First of its kind in Cape Town - The Civil Engineering Contractor , 01/10/2008
The City of Cape Town is developing the first integrated waste-management facility in South Africa; comprising a refuse transfer station, a compaction hall, container-handling operations, garden refuse-chipping facilities, materials recovery facility, workshop, wash bay, diesel storage, domestic recycling centre and a public drop-off, security building, entrance building and weighbridges, among others, with provision for a future “resource park" and accommodation for future "alternative technologies" .
Jeffares & Green, in joint venture with GJA Consulting Engineers, has been appointed to undertake the civil, mechanical and electrical design and implementation of the proposed Oostenberg Refuse Transfer Station (ORTS) and Materials Recovery Facility (MRF).
The site is located in Kraaifontein, in the Cape metropole, just off the N1 and covers approximately 15 ha with the ORTS portion of the site covering approximately 3,5 ha and the balance reserved for the envisaged facilities.
The layout of the facility has been planned for a containerised bimodal transport system (road and/or rail) although, initially, the transfer of containers will be done by road only. The rail infrastructure will be provided at a later date.
The design capacity allows for a 100 t/day MRF (or 200 t/day for a double eight-hour working shift) and a 1 000 t/day refuse-transfer station. It is not expected that these volumes will arrive at ORTS from the outset as a host of factors came into play, such as the extent to which the City of Cape Town can manage. the waste collections (routing/ beats vehicles, private contracts and minimisation strategies) in a way that takes advantage of this facility.
Tariffs and by-laws will also need to be examined and amended to promote the diversion of recyclable wastes.
The City of Cape Town solid-waste department will be the owner of the facility and it is envisaged the function of the ORTS and secondary facilities (workshop, wash bay, diesel tank, office block, control room/entrance building as well as security) will be operated by the City of Cape Town while the MRF and drop-off will be operated by a private contractor.
Over and above the extensive engineering input into the design of this facility, the design team is spending time on green engineering opportunities for this development, such as:
- rainwater harvesting (due to the extensive roof area although rain is received in winter);
- supplementary supply of water harvesting by borehole or use of clean stormwater runoff from the site and/or from the existing municipal stormwater pond across the road;
- low-energy lighting;
- solar energy;
- water-wise, indigenous greening of the surrounding area;
- specially-designed oil traps;
- site-specific litter traps and silt traps (a design that will be used by City of Cape Town for research); and
- maximising opportunities that afford natural ventilation and lighting.
The project, which is expected to cost R160-million, is in the detailed design phase; preparing for tender stage.
The team is aiming to be out to tender in August 2008 to get contractors on site in order to have
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