News & Media

February 2009

CONCOR BUILDS RAIL LINE AND SHUNTING YARD FOR PORT OF NGQURA

Concor Roads & Earthworks reports good progress on its contract to construct 7 km of 20-ton-axle payload railway line from the container berth in the Port of Ngqura, 20 km northeast of the Port of Port Elizabeth. The line will link up with the Port Elizabeth main line and the contract includes a marshalling yard and a five-lane bridge over the Coega River. The ballast and railway line installation will be done under a separate contract by Lennings.

Originally scheduled for completion in January 2009 an increase in scope to allow a future manganese yard has meant that it will now only be completed in September 2009.

Construction works include for one million cubic metres of earthworks, of which 600 000 m3 of cut to fill is required to link the harbour’s container terminal to the marshalling yard. Other major construction works include the six-span, 140 metre long and 30 metre wide bridge over the Coega River.

Minimising environmental impact

Layer works for the railway line will be constructed using crushed material from Coega Kop. “Layer B is 450 mm, Layer A is 250 mm and the sub-ballast is 200 mm,” Barry Theron, contracts director, Concor Roads & Earthworks, says.

Excavated material from the original harbour construction, situated at the mouth of the Coega River in Algoa Bay, was stockpiled at the eastern reclamation area and is being used as fill as well as for the B layer. “This is being done to firstly reduce the cost of crushing and secondly, this strategy forms an integral part of Transnet and Concor’s joint commitment to our environmental policies whereby we have eliminated the need for new borrow pits in the region,” Theron says.

The A layer is a mix of material from the eastern reclamation area and crushed material from Transnet’s Coega Kop quarry, while the sub-ballast layer is Coega Kop material crushed to the applicable specifications.

There will be one lane from the shunting yard into the harbour and the shunting yard will be 1.5 km long and 80 metres wide with 11 lanes (excluding the future manganese yard).

“The pace at which construction of the railway line needs to be completed has necessitated the use of a recycler to place the layer works while compaction thereof is being done using new technology Vario rollers,” Theron says.

Marshalling yard

The construction of the marshalling yard encompasses all civil works including stormwater drainage, water and sewer reticulation, service ducts and internal roads. Layer works for the marshalling yard are similar to those of the railway line.

Added to the contract was the construction of a 200 metre long culvert below the marshalling yard to accommodate the 600 mm water-main feeding towards Colchester.

“This fast track project has necessitated accurate attention to detail, particularly in the scheduling of materials and work, and we are handing it over in phases to the rail sub-contractor. This will facilitate the placing of ballast and the laying of the rails in order to meet Transnet’s target to open the harbour, South Africa's 8th and latest commercial port development, by May next year,” Theron concludes.

Construction of the six-span, 140 metre long and 30 metre wide bridge over the Coega River..