Celebrating Excellence and Innovation
Fulton Awards held every two years by the Concrete Society of Southern Africa recognises and rewards excellence and innovation in the use of concrete. The awards continue to celebrate the legacy of scientific and technological advances in the construction industry and Dr. Sandy Fulton’s life and achievements in the industry.
The 2013 awards featured six categories of entries; Civil Engineering Structure, Building Structure, Architectural Concrete, Community Structure and Innovative Construction. The awards are made symbolically to the structure and are presented to the entire team responsible for its construction, including the owner/developer, all professionals and the contractors.
The 2013 winners were announced at a special gala dinner held in Drakensburg on the 8th.June 2013, attended by 400 guests. President of the Concrete Society, Professor Billy Boshoff from Stellenbosch University, commended each and every one of the entrants.
“The quality was exceptionally good”, he stated, “and it is once again an indication of the high standard of our local industry. We can really say that the innovation and excellence in these projects can be compared to any country in the world”.
The 2013 Commendations and Awards
Architectural Concrete category: Commendation went to SANRAL Head Office and the Podium at Menlyn, while 115, West Street, Sandton; Alexander Forbes was the winner.
Sustainable Concrete Category: Commendation went to Koeberg Interchange and Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project (GFIP)-Packages E and E2 and the De Hoop Dam, nr.Steelpoort, Limpopo was the winner.
Innovation Construction Category: Commendation went to Mahatma Ghandi Road Sewer Gravity Extension Tunnel, Durban and Ultra-Thin Continuously-Reinforced Concrete Pavement and Continuously-Reinforced Concrete Pavement-N12 Freeway, Gauteng, while the Podium at Menlyn was the winner.
Building Structure Category: Commendation went to 115 West Street, Sandton; Alexander Forbes and the SANRAL Head Office was the winner.
Civil Engineering Structure Category: Commendation went to Ultra-Thin Continuously-Reinforced Concrete Pavement and Continuously-Reinforced Concrete Pavement-N12 Freeway and the Chota Motala Interchange Bridge, KwaZulu-Natal and the winner award went to De Hoop Dam, nr. Steelpoort, Limpopo.
SANRAL Head Office: GBSCSA 4-Star Rated Building
The new Sanral Corporate Head Office is situated in Vale De Grace, Pretoria. The project design responds to the tree lined suburban setting and incorporates the values and operational model of the client. It uses the architecture to express in some way what they do; make and manage the roads and bridges that form the connecting network that make our country work.
Conceptualized as a ‘connector building’, the use of concrete pays reference to flowing roadways and spanning bridges, the essential outcomes of Sanral’s engineering endeavours and the concrete green roof helps to integrate the building in its suburban context.
Over and above the more conventional reason for using concrete (low maintenance and cost effective building solution), the use of a concrete structure and a concrete roof was that the visual and structural properties of concrete enable a reference to the flowing roads and spanning bridges that Sanral take such a pride in designing, constructing and maintaining.
In addition, the use of concrete roof presents an opportunity to make a green planted roof and take advantage of the thermal mass properties of the green roof system to optimize the energy requirements of the building.
Additional special features of the concrete structure entail the exposure of the concrete as a finish of the building, dematerialization of the whole concrete frame structure, reduced cement use in line with GBCSA criteria, recycled steel reinforcing in line with GBCSA criteria and contribution of concrete structure to the GBCSA 4 star office design rating.
115 West Street, Sandton: New Home for Alexander Forbes
The iconic building situated on 115 West Street, Sandton is the new home to Alexander Forbes head office. The project utilized concrete in structural, architectural and artistic ways.
The development is essentially an office building but includes a wide variety of staff facilities entailing a 200 seater auditorium, crèche, a gym, smoking rooms, prayer rooms (Muslim and Interdenominational), a beauty parlour, health studio, with physiotherapist, state-of-the-art AV meeting rooms, a multipurpose room, staff training rooms, a fully integrated caterers kitchen and canteen, coffee shop, bar, wine cellar and 6 parking levels.
The design warranted a flexible building hence the large floor plates, punctuated by two atria to maximise the natural daylight into the office spaces. The north-west orientation of the site also influenced the design with the powerful scallop elements to capture north and south light, while protecting the inhabitants from east and west light.
The development is also designed to create a park-like environment with the introduction of 6 metre high ficus Benjamina trees, sunken into the floor. In addition, a wide variety of natural materials were used, including bamboo veneer and wafer thin slate stone to clad the organic pods.
The development’s architectural design boast skylights made up of 12 giant like cones. They are 8.4 metres in diameter, floating above the atrium space like giant clouds, while the forms continue outside of the off-shutter concrete roof. Scallops clad in Rheinzink, were constructed from a concrete structure which generated the form, clad in a timber sub-structure with vertical standing seam.
The architectural features of the atrium entail the off-shutter concrete columns which are 8.5 metre high, raked and moulded in a single cast. In addition, specialised formwork that was generated in Rivet and structures, was exported in AutoCAD dwg format and given to the subcontractor for construction, while the sizes were specified by the engineer and then sculpted by the architects and it included two types, a Y-shaped branch supporting the cantilevered walkaway and one that simply supporting.
Ultra-Thin Continuously-Reinforced concrete Pavement and Continuously Concrete Pavement-N12 Gauteng.
Sanral constructs roads with a particular pavement design that comprises a number of pavement layers. The Surfacing of GFIP projects consists of crushed stone or concrete pavements with asphalt overlays. New to the GFIP is the use of a “proudly South African” product called ultra-thin continuously reinforced concrete pavement that was utilised on GFIP, N12 upgrade.
The product is a 50mm thick (relatively thin compared to the standard 150-220mm thick pavement), yet extremely strong, and needs little to no maintenance.
The project was commended for its innovative and unique approach to the design of and research into concrete designs for construction of the concrete pavements. The resultant ultra-thin concrete proved to be of high strength (90MPa +), with a reduced number of movement joints, less brittleness by using steel fibres and provided better spreading of load due to the mesh reinforcement.
The advantages of concrete paving include more flexibility than the conventional concrete, lower life cost for comparable design, does not rut, shove or pothole, reduced maintenance, very low maintenance costs, labour friendly, can reduce storm water reticulation needed and only uses simple and inexpensive equipment.
In addition, skills acquired are not limited to road construction but are transferrable to the wider building and construction industry.
De Hoop Dam: One of the largest Roller Compacted Dams in South Africa
The De Hoop dam is located on the Steelpoort River, in the Sekhukhune area, in Limpopo. The dam wall is approximately 1015m in length and 81m in maximum height.
At full supply level the reservoir will cover the surface area of approximately 1690 ha and capacity of 347.6 million m3. The dam was constructed from Roller Compacted Concrete (RCC) and conventional concrete.
The outlet works situated on the right bank between the spillway and the right bank non-overspill section was constructed of reinforced concrete.
The dam wall contains around 1.125-million m3 of concrete of which 90% consists of Roller Compacted Concrete (RCC). The downstream wall rises in 1.2-m-high steps with the upstream side being vertical.
The dam is truly a flagship project for the Department of Water Affairs and is set to address a significant part of the future water needs of the Limpopo province.
The projects demonstrating innovation and excellence made it difficult for the judges to select the winners amongst the many entries.
