The Civil Engineering Contractor September 2018 | Page 27

TECHNOLOGY
[robots] capacity to learn is only
rudimentary. Moreover, the layout
of construction sites changes daily,
and robots currently need to be
re-programmed/updated every
time there are changes to the layout,
to avoid collisions and so on.”
Baby steps in materials
GPS-connected technology and
drones are improving construction
techniques just as they are every
other industry from agriculture
to health care — but, especially
in building materials, not every
innovation is intrinsically high-tech
or disruptive. Animal skins apart,
the earliest building material was
the mud-brick, and 9 000 years later
we are still using the clay brick,
sand, and cement. Today, more
technologically advanced building
materials are being developed
though, without the same glamour
as digital developments. Over the
decades, there have been a number
of innovations that revolutionised
construction at the time, but are
today, by comparison, regarded as
baby steps.
Concrete itself is regarded as a
high-tech product, one that Johan
van Wyk, director of the Southern
Africa Ready-mix Association
(Sarma), says “has outgrown most of
us”. He adds, “Cement has evolved
to something that has different
grinding aids and admixtures, which
drive down the carbon footprint.
Its uses have also changed. That
admixtures aren’t used more often
for a more ‘green’ infrastructure, is
because unfortunately the level of
knowledge among the engineering
— and contractor — fraternity is
not at a level we need it to be. Our
role is to impart that knowledge,”
says Van Wyk.
Innovations among building
materials and their application are an
almost daily occurrence. Shotcrete
is a product which is even today
revolutionising the construction
of the underground component of
buildings, while 30 years ago a
similar innovation was Reinforced
Earth. Back then, its product was
considered an innovation that
literally transformed the world,
and was one of the great civil
engineering inventions — because
you won’t find cantilevered support
on a retaining wall above three or
four metres, which was previously
commonplace.
Reinforced Earth was first
introduced to South Africa in a
Civil Engineering Contractor article
dated May 1977: “Reinforced Earth
is based on a simple concept as
originally conceived by its inventor,
French architect and engineer Henri
Vidal: the interplacing of soil and
reinforcements develops friction at
the points of contact between the
two, resulting in a permanent and
predictable bond and creating a unique
composite construction material.”
Enhanced jobsite safety
Health and safety is one of the leading
drivers of innovation in infrastructure
construction. With already well-
established safety practices, and as
technology moves workers further
and further away from the most
dangerous tasks, construction
projects should get safer. Still, each
year workers die and sustain injuries
from preventable jobsite accidents
and it remains one of the biggest
cha llenges in construction.
Innovations in drilling, blasting,
and driverless trucks aim to reduce
fatalities. Another software-based
innovation on the horizon is the
2020 introduction of a level 9
collision management system,
called proximity detection systems
(PDS), on any construction site that
may fall under the Department of
Mineral Resources (DMR). Ettiene
Pretorius, business unit manager –
Electronic Safety Systems (ESS) at
Schauenburg, says this technology
is becoming a requirement by the
DMR, primarily to mines and
quarries, but many construction
sites fall under the same legislation
due to what they undertake
underground on site.
The introduction of level 9 collision
management introduces to a heavy
vehicle’s system a signal to a control
system or vehicle OEM to slow down
or stop the vehicle in close proximity
to danger. The challenge with such
an innovation, explains Pretorius, is
to have the buy-in of drivers, who
therefore need to be involved in
the design process. “’False positive’
alarms can undermine the entire
system, especially if it results in
the drivers not trusting the system.
“Unless they buy-in, mechanical
failures will be initially reported
as PDS-related breakdowns, which
could unfairly reflect badly on the
level implementation.”
Mapping
Dr Kevin Gast, principal engineer
and consultant for Thusanang Gast,
whose geosynthetics division is one
of the oldest and most experienced
in Africa, says: “Engineering and
construction is far more mechanised
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