Maboneng, which means ‘Place of Light’, is a privately developed urban neighbourhood to the east of Johannesburg CBD.
Propertuity Developers selected Greene Consulting Engineers (Pty) Ltd and, among others, Daffonchio and Associates Architects, Huff & Gooden Architects and Adjaye Associates Architects to develop existing rundown industrial buildings into a connected urban environment. This vibrant environment offer its cosmopolitan up-and-comers retail spaces, restaurants, entertainment venues, loft apartments, offices, a hotel, a school, a museum and creative factory spaces.
Craftmen’s Ship is located across from Revolution House on Main Street. The existing industrial sawtooth-roof warehouse will see the conversion into a collection of residential and retail spaces of various sizes. The residential units will be developed on a new concrete first floor in the existing warehouse, and indoor parking garages will be developed on the existing surface-bed on the ground floor.The residential units will also feature mezzanine levels. The development will have a central courtyard and garden area with a swimming pool and clubhouse, while the retail spaces will face outwards onto Main, Kruger and Marshall streets. A further three new concrete buildings, also housing retail and residential units, are planned for the site. Daffonchio and Associates are the architects on this project.
Adjaye Associates Architects are the designers of the Hallmark House renovations. This existing structure will be renovated and developed for mixed use, consisting of residential apartments, a hotel space and retail spaces. This project will serve as a focus point and a beacon for the upgrade of the area.During 2012, Kellogg Company endeavoured to expand their operations in India due to a steadily growing economy and higher than expected growth in the cereal industry. At that stage there was only one cereal production facility in India (in Mumbai). A suitable site for a second cereal production facility was identified on a property measuring 80 937 m². It is located 60 km north west of Chennai, in the Sri City Industrial Development area.
The scope of the project included the development of a green-field site, with the main production building measuring 312 m long and 40 m wide. The building was designed as a single-pitch pre-engineered steel building, allowing for future expansion to increase the floor space by nearly the same area. An administration building and various utilities buildings were also designed.
Greene Consulting Engineers (Pty) Ltd was appointed for the civil, structural and architectural (CSA) design, as well as for project co-ordination. This included separate appointments for the preliminary design and cost-estimate phase, detail design and procurement phase, and implementation phase.
The scope of the CSA work included the design of the bulk earthworks platform (cut and fill due to ± 8 m slope over the length of the site), design of the foundations for the main pre-engineered building, design of various reinforced concrete utility buildings, as well as all civil services (sewer, water, storm water, roads and parking).
The project consists of constructing a 75 MW solar facility and its associated infrastructure.
Windfall 59 Properties (Pty) Ltd (the owner) has been selected as a preferred bidder by the Department of Energy (DoE), pursuant to the Renewable Energy IPP Programme. Oakleaf Investment Holdings 86 (Pty) Ltd (the main contractor) appointed Aveng Engineering for the balance of plant works.
Aveng Engineering approached Greene Consulting Engineers (Pty) Ltd to assist with the civil and structural aspects of the project.
The latest percussion drilling technology allowed us to cater for various soil conditions that were encountered on site, varying from solid rock to collapsing sands.
Supporting posts were installed using fully robotic precision-GPS-enabled ramming machines. Due to small design tolerances, the ramming equipment had to be accurate within a few millimetres.
Preassembled inverter stations were placed on rammed supports. One inverter station was placed per ‘power block’ (39 in total)
The tracker units are easily assembled by hand. The process is labour-intensive, allowing local labour to acquire new skills.
As part of the quality assurance procedure, each foundation was inspected by our resident engineer prior to casting concrete.
Apart from conducting a variety of structural load tests, many visual inspections took place in order to ensure support posts were not damaged during the ramming process.
In order to feed electricity into the existing 132 kV ESKOM power line from the 75 MW solar facility, a tie-in was necessary from the newly built sub-station. A multitude of civil and structural work had to be completed in time to successfully connect to the ESKOM grid within a limited time due to the pre-arranged shut-down.
The original production facility of Kellogg Company of South Africa (Pty) Ltd in Springs (Gauteng) dated back to the 1950s and had been expanded numerous times to sustain and maintain production and new equipment requirements. Available floor space in the original facility was limited and did not provide for any further operational expansions. The need arose to upgrade the facility in line with current international production facility design standards and to increase the floor space to accommodate future expansions.
Due to Kellogg’s continued commitment to development in Africa, through investment in its production infrastructure to satisfy the growing need for quality nutritional products, Project Impilo Entsha was born. To satisfy the need for an upgraded production facility within the financial restrictions, a bold venture was undertaken to construct a new structure that incorporated the existing facility whilst production continued. The old building was demolished and removed from within the new ‘shell’. The new building footprint is sufficiently larger to accommodate future expansion.
This construction method was selected in order to minimise disruptions to production while delivering a major production infrastructure upgrade. Kellogg’s appointed Greene Consulting Engineers (Pty) Ltd for the engineering, procurement, and construction management (EPCM) for the entire project. Special care had to be taken during construction, as major structural steel members of up to 23 m long had to be lifted and installed over an operational factory.
The building is 191 m long and 67 m wide at its widest portion, with heights of 9 m (eaves), 14.4 m (apex) and 17.2 m (monitor). Cellular beams were used due to the long unsupported spans required, with the longest single span being 23 m. The total weight of the structural steel for the building is 770 tonnes.
This project was nominated for the Southern African Institute of Steel Construction’s (SAISC) Steel Awards in 2011.
The EPCM services included the following:
A tower crane on tracks was utilised for the erection of the main part of the building, since adequate access was not available from both sides.
Erection of monitor in progress. The monitor was designed to house a walkway spanning the entire length of the building. This could be used for maintenance of fire louvres and various other services.
A portion of the building complete with roof sheeting, insulated sandwich panel ceiling, sprinkler reticulation and lighting. The ceiling was installed on the bottom flange of the rafters to minimise surface area for dust collection and to create the ‘clean room’ effect.
Fire ventilation louvres and ducting penetration through the monitor wall. Horizontal penetration instead of roof penetration reduced the risk of leaks – a major food-safety risk.
Relocation of some utilities and storage silos. To allow for the construction of the new building, these were relocated from next to the original building to a separate building.
The PGBI Group was contracted by Canelands Trust to carry out a study in the Mkwasine Sugar Cane Estate in Zimbabwe. PGBI, in turn, appointed Greene Consulting Engineers (Pty) Ltd to assist with the study.
The potential supply of additional water to the Mkwasine Estate environs, through raising the Manjirenji and Siya dams and the construction of Mkwasine and Mukazi dams, was investigated. The potential 2011 USD costs involved were also examined.
Sources of water in the area have previously been investigated by the Ministry of Water Development. Canelands Trust endeavoured to make a first broad evaluation of the economics, routing and phasing of possible supply routes, as well as the method for delivering the water stored in the dams to land areas under consideration for the growing of sugar cane.
Greene Consulting Engineers (Pty) Ltd was appointed by Continental Coal Pty to study the existing storm-water management strategy, and to upgrade and/or maintain the existing storm-water systems at the Delta Plant near Ermelo. Upon completion of the studies, Greene was appointed to supervise the design and construction of the following infrastructure:
In October 2006, PGBI Group was commissioned to prepare a Class II cost estimate for the expansion of Tongaat Hulett Sugar’s Xinavane Sugar Mill, situated on the banks of the Incomati River, approximately 136 km north west of Maputo in Mozambique. The expansion aimed to increase the capacity of the mill from 150 tcph to 380 tcph. The project was approved in December 2006 and PGBI was appointed on an EPCM basis to undertake the factory expansion programme over a period of 30 months.
PGBI appointed Greene Consulting Engineers Pty (Ltd) for the project management of the civil- and structural engineering portion of the work. Greene was also appointed for the civil- and structural engineering design and the construction monitoring services of the expansion project. This expansion of the Xinavane Sugar Mill was successfully completed in 2009.
The scope included project management of the civil and structural steel portion of the project, including a full time resident engineer, and the following designs:
Kenmare Resources plc appointed Aveng Engineering to detail design, construct and commission the expansion of the Moma Titanium Minerals Mine on the north-eastern coast of Mozambique. The Moma Mine contains deposits of heavy minerals, which include the titanium minerals ilmenite and rutile, as well as the zirconium silicate mineral, zircon. Aveng Engineering appointed Greene Consulting Engineers (Pty) Ltd for the design of the floating plant superstructure, as well as the bulk earthworks associated with the dry dock (construction stage) of the floating plant. Greene was also responsible for the construction monitoring of the project.
We designed the superstructure of the floating process plant, which is seven storeys high with a plan area as large as a rugby field. The total mass of the empty plant is approximately 5 500 tonnes and the maximum design mass of the plant was calculated as 10 500 tonnes.
The steel superstructure consists of a spiral building, crane building, the vibrating-screen supporting structure, the mooring towers and pipe bridges. The plant was built on 15 steel pontoons (designed by Triton Naval Architects), connected by 8m high steel trusses called strong-backs. The pontoons and strong-backs ensure that the operating plant stays afloat in a large man-made pond.
Strongback trusses. These trusses are the backbone structure of the floating plant, providing stiffness to the plant. These trusses were used to transfer the loads from the superstructures down to the pontoons.
The vibrating-screen supporting structure is 11 m high, and is supported directly by the pontoons. The dynamic loads from two vibrating screens acting at this height had to be accounted for in the design. The natural frequencies and displacement amplitudes had to be evaluated to satisfy design criteria.
A pre-cast shaft system was developed for the mining industry as a result of the limitations to pile in overburden deeper than 30 m. A benefit of this pre-cast shaft system is that the overburden can be removed to a point where the raised-bore foundations can be piled.
The backfill is constructed to natural ground level in stages using these unique pre-cast shaft panels.
By using this method, 70 m of unstable overburden will not pose any problems to up-cast vent shafts or similar projects.
Greene Consulting Engineers (Pty) Ltd developed this new pre-cast shaft system in conjunction with Multikon. The first pre-cast systems to be constructed were three shafts at Bokoni Platinum Mine. The diameters of the shafts were 4.5 m, 4.8 m and 6.3 m respectively. With the rock level in the order of 50 m below natural ground level, it was especially beneficial to be able to remove 30 m of unstable overburden and to compact it back against the pre-cast shaft.
Isa Carstens Academy is planning a new campus in the East of Pretoria, Gauteng. The developers (Atterbury Trust and Monceros) approached PKA International Architects, in collaboration with Greene Consulting Engineers (Pty) Ltd, to develop conceptual designs for the new development. Due to site layout restrictions, special attention is required by all consultants in the conceptual development in order to reach a feasible solution.
ISA Carstens Academy is expected to be the main tenant making use of the development. The academy will require lecture halls and hostels to service their needs. The large lecture halls and site layout restrictions require innovative building layouts in order to reach an economic structural layout.
Produce innovative structural conceptual designs to accommodate the architectural layout, as well as deliver a cost effective solution: