Construction of a train factory in South Africa is underway,Gibela Company the firm behind the project has announced.
The company has signed a contract deal worth about US$ 4m to supply the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa with 600 new passenger trains. 20 of the trains will be imported from Brazil while the remaining 580 will be built at the Dunnottar site. Gibela is also to provide maintenance and engineering services at the facility, as well as training in railway- specific artisan skills.
The construction process of the train factory in South Africa has been divided into seven phases which are; plant rescue, site clearance, bulk earthworks and civil infrastructure, main site buildings, supplier park buildings, rail infrastructure, electrical reticulation and equipment, mechanical and cranes.
The first package of indigenous plant rescue operation was given to Trencon Construction, Gibela’s main contractor for site clearance, bulk earthworks and civil infrastructure. With assistance from Xihungaso Construction Services, Trencon Contractors recruited employees compromising mostly of disabled workers who have managed to safely remove over 10 000 native plant species from the site.
The indigenous plant species will be replanted on site once the construction is through. Trecon construction immediately started the site clearance and the bulk earthworks development of the civil infrastructure once the removal of the native plants was concluded. This included mass earthworks, fencing and hydrology.
The project is now on the second phase which is considered the most extensive in terms of work force and time. The tender to complete the second phase was awarded to both Trencon Construction and Black Jills Engineering.
With the foundation for the main site building finished, the construction teams have already began to set up the steel structures of the main site buildings.
In an interview the Gibela construction manager, Mr. Vernon Colbert said that although they are under very strenuous deadlines to accommodate the industrialized fit-out of the various workshops, they are still on schedule.
The work packages 5, 6 and 7 are yet to be awarded. The first manufacturing building is expected to be complete by March in the coming year, while the train production is expected to start in mid 2017.
Trencon Construction (Pty) Ltd services the commercial, industrial and residential markets of South Africa. Trencon has become one of the preferred contractors today because of its unique approach to doing business, its ability to deliver projects of high complexity on time and within budget while contributing to the social environment that it operates in.
