By providing a highly effective and economical solution, Kaytech has recently created a major cost saving for a property developer. The site was the newly proposed Groblersdal Mall, the brainchild of Twin City Development, who realised how much the creation of a large retail space would benefit the Sekhukhune District of Limpopo.
The small farming town of Groblersdal is South Africa’s second largest irrigation settlement where the nearby Loskop Dam was used to create a man-
made floodplain for the cultivation of numerous crops including grapes.
The problem encountered by DG Consulting Engineers was inadequate compaction being achieved in the construction of two loading platforms for the mall. The cause was not only low bearing soils with high clay content, but the influenceof a nearby irrigation channel resulting in saturation of the soil.
When contacted by the engineer, Kaytech’s Danie Herbst specified the renowned bidim geotextile and the revolutionary TriAx geogrid, the combination of which would provide separation and subgrade stabilisation for the loading platform.
Bidim is a continuous filament, nonwoven, needlepunched geotextile manufactured from 100% recycled polyester. It is the needlepunching process that imparts several advantages including appreciable thickness, high porosity and importantly, a high drainage capacity both transverse and normal to the plane. Manufactured by Kaytech since 1978, bidim has become the leading geotextile throughout Africa.
Compared to bi-axial geogrids, the triangular geometry of TriAx provides near uniform radial stiffness through 360o making it a truly multi-directional product with near isotopic properties.
Manufactured from rigid polypropylene, the unique characteristics of TriAx allow for reduced aggregate layer thickness thereby not only reducing the quantity of aggregate required, but also the volume of material to be excavated. When combined with a suitable aggregate, TriAx produces a mechanically stabilised layer of unsurpassed performance.
In order to assist with a design proposal, Kaytech consulted with Tensar, the manufacturer of TriAx geogrids. This gave the engineer the comfort of testing the performance of the products in trial areas until the necessary compaction was generated.
The final solution specified bidim A2 and TriAx TX 160 with a fill layer of between 600mm and one metre, for the first platform. To date, Jodan Construction has installed 5 400m2 each of bidim A2 and TriAx TX 160with excellent compaction being achieved.
Kaytech has pioneered the use of a selected post-consumer PET recycle stream since the mid 1980’s. The use of recycle, when processed with an expert process, similar to that employed by Kaytech, offers a product that not only meets, but in some respects outperforms geotextiles produced from virgin textile grade polymer.
This is primarily due to the type of polymer derived from PET beverage bottles showing specific characteristics that are better suited to geotextile applications. The equivalent of over 15 000 recycled PET beverage bottles were used in the 5 400m2of bidim that was used in the Groblersdal Mall project.
It is envisaged that by completion of the mall, many more thousands of square metres of these high performance products will have been supplied. The alternative solution, involving the complete removal of dumprock for the construction of the platforms, would have resulted in exorbitant costs.
Once the 35 000m2 Groblersdal Mall is in operation, increasing property values and generating income and development, the small town of Groblersdal is certain to thrive.
For more information on Kaytech products and systems, visit www.kaytech.co.za
