cover story
A subsidiary of the international
LafargeGroup, the global leader
in building materials, Lafarge
South Africa has for some
time clearly demonstrated
the meaning behind
theGroup’s repositioned
branding and new logo
signatureof
‘Buildingbettercities’
that embod-
ies more housing in cities, more compact
cities, more durable cities, better connected
cities and more beautiful cities. Whether it is
for today’s cities or the rural towns that will
be tomorrow’s cities, or the infrastructure
that is needed for sustainable development,
Lafarge is committed to providing innovative
products and solutions to help create a better
living environment for all our people. Renew-
able energy is an exciting part of this picture.
Renewable energy projects are often in
remote locations but Lafarge South Africa
was well prepared with a fleet of mobile
batch plants to expand its concrete business.
The company could offer contractors rapid
establishment of a concrete supply on site
and the assurance of consistent concrete
quality with traffic congestion and long
haulage distances removed from the perfor-
mance equation. Combinedwith its technical
strength to offer customised and innovative
low carbon footprint extended concretes,
Lafarge is building an impressive track record.
Wind farm projects
Currently the Lafarge Readymix team has
deployed mobile concrete plants on site for
four wind farm projects. Construction of the
foundations for the Hopefield wind farm
near Saldanha in theWestern Cape started in
May 2013 and will require 18 000 m³ of
concrete. Foundation work for 67 wind tur-
bines at Cookhouse in the Eastern Cape be-
gan in July andwill use 30 000m³ of concrete.
Based on the success of the Hopefield
project mobilisation, Lafarge was awarded a
further twowind farmprojects, the first being
at Oyster Bay in the Eastern Cape, where the
company is supplying 18 000 m³ concrete
to construct the 33 wind turbine bases.
The other new award is to supply the ready-
mix concrete requirements for the SereWind
Farm, close to Koekenaap on theWest Coast,
which will consist of 44 wind turbines.
Success of the project batch
plants
Building on the success of its mobile project
batch plant, Lafarge South Africa has re-
cently expanded its project plant resources by
acquiringmini-project units.“We felt that we
could only supply a certain size project with
our existing equipment and opportunities in
a sector of the industry were being missed,”
commented Lafarge South Africa’s Dave
Miles, industrial & performance manager
readymix. The small concrete plants can be
installed and commissioned in two days and
are ideal for projects ranging in size from
2 000 to 10 000m³.The policy quickly proved
its worth, with the recent award of a project
in Mokopane (previously Potgieterus). “It is
exciting to be able to extend our service and
offerings to clients,”adds Miles.
Solar power in the Northern
Cape
Solar power projects are another commercial
success for Lafarge. “Since September last
year, we have been supplying concrete for
two solar power projects at Khi Solar Farm
near Upington and Kaxu Solar Farmnear Pof-
adder in the Northern Cape,”says Miles.“Each
onewill require around 30 000m³ of concrete
for the foundations and ancilliary electri-
cal installations. Servicing the sites, which
are in remote locations near the Namibian
border, is a challenging exercise but we had
the competitive advantage of being able to
deploy our mobile concrete batch plants.”
The Lafarge Lichtenburg Cement Works in
NorthWest Province is supplying the sitewith
the versatile lowheat of hydrationPowercrete
Plus 42,5R premium technical cement and
classified siliceous fly ash is coming from fly
ash supplier, Ash Resources.
The Lafarge Readymix team is supply-
ing its specialty Ultra Low Heat grade of
concrete, formulated with 55% siliceous fly
ash to help control heat of hydration in the
mass pours, for the solar array foundations.
The first base was cast in November 2012
and involved placing 4 500 m³ of concrete
in a single operation. Due to the large size of
the foundations, Ultra Low Heat concrete is
being used on these projects. The set of the
concrete has to be controlled carefully with
ambient temperatures varying from 45 °C in
summer to below freezing point in winter.
At the Khi Solar Farm site, a giant 235 m
high solar energy collection tower is being
constructed using 13 500 m³ of Lafarge Ultra
Slide concrete in a continuous slide.The slide
was started in the first week of May and is
anticipated to take about 90 days, with cast-
ing 24 hours a day.
Providing sustainable
solutions
“Our Readymix and Cement teams have
shown their ability to innovate and organise
resources quickly to operate in challenging
locations,”says Lafarge’s Country CEO,Thierry
Legrand.“They are providing customers with
optimal concrete solutions combined with a
unique supply service.”
●
Lafarge set up a mobile concrete batch plant to support the construction of the
bases for the Hopefield wind turbine towers.
Winds of
change
South Africa’s wind and solar
renewable energy programme
has moved into top gear.
Through visionary preparation
and innovative solutions, the
readymix and cement business
lines of Lafarge South Africa
are playing a key role.
Lafarge project plant established at the
Khi solar farm near Upington.
cover story
August 2013
CONSTRUCTION WORLD
26
