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Phuthaditjhaba is located in the north-eastern
Free-State and is bounded by Kwazulu-Natal to the
south-east and Lesothu to the south-west. It has a
total estimated population of 450 000 and, combined
with Qwa Qwa, Harrismith and Kestrel, forms part of
the Maluti-a-Phofung municipality in the Thaba
mofutsanyana district council.
“The road that we constructed in the Qwa Qwa area is
10,3 km in length, of which 9,7 km includes stormwater
channels with road crossings,” says Ninham Shand’s
Rudi Beeslaar.
“The Phuthaditjhaba area was equally challenging, as
we constructed a 12,2 km road and the length of
stormwater channels with road crossings was a9,5 km in
total. We installed approximately 100m of stormwater
pipes with personnel access hatches and outlet
structures,” he explains, illustrating the scope of
the project.
The topography of the region ranges from steep
mountainous slopes with numerous valleys in the south,
to rolling hills in the north, while the existing
network of roads varies from tarred raods to two-wheel
tracks.
Interactive engineering design software called Civil
Designer was used to design the horizontal and
vertical road alignments. “The horizontal alignment
was governed by the town-planning layout of the area,
while the vertical alignment was designed to follow
the topographical features with some adjustments to
control stormwater run-off,” he says.
“In terms of stormwater analysis, concrete stormwater
side drains and road crossings were constructed while
stormwater pipes with personnel access hatches and
outlet structures were created when required,”
Beeslaar continues.
Landscape problems hampered the development of the Qwa
Qwa road, as the houses in the area were built with no
formal structure. This presented a great challenge for
the design of the road because it had to be woven
between existing homes and theam often had to work
with steep gradients.
According to Beeslaar, the Qwa Qwa ward councils
specify firm guidelines in maintaining standards and
acted as a medium between the community and the
developer during the project. The design was completed
in accordance with the design criteria as set out by
the Maluti-a-Phofung municipality and in accordance
with the guidelines for the provision of engineering
services and amenities in residential township
development manual.
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Rudi Beeslaar
Community reaction to the project was positive because
the undeveloped area was previously inaccessible,
making transportation impossible. “With the new road,
everyone’s life-style will improve because people will
have the benefit of using taxis, buses and vehicles
for transportation to various destinations,” explains
Beeslaar.
The team at Ninham Shand has supported the
government’s job creation initiative by ensuring that
tasks are as labour-intensive as possible. Besides
layerworks that are completed by machines, the rest of
the activities use manual labour.
The Qwa Qwa region is divided into various wards and
local workers are used within each ward so that the
community can obtain maximum benefit from the project.
In addition to this, material is sourced locally and
it is likely that the road paving will be received
from Lancaster, a factory in Qwa Qwa that is
responsible for the manufacture of bricks.
Stormwater pipes will also be sourced locally. The
project has been divided into two phases, with phase
one receiving a budget of R1,2-million for the
creation of 470m of paved road with stormwater
drainage. Phase two will start shortly and is expected
to receive a budget of R5-million for the completion
of the remaining 1,6 km stretch that will include
paving as well as stormwater systems. |
