Page 67 - SAICE book proof 2 LATEST JULY 2014

s a i c e
KWAZULU-NATAL PROVINCE

only builds the facilities but also gladly consumes the ◊ Below: Beer brewing by South African Breweries
product – or at least said to do so. Water supply and ◊ Below centre: Natal Portland
especially wastewater treatment ranks tops in such a ◊ Bottom: Pier in Durban area
facility. At the Prospecton plant the figures mentioned
are mind boggling, like the production of 120 000
hectolitres per week and the construction of 40 tanks
each holding 3 000 hectolitres each. The transport
of maize in and the dispatch of the product obviously
necessitated special attention.

29°59’39.51” S, 30°55’38.13” E

15. Piers and groins in the Durban area were
obviously intended to provide stability for stormwater
outlets from the city to the sea, and in the old days
even for the purpose of disposing of treated sewage
effluent. For the tourist however, these structures be-
came popular places to visit and to stroll along almost
into the ocean as it were. Fishermen also use these
facilities from which to catch that big one and last but
not least surfers sometimes use the piers as an easy
way to jump off behind the breakers. Whatever civil
engineering intended, people tend to use structures like
these for popular recreation places. In some cases, the
movement of sand along the beaches is also controlled
by these structures which in some ways became ameni-
ties.

16. Cement is an all important ingredient for
making concrete and as such is crucial for South
Africa which relies heavily on concrete structures and
concrete products in the absence of natural timber
and in competition with steel. There are a number of
cement producers in the country and in the case of the
KZN province the Natal Portland cement factory near
the beautiful Oribi Gorge is situated in a region that
is topographically challenging. Civils had to bridge a
number of rivers and punch tunnels in mountains to
build the dedicated railway line to transport this grey-
gold dust to the markets. For the public in general
cement has very little to tell, but for construction it can
make or break a project.

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