First Integrated Waste Management Facility - ReSource , February 2009
The City of Cape Town is developing the first integrated waste management facility in South Africa.
The facility will comprise 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 with provision for a future ‘resource park’ and accommodation for future alternative technologies.
Jeffares & Green, in joint venture with GJA Consulting Engineers, have been appointed to undertake the civil, mechanical and electrical design as well as implementation of the proposed Oostenberg Refuse Transfer Station and Materials-Recovery Facility (ORTS). The site is located in Kraaifontein in the Cape Metropole, just off the N1 national road, and is approximately 15 ha with the ORTS portion of the site being approximately 3,5 ha and the balance reserved for the future facilities.
The layout of the facility has been planned for a containerised bimodal transport system – i.e. road/or rail – although, initially, containers will be transferred by road only. The rail infrastructure will be provided at a later date.
The design capacity currently allows for a 100 t/day MRF (or 200 t/day for a double eight-hour working shift) and a 1 000t/day refuse transfer station. It is not expected that these volumes will arrive at ORTS from the outset as a host of factors come into play, e.g. the extent to which the City of Cape Town can manage the waste collections – i.e. routing/beats, vehicles, private contracts and minimisation strategies – in such a way as to take advantage of this facility. Tariffs and bylaws will also need to be examined and amended to promote the diversion of recyclable wastes. The City of Cape Town’s solid waste department will be the owners of the facility and it is currently envisaged that the function of the RTS and secondary facilities – i.e. workshop, wash bay, diesel tank, office block, control room/entrance building, security – will be operated by City of Cape Town, while the MRF and drop-off will be operated by a private contractor.
Over and above the extensive engineering input to the design of this facility, the design team are spending time on ‘green engineering’ opportunities for this development, such as:
- rainwater harvesting, due to the extensive roof area, although rain in received in winter
- supplementary supply of water harvesting by borehole or usage of clean storm water run-off from the site and/or from the existing municipal storm water pond across the road
- low-energy lighting
- solar energy
- water-wise, indigenous greening of the area
- specially designed oil traps
- site-specific litter traps and silt traps, which is a design that will be used by City of Cape Town for research
- maximising natural ventilation opportunities
- maximising natural lighting opportunities.
Project Status
Currently, the estimated R160 million project is in the detailed design phase, preparing for the tender stage. The team aimed to be out to tender in August 2008, in order to get contractors on site and have the facility complete by early 2010.
Project team
Jeffares & Green and G Johardien & Associates in association with DPE Consulting Engineers, DV Cape and The Cook Lipschitz Partnership.
[Back]