Water, Sewage & Effluent March April 2019 | Page 12

Murray & Dickson (M&D)
Construction is on track to complete
the first phase of their Moretele South
Water pipeline project for Magalies Water
— the operations and maintenance of water
supply at Moretele Local Municipality.
Infrastructure project
to improve quality of life
By Tarren Bolton |
All photos by Tarren Bolton
Working closely with the municipalities,
M&D will bring efficient water service
delivery to the end consumer.
M
&D offers a wide range of
construction services such as
general building construction;
civil engineering construction;
pipe laying (in the water as well as oil and
gas industries); earthworks and road
construction; as well as construction
plant hire.
With the company CIDB grading
of 9CE PE, the pipe laying division is
able to tender on contracts for the
public sector, clients including mining
companies, water utility boards, fuel and
gas suppliers, municipalities and the
like. Water, Sewage & Effluent met with
the M&D team on site at their current
project: the Magalies Water project —
the construction of the Moretele South
Water Supply Scheme, consisting of
30km of bulk steel pipelines and cross-
connections to existing infrastructure
10
to augment water supply to towns in
the Moretele South region of the North
West Province.
“It’s a new pipeline and we are adding
to its capacity,” says Dirk Steyn, M&D
Construction site manager. “We have
started from an existing line, then will
bring it all along the N1, go underneath
the N1, up to the R101, underneath the
R101, through to Moretele. On the way,
we will tie into various existing pipelines
in order to increase the supply.”
Steyn says that the project started
in October 2018; M&D has estimated
approximately 18 months as the duration
of the project. “Four months into the
project, we have around 2km of pipe
in the ground,” says Steyn. “We are
running two heads — what we call the
fast head and the slow head. The fast
head runs parallel to the N1, in Kekana
Water Sewage & Effluent March/April 2019
at the moment. It’s a bit slower than we’d
like because there are obstacles such
as traffic and pedestrians to overcome.”
Steyn adds that the slow head is from
the N1, coming back to the R101, which
falls in the middle of an existing road.
“This means we have to work through
the road, with houses on both sides, as
well as existing water and sewerage
systems. Once we’ve crossed the
railway line and move towards the Apies
River, there are two wetlands, and the
project will progress faster from there.”
Excavation
Rowan Barnard, head of plant at M&D
Construction, explains that the size of
the trenches for the pipe diameter, and
the design metreage per day quota,
necessitates the use of excavators.
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