| The Koeberg interchange carrying more than 200 000 vehicles
per day had been operating below acceptable service levels for
many years prior to the award of the 2010 FIFA Soccer World
Cup. The time pressure to achieve the improvement to both the
N1 and the M5 freeways prior to the event required quick action
and innovative design from Group Five and its joint venture
partner, Power Construction. Alternative technical solutions
were proposed during tendering, which contributed to the
group securing the contract.
Ramp A was opened on schedule in time for the 2010 FIFA
Soccer World Cup and Ramp B was opened to traffic in June
2011, four months ahead of schedule.
The design challenges of threading two new intersecting
ramps, each approximately 700 metres long, at a third level
above the existing interchange, required the design of elements
such as piers and capping beams, to allow repetitive use of
formwork and the aesthetically pleasing precast u-beam
structures. This allowed maximum off-site production which
minimised the build programme and reduced traffic disruption.
The contract used the largest pre-cast beams to have ever
been constructed in South Africa.
The construction team had to overcome enormous challenges,
such as several buried and unrecorded services. This even
included a buried old naval oil pipeline still full of oil from
the second World War!
An entire riverbed had to be relocated during winter, which
required careful hydraulic control and innovative use of
labour-intensive gabion baskets.
This contract demonstrates the group’s ability
to construct technically complex infrastructure
upgrades in a working urban environment through
the use of specialist technologies. |
