Altona Village is a residential housing development situated on a 350-hectare site adjoining the Golden Valley Casino in Worcester just North of the N1 Highway. Once completed, the entire development will boast 2000country homes, including townhouses and group housing.

Altona Development (PTY)Ltd is the Developer on the project, and the very first phase of the project was to construct the boundary walls in 2019, which was done by a Building Contractor.

The second phase was the construction of civil works for 126 erven, as well as the entrance roads and services. The value of this work amounted to R20.182m, and the construction period was 30 weeks, commencing in July 2020. This phase included Bulk earthworks, 12 000m² of roadworks and some 16 500m of underground pipework. It also included the electrical services to each erf, although the Electrical appointment was done directly by the Employer. Landscaped detention ponds together with connecting canals was also constructed during this phase.

During this phase, the Gate House and Admin offices was also completed by the Building Contractor.

The project was completed on time and within budget. This phase was awarded following an invited tender process.

The following phase of this project was negotiated with the Employer, and commenced in January 2022, to the value of R16.9m, over a period of 20 weeks. This section of work comprised 3 additional phases (3, 4 & 5), servicing 126 erven. This work included 81 500 m² of site clearance, 9500 m² of roadwork and 10.1km of underground services.

An additional amount of work was included in the phase of the project. Utilising an existing dam higher up on the hill, a syphon system was designed and installed to continuously feed the development with running water for the landscaping and detention ponds. The value of this work amounted to a further R2.5m.

This section of the project was again completed on time and within budget.

The Consulting Engineer is Andre Burger Consulting Engineers from Worcester, on all the phases.

This contract was awarded, following a successful tender process, to complete roads and surfacing on the Estate. The underground services had previously been installed by a different Contractor. The Employer was BUH-REIN Property Developers, owned by Multi Spectrum Properties (PTY) Ltd, a large South African Developer.  The Consultant was Robert Leslie Consulting Engineers and the value of the project amounted to R5.147m, with a project duration of 20 weeks.

What was really challenging on this project, was the fact that the underground services had to be located and exposed, and in some cases repaired, before we could commence with the final road works.  The site was also very congested as the Building Contractor was busy with the finishing of the buildings.  Access was very limited, and we had to accommodate the builder on a continuous basis. The water table in the area was also very high, which caused some challenges in relocation of services.

We installed 8800m² of interlocking paving and the project was completed on time.

This project required the rehabilitation of the existing dam wall in the Jackal River, situated close to the Houwhoek Hotel.  The existing weir had been badly damaged and washed away in a major flood a few years earlier.  The original weir was built in the ‘60’s.

The Contract was awarded by FRUITWAYS FARMING, and amounted to R1.132m, with a project period of 8 weeks. The Consultant on the project was KLS Consulting Engineers.

As a result of the existing weir being situated in the River, we had to divert the River to allow for construction of the Sluice Structure, including the demolition of the existing wall.  The breached sections had to be blocked off with reinforced concrete walls, after which we imported structural fill, capped by a concrete overflow slab.  This was all done while the river was flowing via the Sluice Structure, through the existing pipe that had been installed in the original contract.

The Mountain Crest Development, situated near Klein Parys Development in Paarl, is a residential property development consisting of 105 erven. The site is close to the Berg River and has easy access to the N1 Highway. The final housing product consists of 158m2 single residential houses, within a security estate.

The Employer was Minprop Property(PTY)Ltd, and the Consulting Engineers was ZUTARI(PTY)Ltd from Paarl. The tender process was by invitation, and following a robust period of negotiation, DP2 was appointed to the value of R19 141 163.04. This value excluded the cost of Electrical installation, which was arranged directly by the Employer, but DP2 was responsible for the management of the Electrical works to align with the master program. This process was seamless, and the project was handed to the Client on time within the 22week Construction period.

An interesting process was required to consolidate the previously ploughed farmland, being a Rapid Impact Compaction method. The ground was recompacted to a depth of 1.5m deep with a specialist Contractor. The area that was compacted was 23 740m² and was successfully done by RIC Africa within the allotted 20days.

The project consisted of site clearance of 3.7ha, including the removal of more than 300 pine trees and 2.2ha of fruit orchard. In addition to these works, the bulk earthworks amounted to 16 000m3. Underground services amounted to 7 820m, and the roadwork totalled 9500m2, which was all paved with 70mm exposed aggregate interlockers. An external bulk 250mm dia HDPE watermain was also installed for the municipal network to provide sufficient potable water to the site.

Through clever process engineering, we managed to save the client a substantial sum on the contract which also assisted in achieving the really tight programme schedule, and the quality of the work met the client’s high standards.

This contract was completed within Budget and the building of the houses has progressed very well.