News & Media
September 2008
CONCOR BUILDS NEW PG BISON UGIE PARTICLEBOARD FACILITY IN SUCCESSFUL JV
The new PG Bison particleboard factory infrastructure in Ugie in the North Eastern Cape was completed by a joint venture comprising Grinaker-LTA Civils, Concor Building and Trencon (with Grinaker-LTA as the lead partner).
“This was a Greenfields project which included the construction of a factory, which will produce 1000 m3/day particleboard to the market,” Geoffrey Thompson, contracts director Grinaker-LTA Civils says.
The bulk earthworks platform was completed prior to the JV commencing on the building aspect of the project.
The building portion of the contract comprises all the building bases for the machinery, the main warehouse, offices and other ancillary buildings. “In total, the building area was 120 000 m2 of which the main warehouse was the largest at 78 000 m2,” Paul Bester, Concor Building contracts director responsible for this project, says.
“We used 42 000 m3 of concrete with 3 650 loads of aggregate quarried locally and 8 720 t of bulk cement brought in on 290 truckloads. The bulk cement was supplemented by 11 520 pockets, used for the building work, which consumed almost 1 million bricks. In addition, we used 24 500 m2 of formwork, 3 600 t of galvanised steelwork and 1 650 t of rebar.” Footings and foundations required 43 000 m3 of excavations, with substantial blasting needed.
“The marriage between Grinaker-LTA Civils, Concor and Trencon was a good one with the natural synergies of the companies coming strongly into play,” Thompson says.
PG Bison is South Africa’s largest manufacturer and distributor of board and laminate products, supplying a significant portion of the domestic particle and medium density fibreboard markets. The R1.5-billion particleboard plant at Ugie is the first phase in establishing a forestry cluster in the province. The new plant will also apportion part of its production capability to a
35 000 m2/day melamine faced board facility.
The project started in May 2006 with the clear instruction that the client had to produce the first board in December 2007. “Through close cooperation between all the parties and the willingness of the contractors to ‘go the extra mile’ we achieved this feat and the first board was pressed on 12 December 2007, with the works completion being achieved at the end of August 2008,” Bester says. “The plant went into full production in February 2008.”
The project presented logistical challenges, with the bulk of materials being delivered to site using the national road system. “Much of the plant was carted in from Durban, East London and Johannesburg. For the civil engineering requirements alone, approximately 5 000 loads (from cement to reinforcing steel) was brought to site,” Bester says. “Except for the aggregate, which was quarried locally, all other supplies travelled long distances, in some cases 900 km or more. This necessitated extensive planning to make sure that the construction schedule remained on track.
“Extreme weather conditions also added a challenge to the project. We habitually had temperature variances of minus 11 to plus 40°C with a significant rainfall. It’s noteworthy that in spite of the impact this had on the number of hours worked, the JV still brought the project in on time,” Bester says.
At peak there were 1600 people on site. Accommodation for non-local personnel was provided in guest houses in the surrounding towns.
“As part of our social upliftment programme and the overall Concor Group strategy we made use of people from the local community on site wherever possible,” Bester concludes.
The new PG Bison particleboard factory infrastructure in Ugie.