The Best in Municipal Engineering
Publication: IMIESA
Issue: November/December 2018
The 2018 IMESA/CESA Excellence Awards recognised municipal infrastructure projects that demonstrated significant achievement through innovation, design or construction.
Presented at the 82nd IMESA Conference, the 2018 awards recognised outstanding achievements in municipal infrastructure, demonstrating the best of civil engineering as a science and how engineering enhances the lives of local communities. Awards were presented across three categories:
1. Engineering Excellence in Structures & Civils
2. Community Upliftment & Job Creation
3. Environment & Climate Change.
A total of 20 projects were entered this year. The following were recognised as the best in municipal infrastructure.
Category 1: Engineering Excellence in Structures & Civils
WINNER: Western Aqueduct Phase 2 – Inchanga to Hillcrest Comprising Contracts WS6190 and WS6191
Client: eThekwini Municipality
Consulting engineers: Western Aqueduct JV – Knight Piésold Consulting, Royal HaskoningDHV and Naidu Consulting
Conceived in the mid-1990s to address water shortages in the northern and western parts of Durban, the Western Aqueduct Bulk Water Conveyance Project eclipses all other water distribution systems within eThekwini Municipality, being the area’s single biggest project in terms of size, complexity and cost.
Phase 2 of the project consists of 56 km of steel pipeline ranging between DN 1 600 and DN 500. This phase runs from Inchanga to Ntuzuma and has been constructed under six different contracts. For the WS6190 and WS6191 contracts, advance work was required in road reserves and private properties to prepare the required working corridor. Road rehabilitation and reinstatement was also undertaken.
Innovation was required from both the consultants and contractors for this complex project. This included modified scour chambers that significantly reduced the drowning risk to maintenance workers while speeding up pipeline repairs, as well as the use of the historical Durban-to-Johannesburg railway line and the ‘Inchanga Choo Choo’ to move a large proportion of the pipes during construction, saving both time and costs, protecting the environment, creating employment, and The best in municipal engineering IMESA Awards upholding the heritage of the area. One of the immediate benefits of this pipeline was that its higher residual pressure is presently being used to supply water under gravity to Botha’s Hill Reservoir, effectively replacing a pumped supply that was originally commissioned in the 1970s.
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