December 2013
CONSTRUCTION WORLD
36
Building Contractors
A
2
T
he Paragon Architects designed building is meant to simulate
the look of a jewellery box, supported by three conical struc-
tures that commence from the ground floor podium level and
protrude through the roof area slab.
The building comprises three basement levels, with the low-
est level incorporating two large concrete fire water tanks and a
de-watering tank. Basement 1 is a double volume warehouse for
the tenant with an upper storage area which also incorporates the
warehouse offices, staff ablutions and changing facilities as well as a
sectional domestic water tank.
Ground floor or the podium level was designed to be at the high-
way level with the main stairs giving it access from Corlett Drive on
the SouthWest side. It incorporates three pods that are surrounded by
landscaping and polished concrete walkways which encompass the
reception and waiting areas in Pod B, training rooms to ground and
upper ground in PodA, and a completely separate office area in Pod C.
The site sits on a granite formation which meant that the bulk
earthworks exposed a hard rock surface for the commencement of
our initial foundations for the two large fire tanks, de-watering tank,
lift pit and basement B3.
In addition, the existing high water table made it extremely dif-
ficult to maintain dry conditions for the drilling and dowling which
meant continuous pumping of water to be able to complete this work.
This A-Grade office building is ideally situated at the corner of
Corlett Drive and the M1 freeway and hence highly visible to many
people on a daily basis and the fact that it is also quite close to the
township of Alexandra meant that most of the labour was locally
sourced thus benefitting the local community. This labour, although
mostly unskilled, benefited from the tasks they were involvedwith by
their association with the Tiber skilled and artisan workforce.
A construction challenge arose with extensive amounts of
architectural off-shutter concrete required to achieve the design
and this stretched from the concrete aprons in Basement 1 to the
podium soffit slab, gable end walls as well as the extensive amount of
shaped polished walkways on ground floor and roof level, as well as
Corlett Drive
T
he Ellerines project for Chantilly Trading 95 consists of a new
distribution centre/warehouse, offices and utilities build-
ings, with high finishes in stature and aesthetics as well as
58 000 m
2
external hardstand.
The 50 000m
2
warehouse is capable of racking to 14mand consists
of a category 1 floor specification in terms of TR34.
In KwaZulu-Natal the ground conditions are usually soft rock,
however following testing it was discovered there were substantial
areas of rock, which hampered progress and required blasting. The
bulk earthworks saw some 300 000 m
3
of earth being moved.
The concrete columns were cast to 12m in a single lift and the top
2 m were cast second to control the high precision and accuracy for
the HD bolts. Due to the unforeseen delay of blasting, the structural
steel had to be erected in a very short timeframe and completed to
allow for the high tolerance floors to commence.
Once excavations were underway it was also found that there was
much underground water, which resulted in some of the construc-
tion vehicles sinking up to a metre into the mud/clay. Tomitigate this
situation 3 m deep cutoff drains were dug across the site so that the
water could flow away and work could proceed between the drains.
On occasion the mist in the early evenings decreased visibility to
such an extent that it was too risky to operate construction vehicles on
site, as well as en-route to the dump site as one had to travel through
a small community with children and animals.
The project was audited by the Master Builders Association in
March 2012 and a 5-star rating was obtained and further to that it
received a Highly Commended Award at the MBA Regional Safety
Awards 2012.
A teameffort enabled three sectional completions to be achieved
and the overall completion of work one month shorter than the
contract period.
The original contract period was nine months, the client had
planning approval delays. This reduced the contract period to eight
Ellerines Warehouse
Project information
• Name of project: Ellerines Warehouse
• Company entering: Stefanutti Stocks Building
KwaZulu-Natal
• Project start date: September 2011
• Project end date: May 2013
• Project team: Stefanutti Stocks Building KwaZulu-Natal
• Main contractor: Stefanutti Stocks Building
KwaZulu-Natal
• Architect: TC Designs
• Principal agent: Collins Properties
• Project manager: Collins Properties
• Quantity surveyor: MHS Consulting
• Consulting engineer: EDS
• Project value: R202-million
months. Stefanutti Stocks KZN agreed to accelerate. It managed to
achieve this target with success.
