{"id":8695,"date":"2024-05-16T11:06:00","date_gmt":"2024-05-16T09:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.coralynne.co.za\/blog\/?p=8695"},"modified":"2024-05-23T11:41:22","modified_gmt":"2024-05-23T09:41:22","slug":"concor-moves-into-highly-technical-phases-at-msikaba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.coralynne.co.za\/blog\/concor-moves-into-highly-technical-phases-at-msikaba\/","title":{"rendered":"CONCOR MOVES INTO HIGHLY TECHNICAL PHASES AT MSIKABA"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The band is starting to play louder at the awe-inspiring Msikaba Bridge project, according to Concor\u2019s Laurence Savage, Project Director of this pioneering structure. The Msikaba Bridge forms part of the South African National Roads Agency Limited\u2019s (SANRAL) N2 Wild Coast project and is being constructed by the CME JV, a partnership between Concor and MECSA, both 100% black owned Grade 9CE South African construction companies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe last two years have been spent completing the four 21,000 t anchor blocks and progressing the elegant bridge pylons on each side of the gorge,\u201d explains Savage. \u201cWe are now entering some exciting but technically challenging phases.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The first of these is the post-stressing of the anchor blocks, to ensure the transfer of load exerted by the stay cables is well distributed through the blocks. Embedded 14 metres deep into each block, the post-stressing is profiled as a large \u2018U\u2019 shape to mobilise the dead mass of the anchor block being pulled up by the stay cable at the top.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He highlights that the post-stressing option is a modern and efficient strategy that reduces the need for reinforcement steel \u2013 which could have congested the blocks and made it difficult for the concrete to fill all the voids. The locally procured post tensioning strand cables at each of the 17 anchor points in each block are stressed up to around 500 t by a specialist company. The process is expected to take two to three weeks for each anchor point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe next major step will be installing pylon inserts into the pylon\u2019s structure as it rises above the 86 metre mark,\u201d he says. \u201cThere are 17 inserts for each pylon; these are steel rings weighing 8 to 10 t each, which are concreted into place one after the other until the pylon reaches a height of about 122 metres.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The pylon inserts are used as the anchors from which the cables run as back-stays to the anchor blocks, and as fore-stays to the bridge deck. However, Savage notes that not all the inserts have to be in place before the launching of the deck can begin. Careful planning will allow the deck launching \u2013 itself a highly technical task \u2013 to commence after the first five inserts are installed, which is likely to be in the second half of 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another demanding aspect of the bridge\u2019s latest phase will be the construction of the ladder deck. Being the first steel deck segment of the bridge, the ladder deck is to be cast in concrete into the foundation of the pylon and will be the largest continuous pour on site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe will cast 700 m3<\/sup> of concrete in a single pour, with a very strong 65 MPa mix,\u201d he says. \u201cThis will also demand a high density of reinforcement steel, weighing 160 t.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Construction at the iconic Msikaba Bridge in the Eastern Cape is moving up a gear, with challenging technical activities to be tackled this year. According to contractor Concor, these include post-tensioning the anchor blocks, installing pylon inserts and building the ladder deck.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8697,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8695","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-client-focus"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.coralynne.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8695","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.coralynne.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.coralynne.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.coralynne.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.coralynne.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8695"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.coralynne.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8695\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.coralynne.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.coralynne.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.coralynne.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.coralynne.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}