaker-LTA have a parallel focus on the cross-border market?

Absolutely. Along with the South African operation, the Laula Consortium acquired Grinaker-LTA’s businesses in Botswana, Namibia and Mozambique.

Infrastructure developments in Africa offer great business potential, some of which are linked to South African investments in industrial and mining projects.

Further afield, the Middle East has historically yielded some excellent projects for South African construction companies; however, there are also examples of companies that have suffered losses. From my experience, we would only enter this market in joint venture with a local and well-entrenched market leader.

As stated earlier,

diversification is important, but it must come with a risk management and mitigation strategy. Generating positive cash flows via allied international work provides more opportunities to reinvest in local ventures. First and foremost, we need to sustain South African construction.

In closing, what are some of the immediate priorities for infrastructure?

National and provincial government must support and nurture local municipalities, since they are the conduit for infrastructure and service delivery.

IMIESA June 2020

13

New thoughts on bitumen age prediction In order to precisely model longer-term road surfacing performance, bitumen life-cycle properties need to be determined using accurate simulation methodologies. A new study presents the possibility of using a xenon-arc chamber weatherometer as a more accurate calibration tool than the long-term bitumen ageing methods currently in use.

By Estimé M Mukandila*

T

he evaluation of bitumen ageing is always challenging due to the different effects of time, temperature and pressure on specific materials. Although age simulation is possible, the high number of variables, including microclimates, makes the accurate representation of specific field conditions problematic.

There are two types of bitumen ageing: short-term ageing, which simulates ageing in the mixing plant, and long-term ageing, which represents ageing during the life of the bitumen in the field. Literature reports that long-term ageing tests should simulate between five and ten years of life of the bitumen in the field.

Currently, the pressure ageing vessel (PAV) test is the most frequently used for longterm ageing. PAV methods allow for faster diffusion of air/oxygen in bitumen film in validating results. But it has been reported that PAV simulates less than five years of ageing, which does not accurately predict long-term binder failure. The ideal fieldageing simulation should represent longterm ageing in a relatively short testing time.

In response, our studies show that the use of a xenon-arc chamber weatherometer can be more effective, although the testing time is higher: approximately 1 000 hours as opposed to around 20 hours for the PAV method.

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Estimé M Mukandila, Real Baobab

In practical terms, the xenon-arc chamber weatherometer test can be used as a calibration tool that will be performed occasionally to adjust results of rapid standard long-term age testing. The adjustment is made by a calibration constant that adds the stiffness.

Age hardening: short and long term Bitumen, like any other material, is subject to the influence of environmental factors during its lifetime. These factors include (but are not limited to) temperature, UV exposure, rainfall and humidity. The absorption of UV radiation results in the degradation of materials, which changes their chemical composition and physical properties, such as their strength and deformability.

Bitumen exposed to environmental conditions hardens continually. The terms ‘age hardening’ and ‘ageing’ are regularly used to describe this phenomenon. Shortterm ageing is due primarily to loss of the volatile components of bitumen during construction, whereas long-term ageing is due to progressive oxidation and steric hardening in the field. Both ageing phases cause an increase in viscosity and stiffness. This may lead to a brittle condition, the disintegration of stone-bitumen bonds and cracking failures, because the material is unable to bend and flex when exposed to traffic and temperature changes.

Conventional methods for simulating the short-term ageing of bituminous mixtures include extended heating and extended mixing. Microwave heating should also be considered. For long-term ageing, simulation methods include pressure oxidation, extended oven ageing, UV treatment, plus alternate ageing and moisture treatment.

Standard short-term ageing techniques include the rolling thin film oven, and thin film oven and rotating flask tests.

In turn, long-term ageing traditionally includes methods such as PAV, the rotating cylinder ageing test, and the long-term rotating flask test.

The important point to make is that most of these ageing methods do not capture the effect of UV or moisture condition due to their limited testing duration.

Ageing by weatherometer An ageing method for accelerated weathering tests using the xenon-arc method is defined in ASTM D 4798-01. Xenon-arc lights closely stimulate UV rays and the visible part of solar radiation. Care should be taken to conduct the tests at realistic temperatures to avoid deviation from the chemical reactions that take place in practice. Based on our tests, the suggested timeframe is 1 000 hours of UV exposure in a weathering chamber. To create realistic conditions, it’s imperative to analyse prevailing weather conditions.

ROADS & BRIDGES

For our test, the weatherometer used was a type Q-SUN apparatus employed at the CSIR. The following were the main parameters values: - Temperature: 50°C - UV light (340 nm): 0.35 W/m2 - Ageing time (analysis): 1 000 hours in the following hourly cycle: 51 minutes of light exposure, 9 minutes of light and water spray.

Our xenon-arc chamber ageing outcome was compared to the PAV method. Bitumens were recovered from different field-aged seals across South Africa. The recovering process followed was a combination of ASTM D1856 and TMH Method C7 (b), which uses AR benzene as a solvent, and a centrifuging process for fines mineral separation. These field-aged bitumens were tested using the dynamic shear rheometer (DSR). Data obtained from the DSR were modelled based on linear viscoelastic rheological master curves.

Original bitumens with corresponding grade and type to the field-aged bitumens were also analysed in the development of the ageing modelling. Each original bitumen specimen was prepared in three samples.

Two of the three samples were respectively subjected to PAV ageing and xenon-arc chamber ageing.

The bitumen samples were subsequently classified in four classes: original unaged (‘fresh-unaged’) bitumen; PAV aged bitumen; xenon-arc chamber (Q-SUN) aged bitumen; and field-aged recovered bitumen. All four classes of bitumen samples were tested using the DSR.

Interpretation of ageing results and recommendation In developing the ageing model, the ‘freshunaged’ bitumen was assumed to have an

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT This work was supported by Sanral under the SARDS project grant.

The tests were performed at the CSIR laboratory using the xenonarc chamber weatherometer from Agrément South Africa. This project and the analyses are the opinion of the authors and not necessarily that of the project sponsors.

This work was supervised by Prof Wynand JvdM Steyn (HOD: Civil Engineering, University of Pretoria).

1 External view of the weatherometer 2 Internal view of the weatherometer 3 Loading of bitumen samples 4 Samples after weatherometer test 5 Weatherometer testing parameters

age of zero years. The estimated age of the PAV aged sample was just below 3 years (2.8 years), while the estimated age provided by the xenon-arc chamber method was just over 5 years (5.3 years).

The xenon-arc chamber clearly estimated much longer ageing compared to PAV; however, as stated, the operating time for the former was relatively longer, at 1 000 hours. This renders the xenon method impractical for routine testing where more immediate results are required.

The current mechanistic-empirical design method developed in South Africa promotes the use of recursive simulation. This recursive simulation is based on the ‘memory-less’ principle. In memory-less simulation, the traffic loading, environmental conditions and pavement characteristics remain consistent within each recursive period but vary from one recursive period to the next. These recursive periods represent successive life periods of pavement characterised by constant pavement characteristics.

The damage incurred in successive recursive increments is not the same. The total damage is accumulated by the addition of the incremental damage from each recursive increment.

The implementation of the recursive simulation models requires knowledge of the characteristics of modelling parameters such as the stiffness of the material during the life period. The knowledge of the evolution of bitumen’s ageing during the life period becomes an important input in the process. In this regard, the xenonarc chamber appears as a potential tool in predicting bitumen age accurately during the pavement life.

Some elements of the equipment and the test procedure need to be revised in each case (e.g. light exposure cycle, water spray cycle, sample tray type and position) to take into account local environmental factors such as microclimate.

With ongoing refinement, the ‘refined xenon-arc chamber ageing method for bitumen’ has the potential to further optimise the simulation of long-term bitumen ageing.

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This is a condensed version. The full paper, including references, is available from the authors.

*Estimé M Mukandila, PhD, Pr Eng, is a pavements and materials specialist at Real Baobab.

IMIESA June 2020

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ROADS & BRIDGES

Eight months after installation, the Eswatini test section is in optimum condition. The shaping and grassing of the verges facilitate controlled run-off and stormwater absorption

Permeable interlocking concrete pavers (PICPs) are becoming increasingly popular as a practical and cost-effective longterm solution for hardstanding areas, walkways and rural road networks.

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IMIESA June 2020

Greener paving made simple

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he interlocking shapes, notched corners and enlarged joints between PICPs provide enough permeability to significantly reduce stormwater run-off, provided the openings are filled with suitable aggregate mixes. “Bigger openings allow for coarse infill to be used, which means better infiltration and easier maintenance. In addition, this

allows tree roots to breathe, and to absorb water and nutrients that get washed off the paved areas,� explains Holger Rust, founder of Terraforce, a leading precast innovator.

Terracrete, a PICP developed by Terraforce in 1999, is ideally suited for this purpose, featuring larger openings (40% open) compared to conventional paving blocks with widened joints (15% open).

ROADS & BRIDGES

Because they are designed with enough strength and adequate stiffness, Terracrete pavers are capable of accommodating vehicle traffic (with suitable sub-base construction). This makes them suitable for the paving of grassed roads and parking areas. Another advantage is that they help to minimise the loss of topsoil and improve water absorption.

Eswatini test section During a recent pilot study in Eswatini, EFS Construction – a Terraforce-licensed manufacturer – installed a test section on a rural road bordering their and a neighbour’s property. The 25 MPa blocks were installed in June 2019 as strips the width of car tyres. First, a small quantity of river sand was put down to level out the sur face. Finally, the blocks were filled with loose stones found on-site to maintain permeability over time.

EFS Construction progressed the strips in stages over the next few months, testing how each would cope with regular traffic of approximately 50 vehicles per day.

Vehicles range from regular passenger cars to tractors, front-end loaders and light commercial vehicles weighting less than 12 t.

In August 2019, some landscaping and planting was added. “The goal was to mimic how nature would deal with stormwater run-off, guiding the water into Terracrete pavers provide erosion control protection on a low-volume road in Mossel Bay Municipality

the grassed areas, while the blocks provide the erosion control required,” explains Michael Toepfer, EFS Construction.

Over 10 months, the test section per formed extremely well: “After heavy rainfall (15 mm per hour), the rest of the road was heavily eroded and washed out, while the test section was still in per fect condition. The section with the grass verges per formed the best, in my opinion, absorbing any excess water that was not able to pass through the blocks fast enough,” Toepfer explains.

“Not a single block cracked. And even if one had, it would have been easy to replace. I would be confident enough to give such a road design a 10-year guarantee,” he adds.

Mossel Bay Within the public space, PICP applications are gaining ground as more municipalities recognise their benefits for erosion and stormwater management. Procurement decisions are fur ther suppor ted by the positive outcomes of longer-term case studies.

A prime example is a project implemented

by Mossel Bay Municipality’s Roads and Stormwater Department in 2015. The PICP route was chosen to remediate a particularly challenging section of gravel road. Featuring an incline of up to 17%, it was particularly difficult to negotiate, even after light rainfall

A test section being constructed in Eswatini

events. The municipality opted for a 30 MPa Terracrete specification, with each block measuring 350 mm x 350 mm x 90 mm for this low-volume section.

“The blocks are larger, wider and thicker than normal paving – i.e. firmer and can spread the load better,” says Altus Eitner, who works in the Roads and Stormwater as well as Project Planning and Management departments at Mossel Bay Municipality.

Installation proved relatively simple.

Initially, the damaged section of road was graded to a uniform profile with the required cross fall into the side drainage channels.

Next, a 2.8 m wide by 100 mm deep strip was cut into the length of the road with a grader. This in situ bed was compacted to 92% MOD Aashto using a 10 t vibratory roller, with water added where necessary to create a uniform, smooth working surface.

The Terracrete units were then laid. For extra lateral stability, they were wired together with 3.1 mm galvanised fencing wire.

At specified inter vals, 900 mm long galvanised Y-standards were driven into the ground and connected to the wiring of the blocks. Finally, the block voids were filled with 2% cement-stabilised soil from the stockpile, while the voids with the 900 mm anchors were filled with concrete.

The road has been in extensive use for the past five years, to the total satisfaction of the municipality and the local ratepayers’ association.

A wider section was established on the Eswatini route to cater for overtaking and access to adjacent properties

IMIESA June 2020

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ROADS & BRIDGES

Works progress at Msikaba Bridge

S

Aerial view of the southern pylon excavations and anchor block excavations

Temporary site offices at Msikaba South, prior to the main offices being set up

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IMIESA June 2020

panning the Msikaba Gorge near Lusikisiki, Eastern Cape, the construction of the Msikaba Bridge forms part of Sanral’s N2 Wild Coast project.

The bridge programme and associated works are being carried out by Concor Infrastructure, in a joint venture with Mota Engil Construction. Work on the approach roads, pylon foundations and anchor blocks is currently under way.

On completion, this spectacular structure will be the second longest main-span bridge crossing built to date in Africa, with a tower-to-tower distance of 580 m. Its two pylons will be 127 m high. With its deck 194 m above the valley floor, the Msikaba Bridge will also be the third highest in Africa.

To construct the Msikaba Bridge will require 43 000 m3 of concrete, 2 700 t of structural steel, 1 090 t of cables and 3 100 t of steel reinforcing.

Due to the remoteness of the project, as well as the logistics of travelling from the northern to the southern side (a three-hour drive), a cableway forms part of the temporar y works.

Concor has a strong legacy in the construction of iconic bridges, which include the Bloukrans Bridge back in 1983. At the same time, the company also built the Grootrivier and Bobbejaansrivier bridges in the Eastern Cape.

WATER & WASTEWATER

Finding wastewater solutions for Africa

As Southern Africa faces a growing wastewater crisis, engineers and representatives from KSB Group companies have committed to finding workable solutions.

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overnments and municipalities across Africa are grappling with ways to deal with growing wastewater requirements, and it has become increasingly evident that a onesize-fits-all approach does not work.

Differing conditions – such as sand content, water quality and existing infrastructure – play a large role in the specification of future pumping infrastructure requirements. This has prompted the KSB Group to play a more active role in assisting wastewater entities and to lend its technical expertise through its extensive network of regional companies, branches and dealers that are well established in every country in sub-Saharan Africa.

MEAI KSB Global Corporate Water Department, from Germany Halle (Saale) – led a two-day workshop aimed at sharing country-specific information and devising ways of working with authorities to provide wastewater solutions.

“As one of the largest pump companies in the world and a major role player in Africa, we are listening to the needs of the market and taking info from our representatives in each region to our technical department to find pumping solutions for each district,” he says.

“We want to bring international standards to local solutions and provide the kind of wastewater solutions that are affordable, durable and appropriate for the kind of maintenance and support available in that particular area.”

Strategic training Preparations to support the intensive new wastewater drive got under way at the regional office of KSB Pumps and Valves in Johannesburg recently, when global expert Ben Harrison – regional application manager:

World-class service and expertise KSB is well entrenched as a main supplier of potable water and other fluid transfer solutions to governments and utilities in many African countries. It therefore makes

sense to expand support and solutions for wastewater applications.

“KSB has the backing and expertise to support plans to deal with future wastewater requirements.

We understand that expectations don’t differ by country and we assure customers that the knowledge required for engineers in KSB is the same in every country,” says Harrison.

KSB sales engineers are able to discuss requirements on equal terms with engineering teams and can call upon local and international expertise to find the right pumping solutions for the right job.

Now that the company has assembled its internal staff and put in simplified structures to support wastewater pumps in each region, it can be expected that it will hit the ground running and make significant inroads in a market that currently does not enjoy the attention of other large pump manufacturers.

In South Africa, KSB also has the advantage of being a Level 1 BBBEE contributor.

IMIESA June 2020

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WATER & WASTEWATER

It is estimated that by 2050, over 6 billion people will live in cities worldwide.

As the world urbanises, climate change is expected to have a significant impact on cities.

By Annejan Visser*

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ity densification is both an oppor tunity for economic growth and a threat to liveability. Urban growth will put significant pressure on the availability of water, food and energy, while climate change will increase the risk of floods, droughts and heat waves. Climate mitigation and adaptation is growing in its urgency.

The role of water Water plays a central role in sustainable urban development. Many cities around the world face great challenges with water, in that they either have too much or too little of it.

Creating water-smart cities

The World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report identifies water crises of droughts, floods, sea level rise and pollution as risks with the largest expected global impact over the coming decades. Flood events are occurring more frequently and causing major damage in urban areas. The frequency and intensity of rain events is also increasing.

Besides flood risks, water shortage is an increasing concern. A global study shows that one in four cities is already water stressed, and climate change and urbanisation are increasing the risk of water shortages in periurban river basins. Recent Day Zero events in Cape Town and the current water shortages experienced in various parts of South Africa bring this study closer to home.

Resources are limited, while demand for these resources is increasing. Water, energy and materials sources need to be used more efficiently and, where possible, recycled and reused. These challenges ask for a systemic approach and a transition in urban planning and urban water management. Humanity must rethink the way it deals with water in its cities to create green, resilient and circular cities – i.e. watersmart cities.

Water-smart cities The water-smart city approach integrates urban planning and water management to increase climate resilience and simultaneously create

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value for citizens. A transition is needed to redesign cities from disposing of water towards utilising all water, in order to restore the natural drainage capacity of cities, allowing them to play a part in the efficient completion of the water cycle.

A water-smart city treats all forms of water as a resource; collaboration between businesses, public authorities, researchers and citizens is needed to ensure a rapid transition.

Smart combinations of technical and naturebased solutions for climate adaptation and the transition to the water-smart city approach will create large business and innovation opportunities.

Integrating urban development and climate adaptation offers huge opportunities to improve the quality of urban life. Sustainable urban infrastructure is receiving increasing attention from the private sector, governments and researchers. Worldwide, US$90 trillion (R1 565 trillion) will be invested in urban infrastructure over the next 15 years to replace ageing infrastructure. Every redevelopment project offers huge opportunities to create value and synergy with climate mitigation and adaptation goals by applying the water-smart city approach.

There is a strong need to create an evidence base that shows that water-smart city approaches are more sustainable, more beneficial and thus provide a solid business case. The starting point of climate adaptation should be executed on street level. With cocreation opportunities, climate adaptation measures are easy to implement.

Implementation is achieved by coupling

WATER & WASTEWATER FIGURE 1 Six-step roadmap towards watersmart cities**

1 Opportunities

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Implementation

Vision

Roadmap to water-smart cities

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Business case

Cocreation

4 Codesign

these measures to urban development programmes (i.e. renovation of sewers, roads and housing projects). As with all transitions, the transition towards water-smart cities faces many barriers. Sectoral thinking and finance, lack of awareness, short-term investments versus long-term benefits, current regulations supporting conventional approaches and a lack of knowledge about cost and benefits all hinder more integrated approaches. To create a solid business case, there is a need for evidence-based measures. Living labs, where the effectiveness and cost-benefits of measures are monitored, will contribute to this and show that the water-smart city approach creates value for citizens, companies and the environment.

Water-smart city implementation In a report titled Towards Water Smart Cities: climate adaptation is a huge opportunity to improve the quality of life in cities**, the authors indicate a six-step roadmap that will assist many municipal institutions in achieving a water-smart city.

STEP 1: Identify challenges and opportunities At first, the challenges and opportunities related to the water system and city liveability need to be identified. These can be related to different ambitions and goals that the city has defined; for example, in the area of health, climate, energy, safety, or poverty reduction. From this analysis, a new hydro-social contract between the city, citizens and business can be defined.

STEP 2: Define water-smart city vision A water-smart city vision needs to be defined for the city. Each city has its specific challenges and opportunities related to the natural system and liveability. Therefore, each city needs to set up a vision of when it sees itself as a water-smart city and strive to share and embed this vision among all stakeholders and citizens.

STEP 3: Explore cocreation opportunities This is defined as the implementation step of the water-smart city. Different pathways can be followed. Actions can be linked to already

planned actions or projects to make small adjustments to a plan in order to make it more ‘water-smart’ or set current actions or projects on a new trajectory. It is important in this step to visualise timeline infrastructural projects and investigate how cocreation possibilities can be achieved by linking climate adaptation goals with planned infrastructural projects.

STEP 4: Codesign solutions The best combination of possible measures is analysed to determine the optimal and possible pathways (i.e. a specific project or a new trajectory) to reach a city’s ambitions. This can be best integrated within the quadruple helix model (a network of government, civil society, businesses, and institutions that converge to form a panel of experts from different disciplines to implement a new design).

STEP 5: Define the business case From the proposed combination of possible scenarios, the optimal business case should be chosen. Each scenario has its benefits and disadvantages in relation to its performance (including flexibility), costs and value, and risks over a certain timespan. All these factors should be balanced with each other to determine the optimal business model, which will be part of the project plan to implement the measures.

STEP 6: Continuous implementation Constant implementation and evaluation of water-smart city measures must be done, to celebrate and learn from them and where needed adjust the process or ambitions until it is a business-as-usual concept. Through pilots (set up from scratch), living labs (in real areas), small-scale or large-scale projects or cocreations, it is important to learn from these projects, proof of concepts, and to know if ambitions and needs are met. Thus, monitoring and proper data management and analysis are very important to continuously improve the required evidence base.

The above steps are adapted from report number 2787 of the University of Wageningen’s Environmental Research Department, December 2016.

*Annejan Visser is a process engineer at QFS. For a full list of references, contact the author on engineer4@qualityfilters.co.za. ** van Hattum, T, Blauw, M, Bergen Jensen, PM & de Bruin, DK, 2016. Towards Water Smart Cities, Wageningen: Wageningen Environmental Research (Alterra)

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WATER & WASTEWATER

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An aerial perspective of the Malukazi pump station

he Malukazi Bulk Sewer Infrastructure Scheme is a subproject of the Provision of Water and Sanitation Services to Human Settlements – Sanitation Phase 3. Implemented by the eThekwini Water and Sanitation Division, the scope included the construction of bulk sewer gravity mains, a sewer pump station and access road, sewer rising main and communal ablution facilities, with associated water and sewer reticulation connecting into the adjacent Lower Malukazi Phase 1 catchment.

Bosch Projects was appointed to carry out multidisciplinary designs, implementation

Malukazi provides essential service and construction management for the approximately R32 million Malukazi infrastructure roll-out, which presented numerous challenges. These included the construction of the pump station in excessive groundwater conditions.

The base of the concrete superstructure of the pump station was partially completed in a previous phase of the sanitation project.

Excessive groundwater ingress needed to be controlled and managed by continuous pumping out of the 18 m deep excavation during construction. Geotechnical engineering intervention was required to ensure stability of the excavated area.

Forming the structure

Adding to the complexity of the project was the requirement for a temporary pump station designed to service communal ablution facilities during construction. This was then converted into the overflow chamber for the new structure.

“Despite numerous challenges affecting the continuity of work, including business forums, community unrest and political pressure in the area, the project was completed within budget and to the highest quality standards,” says Jason Holder of Bosch Projects. The scheme now provides a vital sanitation and water service to a previously unserviced community.

HEALTH & SAFETY

Rethinking cannabis policies in the workplace The Constitutional Court’s landmark ruling decriminalising the private use of cannabis has opened up some tricky issues for employers and employees.

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ollowing on from the September 2018 judgment, Parliament was given two years to pass fur ther legislation to regulate the matter. In the interim, however, companies may have to reconsider their policies dealing with substance abuse. So says Advocate Hendrik Terblanche, a legal specialist in environmental health and safety, who was speaking during one of the A-OSH EXPO 2019 seminar theatre presentations.

“According to the World Health Organization, cannabis consumption acutely impairs motor coordination, inter feres with driving skills and increases the risk of injuries. The effects of cannabis use on cognition in the context of work and ever yday life, and whether off-site cannabis use endangers a worker or his colleagues while at work, are therefore of concern,” says Terblanche.

Terblanche says an employer who wants to test an employee for cannabis consumption may be able to justify such testing according to the provisions of the Employment Equity Act (No. 55 of 1998).

However, the current decriminalisation of cannabis for private consumption may

mean that going for ward, zero-tolerance policies on cannabis could become more difficult for employers to enforce.

This is because traces of cannabis may remain in the body for some time after use – possibly far longer than with alcohol – and so employers may need, instead, to regulate cannabis separately from alcohol policies and procedures.

“It may also mean that employers need to re-think the issue of a zerotolerance approach to the detection of prior cannabis usage in the person being tested. At the same time, however, it is a legislated fact that you may not enter a workplace under the influence of a substance, or remain there if you are found to be so,” he states.

Influencing factors The principal cannabinoids in the cannabis plant include delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), cannabidiol, and cannabinol. THC is the cannabinoid that is primarily responsible for the psychoactive effects sought by recreational cannabis users.

“However, THC is not the same as alcohol. It reacts differently in the body, it metabolises differently, and its impairing impact is different,”

Terblanche explains. “Unlike the 0.08 blood-alcohol level that’s widely accepted as indicative of drunken driving, establishing a credible level for THC has been elusive.”

More data is required, he says, but this in itself poses challenges, because there were legal issues with gathering and processing such data while the consumption of cannabis was illegal.

“In the meantime, relevant legislation that regulates intoxication in the workplace includes the Occupational Health and Safety Act (No. 45 of 1993), the Mine Health and Safety Act (No. 29 of 1996) and the Employment Equity Act,” he advises.

Until the testing issue is resolved, and the state of being ‘under the influence of cannabis’ is medically defined, best practice advice for employers would be to make sure that the company rules set out a detailed written policy and procedure on alcohol and drug testing, with trade union input where applicable.

“The policy should state the reason for the information being outlined, namely safety and productivity, and should also indicate job categories and descriptions for which intoxication is not allowed,” Terblanche concludes.

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DAMS & RESERVOIRS

Unique spillway for Garden Route Dam A new spillway concept devised for raising the Garden Route Dam has significantly increased storage capacity at the main supply dam for water-scarce George in the Western Cape.

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he ‘duckbill’ spillway, named due to its shape, not only allowed for the dam’s existing storage capacity to be increased by 25%, but also significantly increased the discharge capacity of the spillway, boosting the dam’s safety by preventing overtopping.

PROFESSIONAL TEAM Client: George Local Municipality Approved professional person (Aurecon): Alan Shelly Dam engineers (Aurecon): Frank Denys, Chris Seddon and Wicus du Plessis Construction management (Aurecon): Piet Erasmus, Andre Krige and Niel van der Westhuizen Contractor: Khubeka Construction Sharples Environmental Services

SUBCONTRACTORS Earthworks: Amandla Construction Grouting and anchors: Esor Construction Concrete supplier: T&T Reinforcing supplier: RSC Ivan Steel Fixing

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The dam was raised by 25 m due to the local terrain

A duckbill spillway is a type of non-linear spillway, similar to the more generally known labyrinth spillway, explains Frank Denys from the Water Engineering Unit at Aurecon*.

Aurecon designed the spillway for the client, George Local Municipality, with project funding from the Regional Bulk Infrastructure Grant.

Construction took place over seven months – from 13 May to 12 December 2019; however, the various planning stages for the project date back over a decade, with the idea of raising the dam first investigated as far back as 2004.

Raising Garden Route Dam The main aim is to increase the overflow length so that the spillway or weir can pass more flow for a given overflow depth.

This allows for construction of very long spillways, typically four to five times longer than a linear spillway, in a limited area. The existing Garden Route Dam spillway was only 25 m wide; however, the non-linear spillway extended this distance to 80 m by curving the spillway in the upstream direction.

Raising the dam’s water level was originally envisioned to be limited to increasing the overflow sill of the spillway or installing some form of fusegate system on the spillway.

These options were subjected to technical feasibility studies and an environmental impact assessment. The various spillway gate options appeared attractive from a

cost perspective, but undesirable when considering long-term maintenance.

Furthermore, re-evaluation of the dam’s flood hydrology, following large flood events experienced in the recent past, resulted in flood peaks significantly higher than those the original dam and the proposed gate options were designed for. The updated hydrology required the crest of the embankment to be raised to ensure its safety. A new spillway concept, with a significantly higher capacity than the previous alternatives, was devised to be able to pass the flood peaks with as low a head as possible to minimise the height the embankment would need to be raised by.

Besides the spillway needing a high discharge capacity, extreme floods must also pass underneath the road and main water supply pipeline bridge across the existing spillway, in order to limit the high construction costs of raising this bridge, as well as consequent disruption. The sizeable and relatively flat approach channel allowed for construction of a fixed concrete weir that extends upstream from the existing spillway overflow and training walls. This resulted in the design of a trough or a labyrinth type of weir. Ultimately, the geometry of the site and hydraulic analysis led to the duckbill-shape spillway of the final design.

Final design The new sill is a reinforced concrete cantilever

DAMS & RESERVOIRS

structure some 4.9 m tall in places, which is unusual for hydraulic structures of this type, as these are normally self-stabilised by their mass. To enhance the stability, the structure is provided with rockfill on the upstream side of the wall footing, in addition to rock anchors.

The rock of the channel in the centre of the duckbill had to be lined with concrete to prevent erosion. This slab also had to be held in place with rock anchors. In addition, the foundation underneath the new spillway sill was grouted to minimise seepage underneath the wall.

The main dam wall was raised 1.76 m by placing new earthfill on top of the existing embankment. This task had to be achieved

in confined spaces, atop high slopes, mostly using available material of suitable quality from the dam basin, and some imported from commercial sources. Selected material was placed as follows: general fill (12 500 m3), rip-rap (2 500 m3), filter sand (750 m3), and topsoil (2 050 m3).

Although the full supply level (FSL) of the dam was raised by 2.5 m, due to the local terrain, the tallest portion of the new spillway wall is 4.9 m tall. A total of 1 780 m3 of concrete and 150 tonnes of steel was used.

The 2.5 m raising of the FSL of the dam equates to an increase in storage capacity of 2.5 million m3 to a total gross storage capacity of 12.5 million m3. “This will add much-needed

ABOVE LEFT The non-linear spillway extending to 80 m ABOVE The rock of the channel in the centre of the duckbill

drought resilience to the water supply system.

Expanding an existing water supply resource is also preferable to the development of new sites, as it limits the extent of the environmental impact to an already impacted site,� concludes Denys. *Aurecon is currently in the process of rebranding as Zutari, after officially announcing the separation of the African business from the Aurecon Group, effective from 1 January 2020.

TRENCHLESS TECHNOLOGY

Cape Town leads the way The City of Cape Town joined the Southern African Society for Trenchless Technology (SASTT) in 2006 and has since become one of the country’s leading adopters of trenchless technology.

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he City of Cape Town is responsible for managing almost 9 500 km of sewer pipelines and more than 10 800 km of water pipelines that need ongoing repairs and maintenance.

Since 2006, the city has made use of numerous trenchless technologies, including pipe cracking, CIPP, pipe jacking, horizontal drilling, and microtunnelling. And with four fully equipped CCTV vans, Roger Williams,

regional operations manager: Reticulation, City of Cape Town, believes that Cape Town is one of the only metros in the country to have its own in-house CCTV crews.

“That is one of the investments that the city has made into trenchless technology because we want to go further with new technologies,” says Williams.

With the help of trenchless technologies, the city saw a steady increase in the number of re-laid sewer pipes between 2008 and 2013.

Ductile iron jacking pipes made microtunnelling feasible in the Cape Flats 3 Bulk Sewer Phase 2 project

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ABOVE LEFT An unreinforced felt liner was used in the rehabilitation and upgrading of Sanddrift Bulk Sewer ABOVE In the Cape Flats 3 Bulk Sewer Phase 2 project, 4 m long ductile iron jacking pipes with an outside reinforced concrete sheath were used

Although there was a decline in the following years, Williams reports that the budget has been increased in order to again step up the relaying of pipes. The city has also managed to maintain a relatively low level of sewer spillages linked to pipe conditions.

On the water side, the city saw a similar pattern in the number of re-laid pipes, with a steady increase between 2007 and 2011.

Repairs to water bursts also increased.

Williams noted that the city began to implement pressure management in 2010/11, which played an important role in reducing the number of bursts and addressing the drought crisis.

Now, Williams has a particular interest in identifying trenchless technologies to be used in water reticulation rehabilitation projects. To date, the majority of trenchless technology applications in Cape Town have focused on sewer systems. On the water side, the city has mainly focused on pipe cracking. However,

TRENCHLESS TECHNOLOGY

Williams says the city is aware of other technologies, such as CIPP being available for water systems, and is always eager to try new technologies.

Budget allocations The City of Cape Town has allocated substantial amounts for water and sewer rehabilitation projects, which will include trenchless applications, and conventional open-cut trenching replacements: • 2019/20: R120 million • 2020/21: R165 million • 2021/22: R165 million.

Williams says that, in recent years, close to half of the budget has been allocated to trenchless applications.

Tender process Currently, the City of Cape Town uses term tenders, in which a panel of contractors is appointed for a period of three years. The city has its rates and can re-evaluate and appoint contractors from this panel as and when required. According to Williams, this speeds up the process significantly, allowing

for contractors to be appointed within one to two weeks, and having them on-site within a month.

“When you go out on a normal tender, it takes six months to a year to get the tender approved and awarded,” says Williams.

The City of Cape Town’s current tender framework includes: • 204Q – term tender for trenchless rehabilitation of sewers by pipe cracking (estimated at R30 million) • 62Q – term tender for trenchless rehabilitation of sewers by cured-in-place lining (estimated at R50 million) • 64Q – term tender for trenchless rehabilitation of water mains by pipe cracking (estimated at R40 million) • 176Q – rehabilitation of Cape Flats 1 and 2 bulk sewers (estimated at R300 million).

These tenders are now all compiled in-house without the need for external consultants.

“We started with our term tenders in 2011 and it has worked for the city,” says Williams. Cape Town has even had teams from other municipalities visit to learn more about how the term tender process works

and how others can implement it. Cape Town has also issued several stand-alone tenders for trenchless rehabilitation projects in recent years.

Award-winning projects The City of Cape Town’s strong trenchless record is evident in its long list of awardwinning projects. Projects that have been awarded SASTT’s Joop Van Wamelen Award for Technical Excellence include: • 2018 – Rehabilitation and Upgrading of Sanddrift Bulk Sewer • 2016 – Cape Flats 3 Bulk Sewer • 2014 – Rehabilitation of Egg-shaped Langa Interceptor Sewer • 2011 – Irrigation Water Pipeline for Green Point Common • 2010 – Plumstead Rehabilitation Project.

Williams is currently project-managing a large sewer rehabilitation project with an estimated value of R350 million, which will make use of various trenchless technologies. “I think this project will definitely be nominated for an award,” he says. Tenders for the project will go out later this year.

GEOTECHNICAL ENGINEERING

Improving ground properties with PET The merits of using recycled polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic bottle materials as a reinforcement in granular columns have been proven through laboratory experiments, presenting a potential alternative to traditional granular column technology.

By Laxmee Sobhee-Beetul and Denis Kalumba*

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round improvement is the approach typically adopted by geotechnical engineers when faced with the challenge of designing on problematic soils. In South Africa, it is estimated that about 50% of the soil coverage is problematic, requiring a range of inter ventions depending on the site and the structures constructed.

For the purpose of our research project, the granular column method was investigated.

These columns are typically installed in

the ground using one of two principal approaches: vibrating or ramming. While vibrated columns require more complex equipment, rammed ones make use of simpler machiner y. For this research, rammed columns were used. They were installed in a wet silt with the aim of improving the loading strength. Figure 1 demonstrates the typical installation of a rammed granular column.

In the last few years, laborator y investigations pertaining to the reinforcing of granular columns have gained popularity in terms of both column encasement and internal reinforcing. The concept of internal reinforcing was preferred for this research since there is a significant lack of knowledge in this area. A modified technology of the traditional granular column was proposed whereby plastic wastes were utilised within sand columns.

The installation of these columns was anticipated to fur ther improve the loading strength of a wet silt, which was initially improved by unreinforced granular columns.

Experimental investigation Materials used Silt, which was sourced from Durbanville, Cape Town, was utilised as the base material to represent a ground with poor geotechnical engineering properties. For the granular columns, Cape Flats sand was

*Laxmee Sobhee-Beetul and Denis Kalumba both work in the Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment, University of Cape Town.

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IMIESA June 2020

preferred, since it was easily available in Cape Town. The properties of these soils are shown in Table 1.

For this study, two recycled PET products were selected, namely flakes and fibres.

The flakes, which were irregularly shaped, varied between 2.36 mm and 9.5 mm in length. In contrast, the fibres were rather long and entangled like a cotton wool ball, with each fibre having an average diameter of 24.6 Âľm.

Proposed technology Figure 2 illustrates the proposed technology where waste PET bottle flakes and fibres were used. Two types of arrangements of the reinforcements within the sand columns were investigated independently, namely random mixing and layering.

Testing programme A total of 14 experiments were conducted, with an additional two to ensure the repeatability of the results. Table 2 shows the testing programme followed, whereby the following are the different notations used: (NC) for no column, (S) for sand column, (R) for random mixing, (P) for PET flakes, (F) for PET fibres, and (L) for layering. The percentage in each test represents the concentration of PET by mass of sand for the respective test.

Laboratory information A 300 mm diameter steel cylindrical tank was specially fabricated for these experiments. Only one type of silt and sand was used correspondingly as the base and column material. The water content of the wet silt (representing the weak ground) was kept constant in each test; this was equivalent to 37%, which was the liquid limit of the silt. With regard to the column dimensions, their diameter and length were constant for each test specimen prepared. They were 100 mm and 400 mm, respectively.

In this research, there were three main variables, namely the type of reinforcement

GEOTECHNICAL ENGINEERING

TABLE 1 Properties of the base and column materials

Use Base

Name Properties Durbanville Size = <4.25 mm (Majority <0.075 mm) silt Specific gravity = 2.71 Liquid limit = 37% Plastic limit = 30.6% OMC = 17.7% Max dry density = 1.7 Mg/m3 Column Cape Flats Size = 0.075â&#x20AC;&#x201C;1.18 mm (Majority >0.15 mm) sand Specific gravity = 2.70 OMC = 12.5% Max dry density = 1.795 Mg/m3 Coefficient of uniformity = 2.83 Coefficient of curvature = 0.98

(flakes or fibres), the concentration by mass of the reinforcement, and the arrangement of the PET within the sand columns.

For the layering arrangement, the predetermined mass of PET was placed above the FIGURE 1 Installation of a granular column by the ramming Sample preparation and testing compacted sand method (Sobhee-Beetul, 2012) A measured quantity of silt was measured layer in the column and mixed with the required amount of before pouring in (2) the quantities of sand and PET used in water to produce the intended level of the subsequent sand layer. Each sand layer each test. wetness. A mechanical mixer was used to was also compacted and 50 mm thick. obtain a homogeneous mixture. The wet Once the test specimen was prepared, a Improvement in loading strength silt was then stored in a sealed plastic compressive load was applied to it through The stress obtained for each test, at the container for 24 hours to allow for proper a 25 mm thick steel disc at a speed of maximum settlement of 50 mm, was used distribution of water in the silt. The mixture 1.2 mm/min. A test was considered to calculate the percentage improvement was then filled in eight layers of 50 mm complete once a settlement of 50 mm in relation to the stress obtained for an each in the fabricated tank. For each layer, was achieved in the improved ground. unimproved silt bed. The corresponding the wet silt was pressed down manually, to The results of the loading stresses were stress for the unimproved silt bed was expel as many air pockets as possible, to electronically captured.

30 kPa. achieve the densest possible state under Results It was generally observed that the inclusion the given conditions. of a column strengthened the weak ground, Once the silt bed was prepared, the sand The results obtained from the computer, such that higher loads could be sustained. column was installed centrally, following which was connected to the loading By introducing a reinforcement in the sand the procedure illustrated in Figure 1. For machine, allowed for a comparison of the column, the percentage improvement in tests where the PET was randomly placed, performance of each test specimen under stress further increased; however, certain mixing of the reinforcement with the sand the compressive stresses. In this section, testing conditions appeared to be more was done manually prior to pouring the mix the outcome has been presented as: (1) the improvement in the loading strength, and, favourable than others. For instance, it is into the opening. rather evident that the placement of plastic flakes in the thinnest layers resulted in FIGURE 2 Schematic of the experimental set-up for the proposed technology a strength increase of 77%. In contrast, (Sobhee-Beetul, 2019) randomly mixed fibres produced the highest percentage improvement of 247%.

Overall, for the tests with randomly mixed reinforcements, fibres appeared to further augment the loading strength of the sand columns as their concentration was increased. For the flakes, the larger the PET concentration, the lower the improvement.

In terms of the tests with the layering arrangement, fibres seemed to be a better reinforcing material.

The general gain in strength when fibres were used can possibly be explained in terms of their ability to interlock better with sand particles compared to flakes. This

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GEOTECHNICAL ENGINEERING

is because the fibres were thinner than the flakes and, therefore, more capable of fitting in-between the particles. Besides, the interlocking was more favoured with fibres, since their surfaces were relatively less smooth than those of the flakes. As a result, a more compacted composite that was able to withstand higher loads was achieved.

Conclusions The results obtained confirmed that the inclusion of the PET generally produced an additional increase in the loading strength of the improved ground, although certain testing conditions appeared to be more favourable than others. In terms of the quantities of sand and PET used, reinforcing of the columns with layers of fibres at the maximum concentration of 0.83% resulted in the least amount of sand used; the corresponding mass of PET for this test was notably low.

For further research, it is recommended that pilot tests be undertaken to understand any associated effect of scale. Numerical

TABLE 2 Characteristics of each test

Test Code

Descriptions Random mixing

NC S S-RP0.5% S-RP1.0% S-RP2.5% S-RF0.025% S-RF0.05% S-RF0.1%

Pure silt and no columns Silt with a sand column Silt and a sand column reinforced with randomly mixed flakes (variable: flakes concentration) Silt and a sand column reinforced with randomly mixed fibres (variable: fibre concentration) Layering

S-LP2.2% S-LP3.5% S-LP5.6% S-LF0.28% S-LF0.56% S-LF0.83%

Silt and a sand column reinforced with layers of flakes (variable: flakes concentration) Silt and a sand column reinforced with layers of fibres (variable: fibre concentration)

analysis must also be performed to identify the possibility of using other beneficial testing conditions. From an environmental viewpoint, further investigation should explore the effect of the PET wastes in the ground.

This is an edited version of the original academic paper. For the full paper contact the authors via email: laxmee.sobhee-beetul@uct.ac.za or denis.kalumba@uct.ac.za.

SMART CITIES

INSIDE Underpinning urban development 32 Waterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s new value 35 Digital transitions in the public sector 36 Intelligent tolling

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3 ways SA can build a better post-Covid-19 transport system 38 Creating an African auto city 40 Inside Africaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s smartest city 41

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SMART CITIES

Underpinning urban development A key step towards a smart future is focusing on the creation of cities that are more efficient, sustainable and liveable, and which integrate the functionality of all critical infrastructure. Following these principles is Cornubia, a multibillion-rand integrated development. By Danielle Petterson

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ocated adjacent to uMhlanga, KwaZulu-Natal, the Cornubia development is underpinned by Durban’s goal of becoming the most liveable city in Africa by 2030.

Partnership for success The land on which Cornubia is being developed was originally planned for commercial and high-value residential development by owners Tongaat Hulett. EThekwini Municipality, however, sought to acquire the land for lowcost housing.

Following consultations and a land deal, a joint venture between Tongaat Hulett Development and eThekwini Municipality was established to develop the all-inclusive Cornubia urban node. Cornubia was officially launched in April 2011 and will have cost around R25 billion upon completion.

“In the end, there was a meeting of minds that resulted in a very well-planned, integrated

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greenfield development. We really need to see more of this,” says Dave Duke, GM: Urban and Social Development in SMEC’s Africa Division. SMEC was responsible for the full infrastructure master planning of Cornubia, supported by Iyer Design Studio, which did the town planning.

Cornubia lies between Durban’s wealthier Mt Edgecombe and uMhlanga areas and lower-income areas north of the city such as Phoenix, Ottawa and Waterloo. According to Duke, the development seeks to address apartheid spatial planning and reconnect rural areas with corridors of development.

The mixed-use development is the first proposed sustainable and fully integrated human settlement in the region and has been declared a national priority project.

Still under development, Cornubia will eventually spread over 1 200 ha and include industrial and commercial spaces, housing, and social and public facilities, which include

Cornubia Mall supports the vision for a mixed-use, fully integrated human settlement

schools, clinics, police stations, post offices and multipurpose halls. Over 25 000 new homes are being built, including affordable/ middle-income units and subsidised units, while commercial and industrial buildings make up the bulk of the property.

Smart mobility Reducing the need for and cost of travel is very important for South Africa. In the case of Cornubia, the low-cost housing precinct is located immediately adjacent to the industrial area. “Ideally, you want people to live and work within the precinct and be able to walk and cycle to work, school and healthcare facilities. We’ve also made bus stations easily accessible on foot,” says Duke.

SMART CITIES

LANSERIA SMART CITY

For ease of access, low-cost housing is located adjacent to the industrial area

SMEC recently began working on the master planning for the Lanseria smart city development, together with GAPP Architects. The city is expected to centre around Lanseria International Airport and the sectors that feed into it.

The smart city is a joint project between the Investment and Infrastructure Office in The Presidency and the Gauteng and North West provincial governments.

The cities of Johannesburg, Tshwane and Madibeng, together with private partners, will also help to make it a reality.

According to President Cyril Ramaphosa, the city – which will house between 350 000 and 500 000 people – will not only be smart and 5G-ready but will also be a leading benchmark for green infrastructure.

Cornubia was planned to integrate with eThekwini’s GO!Durban IRPTN (integrated rapid public transport network). The GO!Durban system incorporates a bus rapid transit (BRT) network together with a non-motorised transport network intended to rectify and enhance the spatial structure of the city.

The population density (articulated along transit routes through the town planning) of Cornubia will help ensure sufficient ridership for the GO!Durban buses, which is critical for both transport in and around Cornubia and the long-term feasibility of the BRT system.

“It is extremely important to plan integrated land use and transport systems together. The two just don’t work separately. The transport system informs the land use and vice versa,” explains Duke.

Informed infrastructure development A key component of GO!Durban and the Cornubia development was the construction of Cornubia Bridge, which provides primary

access into Cornubia, with direct access from the N2. The 125 m long bridge represents a significant engineering feat and comprises three individual bridges that were stitched together to form a single structure carrying six mixed-use traffic lanes, as well as pedestrian sidewalks and two bus lanes.

The Mount Edgecombe interchange was also developed in part to accommodate development in the Cornubia area. The awardwinning R1.1 billion interchange was funded

by Sanral, eThekwini Municipality and the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Transport.

According to Duke, these developments highlight how the partnership between Tongaat Hulett and eThekwini Municipality resulted in excellent future planning. “In many instances, development occurs without the proper planning and coordination, and upgrades to surrounding infrastructure have to be bolted on afterwards when funding is a struggle.

Through integrated planning and alignment, you can circumvent this and ensure the best outcome,” he says.

High-density housing was planned alongside public transport

“When projects are either purely public or private, you often end up with a single-use development that benefits only one income group. But when you work together, you unlock funding and support toward mutual goals – which is exactly what we saw in Cornubia.”

Planning is essential Duke stresses how essential planning is to the way cities run and calls for more integrated developments.

“Markets or land uses should be flexible and should change over time to respond to different demands. You have a lot more scope to do that if you plan integrated developments.

It is also very important to create the right enabling framework to allow flexibility,” he says.

There should always be an overarching town planning structure with basic guiding principles and provision for future infrastructure. This provides the flexibility to upgrade or install services at a later stage. Where planning is poor, the potential for upgrades becomes severely hamstrung.

“The most critical thing is planning, and no planning can be done in isolation. It needs to be coordinated, integrated and there needs to be a meeting of minds between the private and public sectors. If the planning is not done right, you will not achieve high-performing cities,” Duke stresses.

Benefiting the poor While the world is yet to see a truly smart city, many cities around the world are adopting smart city principles. Duke cautions that, while

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SMART CITIES

The newly built Northern Drive and upgraded Northern WWTW

harvesting. This would reduce demand and the cost of larger infrastructure systems as cities develop.

“A lot of money is needed up front for upgrades. My view is to start small, with simple on-site solutions, but with a plan that allows for upgrading over time. It is important to consider the impact on the end-user while providing the best possible service at the lowest cost. It’s really about getting the most out of your infrastructure and doing it in an incremental and inclusive fashion,” says Duke.

“The longer you plan, the better the project will run and the better your cities will function. It is the most important aspect of improving people’s quality of life and livelihoods. It is not a quick process and there are no shortcuts, but it is absolutely necessary.”

The Mt Edgecombe Interchange demonstrates excellent future planning

these principles are sound, it is important to consider how they benefit the poor.

“The smart city concept is more targeted at upper-income groups and it is often hard to assimilate people from informal settlements into this vision and its long-term goals.

However, there are many tangible benefits from digital innovation, and we must ensure that there is proper planning to allow for this,” he says.

One way to do this is to plan ICT ducting systems in new developments, as was done at Cornubia. This allows ICT companies to easily install services such as fibre at a later stage.

This all comes back to proper planning. In the case of rural areas and township communities, Duke calls for interim solutions that are off-grid and sustainable, such as thermal heating, solar PV, greywater recycling and rainwater

Artist’s impression of the planned transit mall intermodal facility (Credit: Iyer for eThekwini GO!Durban and Tongaat Hulett Developments)

GO!DURBAN GETS SMART The GO!Durban IRPTN system aims to provide effective, smart public transport to the City of Durban.

The network uses an advanced fare management system called the Muvo Card, which was the first EMV- and NDoT-certified smartcard worldwide. The card can be used to load specific trips or cash to pay for bus journeys and products in selected stores using a tap-andgo system.

Teams are also working towards implementing CCTV throughout the city and on the buses and trains. These cameras will have a direct line to emergency care and will monitor any transport issues.

An advanced public management transport system is planned to provide passengers with information on bus arrival times through electronic displays at stations, on buses and via mobile applications.

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SMART CITIES

Water’s new value Water is becoming scarcer and more expensive, so a once-abundant vital resource now requires much closer cost and management scrutiny, says Vincent Chirouze, managing director, Xylem Africa.

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any businesses – particularly in sectors like construction, manufacturing, mining and agriculture – use water as part of their core output processes. For this reason, water is an inextricable business cost. Yet when it comes to the management of water, it’s often not treated in that way.

To illustrate the point, Chirouze compares water to electricity: “Everybody talks about the electricity crisis. The thing about electricity is that it’s either there or not. It’s very easy to determine and quantify the amount of electricity you need, its quality and so forth.

But water is very different. Everybody seems to be getting access to some type of water, but they often assume the quality and cost are the same, regardless.”

This attitude goes some way to explain why water management is a much lower priority than managing power, rent and other business costs. However, as water becomes scarcer and more expensive, a once-abundant resource now requires much closer cost and management scrutiny.

“We have to become smar ter about water,” says Chirouze. “The pressures

on water translate into pressures on companies. But this also means that good water management can improve business profit and per formance.”

A full, detailed picture But what is the true cost of water?

Companies often treat water too broadly, but also too narrowly. Water costs are often determined at site-specific levels, only focusing on ver y water-scarce sites.

But numerous studies, including work conducted by the US Depar tment of Energy, show that this neglects multiple factors that contribute to water costs and, crucially, negates the need for a companywide water management strategy. It is telling that most organisations don’t have a dedicated role for water management, even when water is a considerable part of their requirements.

“You should develop a business-wide water management strategy, then focus

on site-specific issues. Water is a ver y integrated resource. You’d be surprised if we showed just how much and where your business uses water. So, you need a detailed picture – but the whole picture,” Chirouze continues.

Can’t technology help? In this age of digital excellence, won’t a few smar t meters do the trick? Chirouze cautions against this kind of thinking. Yes, smart technology is ver y effective, but not in isolation.

For tunately, as is typical with underestimated costs, once users focus on a water management strategy, there are near- and long-term wins to be had.

Major companies that have focused on water have comfor tably realised cost reductions of 2% to 3% within a year, and even more as they refine their approach. Good water management improves margins – it’s also an environmental imperative.

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SMART CITIES

Digital transitions in the public sector As governments worldwide embrace the digital journey, their IT and security professionals face the challenge of ensuring sensitive data remains protected.

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hile agencies and their partners work to make government more accessible to citizens through online and mobile experiences, there is a risk that these activities will also make operations and data more vulnerable to cyberattacks, points out Tim Norris, product and solution strategist, RSA. RSA is a global cybersecurity leader, offering consulting and technology solutions that empower firms by providing a holistic view of their requirements. These solutions are available locally via Networks Unlimited Africa.

“There are many reports outlining areas of South African business where we see digital transformation lagging behind – for example, as outlined in a 2018 report from multinational professional services group PwC, “ explains Stefan van de Giessen, GM: Cybersecurity at Networks Unlimited Africa.

In this report, entitled Digital Champions: How industry leaders build integrated

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operations ecosystems to deliver end-to-end customer solutions, over 1 100 executives at global manufacturing companies in 26 countries were surveyed – including South Africa – asking them about their views on Industry 4.0 and digital operations.

“The manufacturing companies surveyed in South Africa at the time of the report did not include any so-called ‘digital champions’ and, indeed, most were found to be digital novices,” Van de Giessen continues. “Most people would regard it as a fair extrapolation to say that, similarly, the South African government is also lagging in its digitalisation transformation in the public sector.”

Protecting infrastructure and information Potential cyberattacks pose a threat to critical infrastructure, such as healthcare, power facilities, transport systems, and water treatment plants. Where governments don’t have adequate cybersecurity measures in

Stefan van de Giessen, GM: Cybersecurity, Networks Unlimited Africa

place, other potential consequences include: • threats to national security • privacy violations, breaches and exposure of millions of citizens’ personal and financial data to criminals on the dark web • leaks of classified information • election tampering.

“RSA presents actionable information for organisations of all sizes and types, allowing them to become aware of the latest digital risks and thereby carry out more effective digital risk management. It is important for businesses – including the business of government – to see the link between security and business performance, as well as delivery,” concludes Van de Giessen.

SMART CITIES

Intelligent tolling ICT developments have a key influence on the design, management and financial viability of toll routes. Alastair Currie speaks to Andre Wepener, traffic engineering manager at Bakwena, about the benefits for the concessionaire’s N1 and N4 sections.

How are ICT models influencing current and future toll system designs?

AW The ability to communicate in near real time between plazas has a dramatic impact on the processing of toll transits either by credit card or electronic tolling collection (ETC). ETC uses both e-tags (at boom-down plazas) and number plate recognition technologies to process transactions in open-road tolling (ORT) scenarios. Bakwena has also recently started rolling out credit card swipe and tap and go facilities at its urban plazas.

Internationally, ORT is a preferred route.

The establishment of dedicated express lanes on existing highways is also being implemented in countries like the USA and could potentially be applied in South Africa on future projects.

Dedicated express lanes are managed and monitored using smart technologies.

Once a road user has selected a smart lane, they are required to stay put until it’s permissible to exit. Automatically generated penalties are imposed if this stipulation is ignored.

ORT and related initiatives are ideal within city environments for facilitating free-flowing traffic. However, where road users choose not to honour the system, revenue collection can prove problematic. The Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project is a case in point.

For this reason, it is critical that enforcement agencies are equipped with appropriate technologies to manage any ETC violations that may occur. Number plate recognition makes provision for the tracing, tracking and interception of offenders. Booms, on the other hand, ensure instant enforcement and immediate revenue collection.

Andre Wepener, traffic engineering manager, Bakwena

in urban areas where traffic volumes are high, to deal with highway incidents efficiently and effectively.

We have approximately 380 km, of which 55 km are urban, to manage on behalf of Sanral.

Over the longer term, Bakwena plans to expand its camera footprint on the urban highway sections and plazas to cover the road sections from plaza to plaza – similar to the Sanral Freeway Management System. This will greatly assist with incident reporting and general road network management.

‘Speed over distance’ (average speed enforcement via camera) is another possibility. Case studies have proved the benefits on the N3 route to Durban. The average speed drops, resulting in fatality and crash rates dropping after installing the system.

What is Bakwena’s asset management strategy?

Bakwena conducts formal road inspections of the entire route annually.

This picks up all the assets – from road markings, signage and drainage structures, to bridges and pavement condition – using mobile surveillance equipment. Route patrollers travel the route on a daily basis and report and log damage to any asset. Additionally, detailed inspections of major structures are carried out every three years.

Have measures to combat overloading been improved?

Bakwena manages the Mantsole and Bapong traffic control centres (TCCs) on the N1 and N4, on a 24-hour basis.

Since taking over the management of these TCCs, the extent of overloading has decreased dramatically.

All approaching trucks are channelled into a screening lane. Trucks are weighed electronically by weigh-in-motion sensors within the pavement. If a truck exceeds preset load limit parameters, it is required to enter the weighbridge to be measured statically.

Do you have accurate traffic management data in place to determine future investment requirements?

Bakwena has an extensive network of automatic traffic counting stations operating continuously. These capture all the traffic volumes and classes of vehicles. This data is used in conjunction with Bakwena’s Pavement Management System to determine upgrade and rehabilitation interventions along the route, in line with the concession contract requirements.

What influence does ICT have on health and safety management?

ICT is a critical component, particularly

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SMART CITIES

3 ways SA can build a better post-Covid-19 transport system The novel coronavirus could make transpor t unaffordable for many South Africans. While the countr y has always had transpor t challenges, Covid-19 has added social distancing requirements, capacity limitations, and volatile global oil prices to the fire. By Ivan Reutener

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lot must change to accommodate this ‘new normal’ and to keep people moving freely and affordably around our cities. And since mobility is key to economic development, now is the perfect time to ‘Build Back Better’ when it comes to South Africa’s transport infrastructure.

The three areas in which I see the biggest potential are cycling, the minibus taxi industry, and legislation that encourages active and smart mobility.

Cycling is one of the easiest ways to enforce social distancing. Cities around the world, including Auckland in New Zealand1, Bogotá in Colombia2, and Paris in France3, have adapted roads, reorganised public spaces, and provided temporary cycling and walking lanes to enforce safe physical distancing and to reduce overcrowding on public transport.

These cities already had an established cycling culture across all class levels. South Africa, on the other hand, has a large gap

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between poor people who use bicycles as their main form of transport, and wealthy people, for whom cycling is a hobby.

That’s not to say more people wouldn’t cycle if the facilities were available. In fact, a cycling and bike-hire pilot project conducted

by Royal HaskoningDHV at the University of Pretoria saw bicycle use increase from 8% to 26%, while car usage declined from 13% to 8%. And all we did was facilitate access to cycling facilities.

The City of Johannesburg recognises the potential of cycling to improve the quality of urban life, enable economic growth and social upliftment, and to respond to the transportation needs of a rapidly growing metropolitan city.

The city commissioned Royal HaskoningDHV to create the Cycle Design Manual4, a tool to help build a safer, more convenient cycling infrastructure network and integrate it with alternative modes of transport, like minibuses, buses, ride-hailing services, and

Ivan Reutener, leading professional: Smart Mobility, Royal HaskoningDHV

trains. The manual offers comprehensive, multidisciplinary guidelines that define a new way of thinking about and designing cycling facilities. They prioritise the safety and security of non-motorised transport users, while enhancing environmental and ecological systems, fostering community health and vitality, and ensuring equity between population groups.

Like other world-class cities, Johannesburg can also quickly provide pop-up cycling lanes in central business districts. The manual exists; we only need the green light from authorities.

Cycling infrastructure is a low-cost, low-risk investment that could add immense value to the local economy and to people’s lives.

Bicycles make cities healthier, cleaner, and more efficient. They reduce carbon emissions

SMART CITIES

and congestion and help to tackle epidemics like obesity and pandemics like Covid-19.

What’s more, they take pressure off public transport systems that now operate at reduced capacity and higher fares. And those who travel by minibus taxi are taking the biggest financial knock.

Empower the taxi industry More than 250 000 minibus taxis facilitate 19 million commuter trips in South Africa every year, covering 15 billion kilometres5.

Nearly 70% of South African households use minibus taxis, yet it’s not subsidised by government. Covid-19 has highlighted why this is problematic.

With no subsidy to fall back on, as well as a government-imposed 70% capacity and two sharp petrol price increases in as many months, taxi operators had to increase fares – by as much as 270% on some routes6. There’s no way that South African households, already reeling from the impact of the lockdown, can afford this.

In addition to relieving the financial burden of the poor, a subsidised minibus taxi industry would be empowered to provide an even better customer service to an already wellfunctioning system. And, if the subsidy were incentivised through positive driver behaviour and passenger ratings, the industry could also change its public perception.

One way to do this is through gamification, where passengers rate their drivers on an app, including service, driving behaviour, attitude and cleanliness. Drivers with the highest ratings could get a higher stipend than lowerscoring drivers, for example. Switching to electric taxis, which are safer, cheaper, and cleaner to operate than petrol vehicles, could increase drivers’ subsidy substantially.

Adapt national legislation and municipal by-laws South Africa can learn from the best practices of countries that have successfully incorporated all forms of public and individual transport: motorised and non-motorised, petrol and electric.

In June, the Department of Transport (DoT) published the National Road Traffic Amendment Bill, which changes the definition of a bicycle to include e-bikes with a 25 km/h speed limit. It’s a good first step towards enabling active mobility within cities, but the DoT is missing an opportunity to broaden the scope of transport options to include scooters, electric chariots, skateboards, and cargo bikes, for example.

It makes sense to include these transport modes because the new legislation will create a framework to support smart city design and infrastructure. And it will make it easier for cities to adopt solutions like PedCast 1.5,

which combines artificial intelligence and mobility expertise to avoid pedestrian crowding in public spaces, and FlowTack, which keeps traffic flowing smoothly in cities using the internet of things and loop detection data.

The final legislation will also impact municipalities’ powers to create and enforce active mobility by-laws. It’s important that interested parties comment on these amendments while they still can, to ensure their citizens’ needs are represented.

Road out of poverty Smart mobility is only successful and effective if it’s inclusive. The World Bank7 says that a country’s growth of measured GDP is directly reduced by poor public transport infrastructure. Mobility must serve everyone, and it’s in everyone’s best interests if it does.

There’s a renewed sense of urgency to address inequality in South Africa. Fixing our transport challenges is the fastest way to – literally – provide a road out of poverty for millions.

We have to make it easier, cheaper and more efficient for people to move around and earn a living. Accommodating and encouraging non-motorised transport, incentivising the taxi industry, and prioritising active mobility at the municipal level will set a solid foundation for seamless mobility, during and after Covid-19.

https://www.greaterauckland.org.nz/2020/04/28/at-steps-up-to-deliver-covid-emergency-works https://www.smartcitiesworld.net/news/news/bogota-expands-bike-lanes-overnight-to-curb-coronavirus-spread-5127 3 https://www.forbes.com/sites/carltonreid/2020/04/22/paris-to-create-650-kilometers-of-pop-up-corona-cycleways-for-postlockdown-travel/#1e77b64f54d4 4 https://tenderbulletins.co.za/files/A825%20Cycle%20Design%20Manual.pdf 5 https://www.businessinsider.co.za/how-big-is-south-african-taxi-industr y-2019-5 6 https://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/gauteng/its-illegal-for-alex-minibus-taxis-to-increase-fare-by-r19-says-santaco-49120929 7 https://www.worldbank.org/en/region/afr/publication/why-we-need-to-close-the-infrastructure-gap-in-sub-saharan-africa 1 2

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SMART CITIES

Creating an African auto city The R50 billion Tshwane Auto City project could provide a blueprint for the sustainable development of Africa’s future smar t cities.

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shwane Auto City (TAC) is a 50-year planned strategic infrastructure programme intended to stimulate automotive vehicle assembly and component manufacturing in the Rosslyn region of Tshwane. Rosslyn is already home to five automotive plants for BMW, Iveco, Nissan, Tata and UD Trucks, along with an array of automotive suppliers.

Automotive activities in the Tshwane region remain among the priority sectors within the Gauteng and South African economy. To this end, the Automotive Investment Development Centre (a wholly owned government subsidiary) is bringing together private sector developers, landowners and major role players in the auto industry to make the project a reality, with the help of the Tshwane Economic Development Agency and the City of Tshwane.

The project will be developed through public-private partnerships and is expected to attract R50 billion in investments, with the ability to create 18 000 direct jobs across the value chain.

Ultimately, TAC will create a second CBD in the north-west of Tshwane on the doorstep of Ga-Rankuwa and Soshanguve, anchored by

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labour-intensive automotive manufacturing that will provide easy-to-access work opportunities and redress apartheid spatial planning.

The world’s largest auto city TAC aims to emulate well-established motor cities such as Shanghai Automotive City in China, Autostad in Germany, and Toyota Automotive City in Japan. Expected to service four vehicle assemblers, TAC will become the largest automotive city in the world and the first multi-OEM auto city in Africa.

Developments include: 1.

Logistics node: an advanced logistics and supply chain network in partnership with Transnet.

2. Commercial and recreation node: retail and shopping malls, banks and restaurants.

3.

Community and civic node: residences, parks and public spaces.

Rosslyn Hub The Rosslyn Hub, already under development, is located at the centre of the TAC. Planned to spread over 100 ha, the hub consists of two main phases: Phase 1: 2018–2021 | R1.6 billion • 250 high-density rental apartments • Crèche, primary and high school • Convenience shopping centre, value centre and filling station • Logistics park and vehicle distribution

centre, with access to the new Logistics Hub • Truck staging area and truck stop.

Phase 2: 2021 – 2025 | R1.4 billion • Hospital and clinic • Motor showrooms and motor retail • Regional shopping centre with a hotel and conference centre and outdoor automotive pavilion.

According to Brendan Falkson, director, Rosslyn Hub, collaboration between the Rosslyn Hub team and the AIDC resulted in an aligned vision for the TAC. Master planning identified the need for an access road to unlock the project. The K217, built by government, will link Rosslyn Hub to the N4 highway and Transnet’s freight line – a key component in achieving export efficiencies.

The northern portion of the road will link the roughly 500 000 people in the greater GaRankuwa and Soshanguve areas with work opportunities and transport nodes within Rosslyn and the auto city. By bringing more people into Rosslyn, this road is also expected to trigger R3 billion in private sector investment in Rosslyn Hub, which in turn will act as a catalyst for TAC. According to Falkson, some vehicle manufacturers are expected to expand their existing operations. This will require suppliers to base their factories in Rosslyn, boosting employment and unlocking additional investment in the auto city.

SMART CITIES

Inside Africa’s smartest city In 2016, the Smart City Playbook report named Cape Town as Africa’s smartest city.

Today, Cape Town is still ranked among the most advanced cities on the continent

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ome of the initiatives that won Cape Town its smartest city title include the roll-out of public Wi-Fi, CCTV cameras located throughout the city, smart grid pilot projects and the city’s open data portal. Many of these initiatives have since been expanded upon, as Cape Town continues its journey to become smarter.

This journey began in 2000 when the city initiated its first ‘Smart City Strategy’ with the aim of using technology to achieve development objectives including job creation, economic growth, improved resident engagement, and increased accessibility of high-quality public services.

The city has since invested significantly in digital practices and technologies, and although there is currently no official policy document in the public domain outlining Cape Town’s strategy to become Africa’s first truly digital city, there is an internal document to guide this journey.

Building a digital city Cape Town’s Digital City Strategy has four pillars: 1. Digital government: using technology to improve service delivery, based on the city’s ERP system and incorporating elements such as open data portals.

2. Digital inclusion: shrinking the digital divide through external partnerships, investment in areas of low demand, and skills development.

3. Digital economy: creating an enabling environment for tech businesses and job creation, and building on Cape Town’s image as an innovation hub.

4. Digital infrastructure: rolling out the ser vices and hardware required to support IT capabilities, ultimately building an IT backbone for the city.

These efforts resulted in Cape Town being named Africa's leading digital city in 2019.

According to Executive Mayor Dan Plato, the city has invested more than R1 billion into the development of a telecommunications network to provide data connections to various city buildings and locations. This is driven by the city’s Broadband Project – a multiyear capital project to build a metro area telecommunications network and various telecommunications infrastructure and systems.

The project is scheduled for completion this year and has so far connected 300 city-owned buildings with broadband access.

In addition, the city’s Connect Pilot Project, launched in January 2018, aims to enable the connection of high-speed fibre to 1 000 commercial buildings in the CBD.

“Cape Town has emerged as Africa’s leading tech hub, with the city employing more people in the sector than anywhere else on the African continent. To this end, the city, and the CBD, has geared itself to accommodate an emerging, digitally savvy population that requires a business environment that offers good broadband connectivity, co-working spaces, accessibility and quality of lifestyle. The city centre has all of these and, as a recognised digital city, the Cape Town CBD is well placed to support this vibrant new way of working,” says Rob Kane, chairperson, Cape Town Central City Improvement District.

More than half of emerging tech companies in the country are based in the Western Cape, with most being in Cape Town.

Plato acknowledges that, with the attractiveness of Cape Town as a business and urban living centre, the city must focus on providing housing, improving the lives of residents, and helping them access opportunities.

“We offer a place for innovation with the necessary infrastructure and tools to grow as a tech hub. This is a reflection of our government’s commitment to creating an environment conducive to job creation, leading to many continuing to see Cape Town as an opportunity city.”

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ASSET MANAGEMENT

Municipalities in South Africa are required by law to have a detailed and accurate fixed asset register. Without this, sustainable management of the municipal infrastructure network is not possible.

By Danielle Petterson

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riven by the Municipal Systems Act (No. 32 of 2000) and Municipal Finance Management Act (No. 56 of 2003), municipalities are required to keep a fixed asset register compliant with General Recognised Accounting Practice (GRAP) 17.

According to Matt Braune, director, Bio Engineering Solutions, this fixed asset register should cover all municipal infrastructure, including water, sewerage, roads, stormwater and electricity. It should be updated every five years and used to inform asset management. “This is the guiding tool for setting up maintenance management systems and ensuring assets

A drone being used for a bridge inspection

Getting infrastructure management right are maintained, repaired or replaced as necessary,” says Braune.

Unfor tunately, these asset registers are often inaccurate and/or incomplete.

Braune frequently encounters insufficient details on assets and a lack of accurate and up-to-date condition assessment information. The result is often non-maintained, non-functional and broken assets.

“For municipalities, this causes losses in revenue due to leaking water supply systems, deteriorating roads that can no longer be repaired and must be replaced at an enormous cost, blocked stormwater systems causing severe flooding, and so much more,” stresses Braune.

“It has been established that, for a typical residential area, the upgrading and replacement cost of a stormwater drainage system is 15 to 20 times higher than the average annual maintenance cost. This places an enormous financial burden on municipalities to replace services for which there are no capital funds available.”

Integrated stormwater master planning Multiple flood events and service delivery protests in recent years have brought stormwater master planning to the forefront.

Bio Engineering Solutions resultantly conducted visual condition assessments

For more information on optimising asset management, contact Matt Braune of Bio Engineering Solutions at mattbraune7@gmail.com or on +27 (0)82 600 5993.

ASSET MANAGEMENT

The typical state of stormwater drainage systems

(VCAs) on several municipalitiesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; stormwater systems, and the results are alarming.

According to Braune, the general accuracy of the existing stormwater infrastructure asset registers is only 20% to 25%. This is mainly due to missing information such as dimensions of underground pipes as

South Africa

well as inver t levels and gradients of stormwater conduits.

More concerningly, about 60% to 80% of existing stormwater systems were found to be completely blocked and/or non-functional due to a lack of maintenance.

Braune and his team started the study using aerial photography provided by the

municipality as a basis. A team of field inspectors then walked the area to identify all stormwater infrastructure. The locality of all infrastructure was recorded along with photographic records. Another team of labourers opened all relevant structures, where they found a high degree of silting and blockages. They unblocked a portion of

ASSET MANAGEMENT

the infrastructure to take measurements; however, the existing pipe network could not be inspected fully due to severe blockage, which prohibited the use of CCTV. The next phase of the study included the use of a professional surveyor to obtain both ground levels as well as invert levels of all existing stormwater infrastructure. In addition to this, the type of infrastructure, size and capacity were also established.

Based on the information, a fully integrated and complete asset register was compiled to assist the municipalities with stormwater master planning, highlight and prioritise problems that will cause flooding, and establish remedial measures and upgrades needed to restore the network.

Although each municipality has maintenance departments tasked with cleaning and maintaining stormwater infrastructure, Braune says standard operating procedures are needed to guide this process. “Workers

Flooding due to blockages can cause severe damage to road infrastructure

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have no guidelines on how to maintain these systems and we often find that they push any surrounding debris into kerb and grid inlets. The surrounding area and the outside of the kerb inlet are now clean, but they have inadvertently blocked the underground pipe drainage system and caused further problems,” he explains.

“Local authorities are not maintaining their infrastructure and maintenance is not given priority in budgets. As a result, much of the existing stormwater systems needs to be replaced at an excessively high cost.

The flooding resulting from blockages also causes severe damage to road infrastructure, as well as private and municipal properties, increasing the costs further.”

Embracing new data collection technology Braune also urges municipalities to embrace new technologies, such as drones, to aid them with their asset management.

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) – or drones, as they are more commonly known – have been successfully used in surveying and information gathering for several years, both locally and internationally. According to Braune, UAVs offer a more efficient, accurate, safe and cost-effective way of gathering information.

Commercial drones can provide highresolution photographic imagery, linear dimensions and facade mapping, as well as high-resolution thermal imagery.

In the municipal field, this can aid with, among others:

• digital terrain modelling to assist in VCAs of municipal infrastructure • road and bridge inspections • detection of existing underground services (e.g. water supply) • detection of water leaks below the surface • assessment of the status of municipal dam embankments • high-level assessment of dolomites and formation of underground capacities • assessment of the status of reinforced concrete structures • assistance in inspections of stormwater infrastructure (channels, culver ts, pipes, etc.).

Drones can therefore aid in obtaining accurate and up-to-date condition assessments of assets, and ultimately assist in updating asset registers and achieving GRAP-compliant audits. Braune encourages municipalities to embrace drones and other new technologies but cautions authorities to ensure that they make use of providers licensed to commercially operate UAVs. “Municipalities are often apprehensive about adopting newer technologies. However, drones can provide a better result at a lower cost, without removing the human aspect of the job.” Braune stresses that asset inspectors remain critical to the process, and that drones supplement field investigations, covering more ground more quickly without interference on service delivery.

Using UAVs for road and bridge inspections, for example, allows for accurate digital surface mapping without having to stop traffic or work close to moving vehicles. Drones also provide added safety, preventing the needs for people to work at heights or in dangerous areas, such as power station chimneys and bridges over waterways. Commercial drones can also be fitted with anti-crash systems, ensuring they do not damage infrastructure nor cause accidents.

“There is an urgent need to obtain more accurate and detailed information on the status and condition of municipal infrastructure assets in order to have a more complete and up-to-date asset register for infrastructure management and maintenance planning,” says Braune.

“The asset register is the foundation for the sustainable management of all municipal infrastructure. Without it, you cannot ensure effective master planning and maintenance planning. It is essential that municipalities get this right, and I encourage them to embrace new technologies while doing it.”

ENERGY

Overcoming the household energy gap in South Africa Energy is key to development, yet energy access inequalities between poor and wealthy households and between urban and rural areas continue to increase in South Africa.

By Professor Priscilla B Monyai and Dr Shylet Chivanga*

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ustainable Development Goal 7 acknowledges the importance of af fordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all (Munro et al, 2017), but in subSaharan Africa, 68% of 915 million people have no access to electricity (Okoye and Oranekwu-Okoye, 2018).

South Africa is considered among the best in electricity provision compared to other African countries. This is as a result of an improvement in the electrification of households from 36% in 1994 to 76.7% in 2002, and currently 87% of formal households and 76% of informal households (Department of Mineral and Energy, 2003; Stats SA, 2018).

Despite the increasing energy use in rural areas, these areas still experience an electrification rate of only 50%, compared to 80% in urban areas (Ismail and Khembo, 2015).

While the Free Basic Electricity (FBE) Policy introduced in 2003 provides 50 kWh of free electricity to poor households (Department of Minerals and Energy, 2003), it is not enough to economically empower the poor.

The persistent household energy inequalities in the country point to a need for energy rethinking that is more human-centred and addresses social needs.

Energy poverty Energy poverty at the household level is measured by a multidimensional energy index (MEPI) (Nussbaumer et al, 2012).

Components of MEPI include lighting, cooking, space heating, cooling, refrigeration, process heating, mechanical power, mobility, communication, and entertainment (Iddrisu and Bhattacharyya, 2015).

The lack of access to energy is a sign of energy poverty. The South African Energy Policy defines access to energy as access

to grid electricity, but access to energy goes beyond this (Matinga et al, 2014; Tait, 2017). What should be of concern is whether the energy is available when needed, the quality and affordability of the energy, and the energy-consuming technology in the household.

Despite post-apar theid improvements in access to electricity, there are still households that are energy poor and cannot afford to access electricity for basics such as heating and cooking.

Households with energy poverty in South Africa are classified in three categories, namely: households that spend more than 10% of their monthly earnings on energy; households that have difficulties in meeting the basic required energy; and households that have low thermal efficiency (Department of Energy South Africa, 2012). When using the expenditure-based definition of energy poverty, about 43% of the South African population is experiencing energy poverty (Joubert, 2016).

Causes of persistent inequalities Financial constraints are a large contributor to household energy poverty and inequality.

Unemployment, poverty and food insecurity make it difficult for such households to allocate their income to energy. In South Africa, about 56% of the population lives in poverty and around 28% lives in extreme poverty and below the food poverty line (Stats SA, 2017).

Rural areas and informal settlements constitute a larger percentage of the people who cannot afford electricity. This is antilivelihood. A lack of electricity among the poor deprives them of small-scale livelihood strategies such as tailoring and vendoring perishable goods. Inequalities in access to electricity also deprive people of basic

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ENERGY

these systems will likely have a negative impact on Eskomâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s revenues. Eskom will remain with the poor consumers who are not be able to afford electricity tariffs (Baker & Phillips, 2019).

Therefore, the energy policy needs to be rethought in a way that is not only responsive to technological and environmental concerns, but also to political, social and economic changes to avoid revenue losses to the government and to avoid reproducing energy inequalities.

TABLE 1 Energy sources used in 2018 (Source: Stats SA, 2018)

Energy in development

services such as cooking and lighting. In South Africa, it is estimated that 1.5 million households still use fuel wood, paraffin and candles (Baruah and Enweremadu, 2019).

While alternative energy sources such as kerosene appear to be a cheaper option, they are costly and detrimental to peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s health. The World Bank estimates that breathing kerosene fumes is equivalent to smoking two packets of cigarettes a day. Non-renewable energy sources such as kerosene are assumed to be among the causes of lung cancer, hypertension and haemorrhagic stroke. Approximately 4Â million people die every year as a result of household air pollution from non-renewable sources. Rural poor, women and children are the most vulnerable (Melik, 2012; Kaba, 2019).

In instances where people are connected to the grid but cannot afford to buy electricity,

illegal connections often result. Illegal connections are practised by both low- and high-income households (ESI-Africa, 2016).

This highlights that access to electricity is more than just connecting people to the grid. Without the improvement of their livelihoods, connecting households to the grid is unsustainable and serves to perpetuate inequalities in accessing electricity. Thus, reducing the root causes of energy inequalities should be the core strategy in overcoming energy inequalities in South Africa.

The introduction of rooftop solar PV to address the energy problem in the country seems to reinforce energy inequalities.

These systems are expensive and cannot be afforded by those who are already excluded from energy provision. Although they are said to be an environmentally friendly energy alternative, shifting wealthier consumers to

Energy is essential for poverty reduction, reducing avoidable infant mortality, achieving universal secondary education, creating entrepreneurship and jobs, and sustainable inclusive economic growth.

Not having access to adequate, affordable and safe energy may deprive people not only of basic services such as cooking and lighting, but also of other elements fundamental for individual and collective development such as access to education, health, information and participation in politics. A lack of capability or choice of efficient, affordable and safe energy in a country with vast natural and economic resources is proof of the lack of genuine development.

In keeping with the sustainable development ethos, renewable energy should be prioritised over non-renewable energy. The use of non-renewable energy due to a lack of access to renewable energy, by households that have electric connections and those not connected, is seen as a sign of energy poverty and negatively affects the social and economic well-being of the people.

TABLE 2 Percentage of wood, paraffin and electricity used for cooking per province in 2018 (Source: Stats SA, 2018)

Western Cape Eastern Cape Northern Cape Free State KwaZulu-Natal

46

IMIESA June 2020

Wood Paraffin Electricity 0.8 1.3 82.2 7.8 6.7 77.9 3.5 1.4 87.1 2.8 3.1 87.9 10.4 1.7 77.8

North West

5.7

4.4

79.8

Gauteng

0.6

5.8

75.4

Mpumalanga

16.2

2.7

75

Limpopo

31.6

0.6

62.2

ENERGY

Political will is essential in promoting the use of renewable energy, and the utmost consideration should be given to the use of renewable energy in poverty alleviation.

Opting for non-renewable energy in the name of reducing energy poverty is detrimental to the environment and the health of the people.

Overcoming energy inequalities The impressive progress and commitment towards overcoming household energy inequalities by the South African government since 1994 cannot go unacknowledged.

However, the reduction of energy inequalities means much more than electricity connections.

There is a need for transformative policies that will take into account the root causes that engender and replicate economic, social, political and environmental problems and inequities in accessing electricity.

FBE is a step in the right direction, but it is confronted by social and economic impediments that are corroding its intended effect of alleviating energy poverty. For instance, some households who benefit from FBE still need to supplement it with energy sources such as paraffin and firewood.

It is estimated that the poorest households in South Africa spend about 27% of their monthly income on energy – nearly four times more than the rich, who spend only 6% of their income on electricity. Moreover, some households do not have stable livelihoods and about 43% of households in South Africa are classified as energy poor (Joubert, 2016).

As indicated in Table 2, provinces that constitute a larger percentage of rural areas,

such as Limpopo (31.6%), Mpumalanga (16.2%), Kwazulu-Natal (10.4%) and the Eastern Cape (7.8%), have a higher percentage of wood use for cooking. This highlights the gap between urban and rural areas in terms of electricity use.

Rethinking energy policies has the potential to alleviate energy poverty, inequality and environmental destruction confronting people and the planet. This does not mean that existing energy policies should be totally abandoned, but they should be used where they actually produce radical outcomes.

Conclusions and recommendations Despite the South African government’s noticeable progress towards energy transformation, energy poverty still exists and South Africa needs to do more to reduce it.

Meaningful transformation in energy poverty for all in South Africa requires the sustainable mobilisation of resources, political will, meaningful participation of all stakeholders, and transparent and inclusive decisionmaking processes in energy policies.

Addressing the root causes of energy poverty such as inequalities in the distribution of income, climate change and unsustainable practices will require different types of innovations and conceptual approaches, policies, institutions and social relations.

There is a need for changes, not only in the energy policy formulation and implementation, but also in all social, economic, political and environmental policy domains necessary for transformative outcomes in alleviating energy poverty.

Appropriate energy policies must be implemented in the appropriate settings and contexts. Policies should not act as a one-size-fits-all strategy, but should be implemented where they are appropriate, recognising that conditions are not always equal and static. Energy policies that have been successful elsewhere may not be successful in reducing energy poverty in South Africa.

The budget for the energy sector must be increased to provide enough supply of renewable energy and for the maintenance and upgrading of existing energy sources such as the ageing network backbone. The training and hiring of adequately capacitated personnel in the monitoring and evaluation of the electrification process is a further step in the right direction if energy poverty is to be meaningfully reduced.

Alternative, renewable, reliable, affordable, safe and healthy non-electric energy sources must be promoted, especially to households not connected to the grid. Building energy systems that sustain households will help to prevent catastrophic climate changes and new technologies that promote renewable, reliable, affordable, safe and healthy energy sources will reduce energy poverty.

A practical, human-centred approach, rather than a technology-centred energy policy, is the way to go. *Professor Priscilla B Monyai and Dr Shylet Chivanga work in the Department of Development Studies at the University of Fort Hare.

REFERENCES Baker, L., & Phillips, J. (2019). Tensions in the transition: the politics of electricity distribution in South Africa. Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space, 37(1), 177-196.

Baruah, D.C., & Enweremadu, C.C. (2019). Prospects of decentralized renewable energy to improve energy access: A resourceinventory-based analysis of South Africa. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 103, 328-341.

Department of Energy (South Africa). (2012). A Survey of Energy-related Behaviour and Perceptions in South Africa: Department of Energy.

The Residential Sector. Pretoria.

Department of Minerals and Energy (2003). White paper on the renewable energy policy of the Republic of South Africa. South Africa: Department of Minerals and Energy.

ESI-Africa (2016) Eskom: Electricity theft tip-offs hits high, 22 November.

Iddrisu, I. & Bhattacharyya, S.C., (2015). Sustainable Energy Development Index: A multi-dimensional indicator for measuring sustainable energy development. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 50, 513-530.

Ismail, Z. & Khembo, P. (2015). Determinants of energy poverty in South Africa. Journal of energy in southern Africa, 26(3), 66-78.

Joubert,L.(2016). Energy ‘poverty’ still entrenched in SA. Energy transition, 02 November Kaba, M., Wilkinson, R., Phillips, D.I. & Levene, D. (2019). Improving household air quality: The neglected cultural dimension. The Ethopian Journal of Health Development (EJHD), 33 (4).

Matinga, M.N., Clancy, J.S. & Annegarn, H.J., (2014). Explaining the non-implementation of health-improving policies related to solid fuels use in South Africa. Energy policy, 68, 53-59.

IMIESA June 2020

47

CEMENT & CONCRETE

Protecting your concrete Concrete is the structural material of choice for pipes, bunds and reser voirs in wastewater treatment plants. The addition of HDPE liners can protect concrete, ensuring greater longevity.

C

oncrete, a versatile and age-old material, presents one serious and costly drawback: it is susceptible to degradation in modern, aggressive environments. Concrete corrosion due to chemical attack can significantly reduce the lifespan of unprotected concrete structures, such as pipes used in wastewater treatment works. This often necessitates disruptive and costly replacement operations for municipalities and facility operators.

Sophisticated cast-in corrosion protection liners (CPL), such as those manufactured

by AKS Lining Systems, ef fectively prolong the lifespan of new pipes, bund areas and reser voirs, dramatically reducing the lifetime cost of water treatment infrastructure.

Groundbreaking advances AKS Lining Systems has taken the cast-in liner concept and per fected its

design through the development of Anchor Knob Sheet (AKSâ&#x201E;˘) technology.

The concept surpasses all concrete protection alternatives both in cost saving and per formance.

AKS CPL, manufactured from HDPE, was designed specifically for the conveyance of sewage and is supplied in wide sheets, tubes or rolls to suit the project requirements. In the case of concrete piping, the concrete pipe manufacturer integrates the tube with the concrete during the casting process. The unique anchors are embedded into the concrete, so that the tube forms an integral part throughout the length of pipe.

In this way, AKS CPL enhances the robust qualities of HDPE linings through the close matrix of anchors. These anchors permanently secure the sheeting to the structure.

In its element AKS CPL is unique in its design. A total of 1 230 anchors per square metre ensure the lining is locked firmly into the concrete structure. Supplied in thicknesses from 1.65 mm up to 10 mm, the liner is used in a diverse range of chemically aggressive applications such as mining, water treatment and sewage conveyance.

Once anchored firmly into the structure, AKS CPL offers a chemically inert, flexible skin. The liner offers high abrasion resistance, is acid-proof and offers long life expectancy in the harshest environments.

Its superior crack-bridging ability allows for movement in the concrete structure, without delamination.

AKS outperforms The use of HDPE AKS CPL in conventional concrete pipes enables these pipes to be used in applications where only GRP, PVC or solid wall HDPE pipes would have been considered previously.

An AKS-lined concrete pipe of fers numerous benefits: chemical resistance to nearly all aggressive environments; no limit to the size or diameter of the pipe; the smooth HDPE internal sur face offers far higher friction values for additional carr ying capacity; high abrasion resistance ensures minimal damage or wear and tear; and the overall cost of large-diameter AKS-lined pipe is greatly reduced compared to alternatives.

Rapid availability AKS CPL is manufactured at AKS Lining Systemsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; large production plant in Brackenfell, Cape Town. A yard with ample storage provides the shor test possible lead times to customers.

For fur ther information, visit aks.co.za, email info@aks.co.za or call +27 (0)21 983 2700.

Concrete pipes lined with green AKS CPL ready to be installed

IMIESA June 2020

49

CEMENT & CONCRETE

Mastering the art of plastering Proper surface preparation plays an important role in successful plastering. Bryan Perrie, managing director, The Concrete Institute, provides advice on how to prepare a wide variety of surfaces to achieve optimum results.

W

hen carr ying out new plastering work, sur face preparation should start with the accurate setting out and construction of walls and soffits. This provides a surface that can be plastered to the required lines and levels by applying a coat (or coats) of uniform thickness. Excessively thick plaster, or plaster of uneven thickness, should not be relied on to hide inaccurate work.

“Where zones of the substrate surface deviate from the required plane or curved surface by more than about 10 mm, first try to remove high areas by hacking or cutting,” Perrie explains. “If not possible, apply undercoats to low areas in such a way that the final coat has uniform thickness.”

Characteristics Strength For new work, masonry units that are strong enough to survive handling and transport should be strong enough to hold plaster.

Similarly, in situ concrete should have ample strength.

The Concrete Institute is regularly asked to provide advice on plastering procedure – an aspect of construction with much potential for failure

Roughness Background surfaces should ideally be at least as rough as coarse sandpaper or rough sawn timber. Surface roughness can be achieved by: • using formwork with a rough surface – e.g. sawn timber, for substrate concrete • stripping formwork early and wire brushing concrete • hacking • abrasive blasting (e.g. sand blasting) • raking out mortar joints in masonry substrates to provide a key – a depth of about 10 mm is normally adequate.

Bryan Perrie, managing director, TCI

CEMENT & CONCRETE When it comes to acceptable plaster adhesion, the rougher the surface to be plastered, the better

Excessively thick plaster, or plaster of uneven thickness, should not be relied on to hide inaccurate work Spatterdash Roughness can also be achieved by applying a spatterdash layer. Spatterdash is a mixture of one part cement (preferably CEM I or CEM IIA) to 1.5 parts coarse sand, with enough water for a sluggishly pourable consistence. A polymer emulsion should be substituted for part of the mixing water (usually a quarter to a third, but in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions). The mixture is flicked on to the substrate as an initial coating to provide a key on dense or smooth substrates with poor suction. The spatterdash should cover the substrate surface completely and form a rough texture with nodules about 5 mm high.

Spatterdash must not be allowed to dry out for at least three days; and if a polymer emulsion is included in the mix, then curing should be in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions. It should be tested for adhesion and strength by probing with a screwdriver or knife before plaster is applied.

Cleanliness Surfaces must be free of loose material such as dust and films that can interfere with bonding, such as curing compounds and form-release oil. Substrate surfaces may be cleaned by: • water jetting • blowing with compressed air • vacuum cleaning • brushing.

Solvents should not be used to remove films formed by curing compounds. Such films must be removed by mechanical means.

Absorption First, assess absorptiveness by throwing about a cupful of water against the surface. The surface will fall into one of three categories: I. No water is absorbed.

II. Some water is absorbed, but most runs off.

III. M ost of the water is absorbed.

Category I surfaces, which would include hard-burnt clay face bricks, glazed bricks and very dense high-strength concrete, should be prepared by applying a spatterdash coat that includes a polymer emulsion. Such surfaces must not be pre-wetted.

Category II surfaces should not require any treatment to control suction.

Category III surfaces should be wetted thoroughly for at least an hour and then allowed to become saturated surface-dry before the plaster is applied.

Preparation of various substrates Monolithic concrete Concrete is normally placed in situ but may be precast. Provide a rough surface by using rough-textured formwork, early stripping of formwork and wire brushing the concrete, hacking or abrasive blasting. If none of these is practicable, apply a spatterdash coat after ensuring that the surface is clean.

Ensure that no form-release oil is left on the surface to be plastered. Clean down by water jetting or vacuuming and remove any curing compound by mechanical means.

Conventional structural concrete should not require wetting to control suction but smooth, off-shutter, high-strength concrete surfaces will require the application of a spatterdash coat.

Concrete masonry The texture of the masonry units should be sufficiently rough without further treatment.

If not, apply a spatterdash coat and/or hack the surface. If the surface is dusty, clean by brushing, water jetting or vacuuming. It should not be necessary to control suction

of the surface by pre-wetting, unless the masonry units are very absorbent.

Burnt clay stock brickwork The texture of the bricks will probably be sufficiently rough without requiring further treatment. If not, apply a spatterdash coat, hack the surface, or attach the new plaster mechanically with expanded metal lathing. If the surface is dusty, clean by brushing, water jetting or vacuuming.

Burnt clay stock bricks normally have a very high suction: this can be assessed by wetting the wall as outlined in earlier reference to absorption. If suction is high, pre-wet the wall and allow it to become saturated surface-dry before applying the plaster.

Burnt clay face brickwork It is recommended that specialist advice be obtained for each specific case.

Poorly burnt soft clay brickwork This type of walling may be found in very old buildings, usually when restoration or repairs are being done. Care should be taken when removing the old plaster to prevent damaging the bricks. Protect the wall from rain or running water once the bricks are exposed.

Rake out the joints about 10 mm deep (the mortar is normally very soft.) Brush down the wall to remove any loosely adhering material, then lightly dampen the wall and apply a spatterdash coat that incorporates a polymer emulsion to improve adhesion.

From the above overview, it’s clear that perfecting the art of plaster requires skill and experience. Full details on how to deal with plastering are contained in the free TCI leaflet ‘Successful Plastering’, which can be download at www.theconcreteinstitute.org.za.

IMIESA June 2020

51

VEHICLES & EQUIPMENT

Optimising throughput and downstream quality Within the crushing and screening environment, lowering the cost per tonne is a critical factor, as is optimum machine selection and set-up, says Waylon Kukard, sales manager, Wirtgen South Africa. In this respect, the OEM’s Kleemann mobile, track-mounted line is designed to deliver, with best-in-class results. By Alastair Currie

C

hasing tonnages may be the end goal but getting there is a systematic process that needs to be tailored for each site, whether it’s a borrow pit, aggregate quarry, limestone operation or recycling plant. Variables such as site location (urban or rural), environmental management, geology, product quality, materials handling, and truck haulage all affect the bottom line.

ABOVE The Kleemann MCO 9 EVO has a feed capacity of up to 270 t/h.

Forming part of the Mobicone EVO line, the S-derivative comes equipped with a secondary screening unit with oversize return conveyor

Transportability is another consideration.

Contractors will tend to opt for full mobility when investing in mobile crushing and screening plants. These need to be easy to

Kleemann’s Mobicat MC 120 Z PRO jaw crusher forms part of the OEM’s Quarry line. The unit has a feed capacity of up to approximately 650 t/h

52

IMIESA June 2020

transport from site to site, enabling ease of deployment between sites and quick set-up times. Quarries, on the other hand, may prefer larger-production units that will spend the bulk of their lives on one site.

Older mines and quarries face the common challenge of growing haulage distances, as mining zones move further away from fixed process plants. The solution is to switch to mobile in-pit crushing and screening.

“Using in-pit units results in better truck fill factors by optimising the product material sizes hauled. (The waste material gets left behind.) Reducing payload weights also means that contractors and quarry operators can switch from mining trucks to commercial on-highway vehicles,” explains Kukard.

Kleemann has responded to varied needs by fielding the EVO line of cone, jaw and impact crushers aimed at contractors, and the Quarry line for more permanent

VEHICLES & EQUIPMENT

weight of approximately 39.5 tonnes. It’s a case of perfecting the machine and application match.

Impact crushers, radial conveyors

Kleemann primary and secondary crushers feeding a classifying screen

and higher-tonnage operations. Product lines are branded as Mobicat (jaw crushers), Mobirex (impact crushers), and Mobicone (cone crushers). Alongside this is the Mobiscreen (two or three deck) range and the Mobibelt series of radial stacker conveyors.

Benchmarking efficiencies “Competition for tender awards has placed downward pressure on margins, making cash flow management an even greater consideration,” says Kukard. “Technology is increasingly a deciding factor in machine purchases and it’s not just based on price alone.”

The process of benchmarking efficiencies starts with a Kleemann Ag Flow analysis.

Prospective customers are asked four simple questions, namely: What is the product being crushed? What is the feed size (e.g. -400 mm, -600 mm, etc.)? What is the final product size required? How many tonnes per hour are required?

“We then input this data into a computer simulation model to spec the correctly sized machines and best crushing and screening train configuration. This provides an excellent indication of what the customer can expect,” Kukard explains.

“Once the machines have been delivered and commissioned, we then carr y out in-depth customer training, which includes emphasising the need to establish level working platforms. Getting something simple wrong, like placing a machine at a negative angle, can significantly impact production and accelerate wear and tear.”

R&D breakthroughs, proven fuel savings Kleemann’s research and development team has achieved numerous technological

milestones. Prime examples are significant fuel efficiency gains, plus the way power is delivered. Quarry and EVO line machines are equipped with diesel electric drives – a key differentiator, since most competitor OEMs employ diesel hydraulic drives.

All machines come standard with dust suppression systems.

Kleemann EVO line units are equipped with their own onboard generators. The crushing unit gets its power directly from the diesel engine. The rest of the ancillary equipment, like the conveyors, is driven electrically. That passes on major fuel consumption savings on an hourly basis, without compromising full power and production output.

On Kleemann jaw and cone crushers, average diesel consumption ranges between 18 to 20, and 22 to 24 litres per hour, respectively. As Kukard points out, it’s rare to find a competitor mobile cone crusher that can run at under 40 litres per hour.

“With a Kleemann EVO crushing and screening train in operation, combined fuel savings can result in a consumption rate of under 60 litres an hour for the whole setup,” says Kukard.

Full electric power The Kleemann Quarry line provides the option of switching over to run 100% on electric power. In this instance, the diesel engine is purely used to tram and position the machine. Mobile plants then become even more cost-effective when compared to conventional stationary plants.

In terms of output, the flagship Mobicat Quarry-Line MC 160 PRR has a maximum feed capacity of around 1 200 t/h and the machine weighs approximately 400 tonnes.

This compares to the flagship Mobicat EVO unit, the MC 110 Z, which has an output of some 330 t/h and an operating

Kleemann Mobirex impact crushers are designed to meet the exacting grain shapes and grain size distribution and cleanness required by the readymix and road aggregate markets. Feed capacities of up to 700 t/h are possible on the MR 170 Z Quarry-Line.

Meanwhile, the EVO-Line is a mainstream choice for the contractor market, with the first MR 110 Z EVO 2 unit (feed capacity up to 350 t/h) recently launched in South Africa.

The ‘2’ stands for ‘Second Generation’ and the unit in South Africa is the 250th model to come out of the factory.

“Another development we’re particularly excited about is Kleemann’s Mobibelt radial stacking conveyor series,” says Kukard.

“These units, currently stacking to a height of around 9 m, provide tremendous flexibility when it comes to stockpiling material.”

Crushing and screening trains working at full capacity create substantial volumes of material, which need to be constantly cleared with wheel loaders. On many sites, the same wheel loader is also used to load the screen and remove the accumulating stockpile, which impacts on productivity.

Adding one or more 180-degree radial stackers reduces the number of wheel loaders needed on-site at any one time.

Powered by a small diesel engine, Mobibelts are also a low-cost option.

On one site in South Africa, the customer was running three loaders continuously prior to acquiring a stacker conveyor. Due to the high hours attained, each loader needed to be serviced every 20 days. Now only one loader is required per shift.

Progress through innovation continues to position the Wirtgen Group as a market leader locally and worldwide. Within the Kleemann stable, the South African machine population (cones, jaws and screens) now exceeds 50 units and continues to grow.

“Oppor tunities for building and construction were subdued prior to Covid19, but we remain optimistic that the industry will rebound as major infrastructure investments start to mobilise. These include major Sanral projects,” adds Kukard.

“However, doing more with less will become the new normal over the medium term, as budgets are reduced and reprioritised. That makes putting the right technologies to work even more important,” Kukard concludes.

IMIESA June 2020

53

VEHICLES & EQUIPMENT

B

ell Equipment’s new Bell Care Package is designed to help customers maximise machine utilisation and lower operating costs in today’s uncertain and challenging environment.

“The Bell Care Package is a result of leveraging our global network and applying economies of scale to create a range of flexible ser vice packages, all attractively priced and focused

A WIRTGEN GROUP COMPANY

Care package unlocks customer benefits on the needs of our customers in Southern Africa,” says Meltus Badenhorst, general manager, Bell Equipment Group Technical Ser vices.

Available across the product range, the new offering replaces the OEM’s existing Bell Secure Ser vice Package and is hosted on the Bell Aftermarket Infohub platform.

“By incorporating a live calculator, our team can use the system to effortlessly run multiple scenarios for customers. The software is remarkably user-friendly; two sliding scales allow the customer to choose how many months of cover and the number of hours.

The system then automatically generates a quote at the touch of a button,” Badenhorst explains.

“Currently, we have our Starter Care level with four packages: basic, classic, premium and supreme. All these packages include LubeCheck oil analysis and ser vice kits, with the more advanced packages offering oils and lubricants and/or labour and travel costs,” he continues.

“However, customers need to watch this space, as we are working on phase two, which will further increase package flexibility by incorporating repairs on selected components. Based on the specific package, this will cover the ser vice costs and take care of unplanned maintenance and repairs on a machine.”

Payment options

Innovative solutions for your success.

WIRTGEN supplies a complete range of mobile machines and high-quality services for all areas of road construction and opencast mining. www.wirtgen-group.com/southafrica WIRTGEN SOUTH AFRICA · 52 Maple Street · Pomona · Kempton Park 1619 T: +27 (0)11 452 1838 · sales.southafrica@wirtgen-group.com

Payment flexibility is a key feature. Customer options include upfront cash payments, bank financing, and monthly invoicing based on machine hours accumulated (ser vice by the hour).

The Bell Care Package is available with all new machine purchases and rentals, as well as for units that have already accumulated hours. The package will remain in place for the selected hours and/or period – whichever occurs first. Bell Care can also be topped up should the contract near its completion.

“We’re excited by the Bell Care Package; it shows our understanding of our customers’ needs and our commitment to help them succeed in their businesses,” adds Duncan Mashika, managing director, Bell Equipment Sales South Africa.

“This is a great addition to our aftermarket offering and we’re confident our customers will appreciate the flexibility and costsaving benefits it provides,” Mashika concludes.

VEHICLES & EQUIPMENT

A versatile workhorse

W

ithin the backhoe loader segment, Case Construction Equipment’s 580T unit presents a sound business case as an efficient multitasker, driven by a fuelefficient Tier 3 engine.

Boom, dipper and swing cylinders have standard hydraulic end-stroke cushioning

return-to-dig function ensure precise grading, optimal penetration and reduced effort in repetitive operations.

Additionally, the ‘ride control facility’ reduces loader arm bounce during travel on all surfaces, maintaining maximum material retention at higher speeds. The optional fourwheel drive and 100% locking differential fitted to the rear axle further improve mobility and performance when extra traction is essential.

In terms of stopping power, the braking system uses the The loader’s Powershift transmission, machine’s main hydraulic with a kick-down button, enhances oil reservoir, which means traction, even on tough terrain there is no requirement for a separate filler. Large-capacity fuel tanks ensure longer working hours for smooth operation, enhanced precision between refills, while – from a maintenance and extended component life. In turn, perspective – the 580T’s electronic service overlapping boom cylinders provide lower tool enables quick engine diagnostics for transport height and the narrow boom width reduced downtime. improves operator visibility. Multipurpose Site security features include an engine 6-in-1 and 4-in-1 loader buckets cope hood lock, anti-theft devices and a lockable efficiently with varied work requirements. battery box. The hydraulic tank is also The flat-bottomed bucket, float position fitted with a secure oil cap breather to on the control lever and an automatic prevent siphoning.

INDEX TO ADVERTISERS

AKS Lining Systems

48

IMESA

APE Pumps

27

KSB Pumps & Valves IFC

ARRB Systems

10

Macsteel

GeoAfrika Technologies 6

4, 56, IBC

Quality Filtration Systems

25

SMEC

43

Wirtgen

54

OBC

Power & Electricity 30

IMIESA June 2020

55

I M E S A A F F I L I AT E M E M B E R S

IMESA

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATES AECOM siphokuhle.dlamini@aecom.com AFI Consult banie@afri-infra.com Alake Consulting Engineers lunga@alakeconsulting.com ALULA (Pty) Ltd info@alulawater.co.za AQUADAM (Pty) Ltd sales@aquadam.co.za Asla Construction (Pty) Ltd johanv@asla.co.za Aurecon Fani.Xaba@aurecongroup.com Aveng Manufacturing Infraset werner.booyens@infraset.com Averda claude.marais@averda.com Bigen Africa Group Holdings otto.scharfetter@bigenafrica.com BMK Group brian@bmkgroup.co.za Bosch Munitech info@boschmunitech.co.za Bosch Projects (Pty) Ltd mail@boschprojects.co.za BVI Consulting Engineers marketing@bviho.co.za Civilconsult Consulting Engineers mail@civilconsult.co.za Corrosion Institute of Southern Africa secretary@corrosioninstitute.org.za Development Bank of SA divb@dbsa.org.za Dlamindlovu Consulting Engineers & Project Managers info@dlami-ndlovu.co.za DPI Plastics Farhana@dpiplastics.co.za EFG Engineers eric@efgeng.co.za Elster Kent Metering Mark.Shamley@Honeywell.com ERWAT mail@erwat.co.za GIBB marketing@gibb.co.za GIGSA secretary@gigsa.org GLS Consulting nicky@gls.co.za Gorman Rupp Cordeiro@gormanrupp.co.za Gudunkomo Investments & Consulting info@gudunkomo.co.za Hatch Africa (Pty) Ltd info@hatch.co.za Herrenknecht schiewe.helene@herrenknecht.de Huber Technology cs@hubersa.com Hydro-comp Enterprises info@edams.co.za I@Consulting info@iaconsulting.co.za INGEROP mravjee@ingerop.co.za Integrity Environment info@integrityafrica.co.za IQHINA Consulting Engineers & Project Managers info@iqhina.co.za iX engineers (Pty) Ltd hans.k@ixengineers.co.za JBFE Consulting (Pty) Ltd issie@jbfe.co.za JG Afrika DennyC@jgafrika.com KABE Consulting Engineers info@kabe.co.za Kago Consulting Engineers kagocon@kago.co.za Kantey & Templer (K&T) Consulting Engineers ccherry@ctokamteys.co.za Kitso Botlhale Consulting Engineers info@kitsobce.co.za Lektratek Water general@lwt.co.za Lithon Project Consultants (Pty) Ltd info@lithon.com Makhaotse Narasimulu & Associates mmakhaotse@mna-sa.co.za Malani Padayachee & Associates (Pty) Ltd admin@mpa.co.za M & C Consulting Engineers (Pty) Ltd info@mcconsulting.co.za Maragela Consulting Engineers admin@maragelaconsulting.co.za

Mariswe (Pty) Ltd neshniec@mariswe.com Martin & East gbyron@martin-east.co.za Mhiduve adminpotch@mhiduve.co.za Mogoba Maphuthi & Associates (Pty) Ltd admin@mmaholdings.co.za Moedi Wa Batho Consulting Engineers (Pty) Ltd info@wabatho.co.za Much Asphalt bennie.greyling@muchasphalt.com Mvubu Consulting & Project Managers miranda@mvubu.net NAKO ILISO lyn.adams@nakogroup.com Nyeleti Consulting merasmus@nyeleti.co.za Odour Engineering Systems mathewc@oes.co.za Ribicon Consulting Group (Pty) Ltd info@ribicon.co.za francisg@rhdv.com Royal HaskoningDHV SABITA info@sabita.co.za SAFRIPOL mberry@safripol.com SALGA info@salga.org.za SAPPMA admin@sappma.co.za / willem@sappma.co.za SARF administrator@sarf.org.za.co.za SBS Water Systems mava@sbstanks.co.za Sembcorp Siza Water info-sizawater@sembcorp.com Sigodi Marah Martin Management Support lansanam@sigodimarah.co.za SiVEST SA garths@sivest.co.za Sizabantu Piping Systems (Pty) Ltd gregl@sizabantupipingsystems.com SKYV Consulting Engineers (Pty) Ltd kamesh@skyv.co.za SMEC capetown@smec.com Sobek Engineering gen@sobek.co.za Southern African Society for Trenchless Technology director@sasst.org.za spc@vinci-construction.com Southern Pipeline Contractors (Pty) Ltd SRK Consulting jomar@srk.co.za Star Of Life Emergency Trading CC admin@staroflife.co.za Syntell julia@syntell.co.za TECROVEER (Pty) Ltd info@tecroveer.co.za TPA Consulting roger@tpa.co.za Ulozolo Engineers CC admin@ulozolo.co.za V3 Consulting Engineers (Pty) Ltd info@v3consulting.co.za south-africa@vetasi.com Vetasi VIP Consulting Engineers esme@vipconsulting.co.za VUKA Africa Consulting Engineers info@vukaafrica.co.za Water Institute of Southern Africa wisa@wisa.org.za Wam Technology CC support@wamsys.co.za Water Solutions Southern Africa ecoetzer@wssa.co.za Wilo South Africa marketingsa@wilo.co.za WRP ronniem@wrp.co.za WRNA washy@wrnyabeze.com WSP Group Africa ansia.meyer@wsp.com

Watch this space for future announcements!

IMPORTANT NOTICE: Due to the global Covid-19 pandemic, this year's 84th IMESA Conference has been postponed by the organisers until October 2021.

Watch this space for future announcements!

CONFERENCE ENDORSED BY

t: +27 (031)266 3263 e: conference@imesa.org.za marketing@imesa.org.za www.imesa.org.za

IMESA ORGANISER

THE INSTITUTE OF MUNICIPAL ENGINEERING OF SOUTHERNÂ AFRICA (IMESA) TEL: 031 266 3263 DEBBIE OR MELANIE

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