NEWSWORTHY
MBA NORTH BESTOWS HONORARY LIFE MEMBERSHIP ON FLOORING DOYEN
Neil Duncan , a respected leader in the South African flooring and building industry , has been awarded Honorary Life Membership by Master Builders Association ( MBA ) North . Duncan , currently Director and formerly Chief Financial Officer of KBAC Flooring , is among the pioneers of training in the flooring sector , having successfully implemented an internal training programme at KBAC Flooring – an initiative which has already resulted in 30 KBAC flooring installers acquiring SAQA / CETAaccredited qualifications . He has also been instrumental in the establishment of the Flooring Industry Training Association ( FITA ) which registers , accredits and provides training of flooring installers nationally , and serves as one of FITA ’ s directors . Apart from his involvement in the flooring industry , Duncan has also played voluntary and key roles in the building industry overall over the past 44 years . A qualified Chartered Accountant , he has , for example , served as Trustee and Principal Officer of the Gauteng Building Industry Pension and Provident Fund , Honorary Treasurer of MBA North , Executive Committee Member of MBA North , and President of MBA North in 2006 and 2007 .
Neil Duncan ( right ), director of KBAC Flooring , receives the Honorary Life Membership bestowed on him by MBA North from the Association ’ s president , Jason Wilmot .
GEOSYNTHETIC SOLUTION FOR ROAD CONSTRUCTION
Fibertex geosynthetic solutions for road construction and maintenance includes Fibertex AM-2 , a flexible needle punched pre-compressed nonwoven fabric , with added thermal bonding on one side . This product , which is highly durable and resistant to all natural soil alkalis and acids , is used to avoid reflective cracking of new asphalt and to protect subsoil from water intrusion and thereby loss of bearing capacity .
“ The purpose of this pre-compressed Polypropylene ( PP ) bitumen-saturated paving fabric , is to prevent the ingress of surface water into the selected layers of the road prism , reducing the bearing capacity of these layers ,” says Lionel Kistan , export sales manager , Fibertex South Africa – manufacturers of geosynthetic products . “ This membrane also act as a Stress Absorbing Membrane Interlayer ( SAMI ) to prevent surface stress cracking by absorbing stresses imposed by differential loads . Fibertex AM-2 also prevents the propagation of stress cracks from lower surface layers ( older asphalt or chip seal layers ) in the case of a road re-seal .
“ Additionally , when using Fibertex F-grade geotextiles in a separation application below the layer works of the road prism , the road design can be altered to include less of the costly imported engineered fill . This reduces the thickness of the selected layers , resulting in a more cost effective design . Without the use of a separation fabric in weak subgrade conditions , intermixing of engineered aggregate into the weak subgrade could occur . As a result , the bearing capacity of the base course is reduced , which could lead to base course failure of the road .
“ Fibertex UV stabilised virgin PP geotextiles are the only nonwoven geotextiles produced in Africa with certification for durability of over 100 years , in accordance with the latest EN standards .”
By using virgin PP Fibertex AM-2 in road construction and maintenance projects , substantial infrastructural cost reductions are achieved .
Virgin PP geotextiles , with a high level of chemical stability under a wide range of environmental conditions , have advantages in installations where the cost of failure may be extreme , in both financial and environmental terms .
The Fibertex AM-2 system can be applied mechanically for large volume installations , as well as manually in cases where narrow width installations are required . Email : lmk @ fibertex . com | Web : www . fibertex . com
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