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The prison is currently one of 4 prisons being
constructed and is a joint venture between Copad
Engineers and Stabilis Development for the civil
engineering services. “I was fortunate enough to be
part of the design team on the assignment and
immediately acquired interactive infrastructure design
software Civil Designer to help us cope with the
project,” says Eddie.
In the joint venture, Copad Engineers has been tasked
with the bulk earthworks as well as the sewer and
storm water aspects, while the design itself was
handled by Stabilis Development and Copad Engineers in
a joint capacity. The state-of-the-art prison
comprises a series of linked, but separate, cell
blocks each housing 250 inmates. The centre has been
designed with a modern sickbay, a facility for social
workers, training facilities, two soccer fields, and
housing facilities for prison warders. “Due to the
project size, the municipality had to provide
additional water, as there was simply not enough to
meet requirements. A brand new 8km sewer line will
serve the prison, the adjacent mental hospital as well
as 3000 residential units,” explains Eddie. |
One of the design challenges on the project, was the
security fence was. It had a very specific slope
requirement and could not be more than 6% at any
point. “Clearing the site will entail removing some 60
000m3 of hard rock, with another 62 000m3 of red earth
needing to be excavated. We have also imported another
60 000m3 of material that will be mixed with our cut
material. The total earthworks require cutting, moving
and compacting approximately 170 000m3 of material and
there is a lot of shale and dolerite which makes the
site very interesting,” says Eddie.
The site, like so much of the terrain around
Kimberley, is flat, but the team was fortunate in that
the project location had a little koppie so services
like water, sewer and storm water could be
gravity-fed. The earthworks, estimated at a cost of
R27 million has since been completed for the new
prison. Construction is likely to commence as soon as
the Department of Correctional Services has decided on
the award of the construction contract. |
