Page 70 - SAICE book proof 2 LATEST JULY 2014

s a i c e
KWAZULU-NATAL PROVINCE

this area, but for the purpose of Travels with Civils the ◊ Richards Bay, its harbour and industries
bare minimum has been mentioned. The reader is how-
ever encouraged to look at other publications to find
the full story.

This town is based on a British new town layout concept
and was a fishing village a mere 40 years ago with 60
residents and today the home of some of South Africa’s
biggest industries and about 44 000 residents within
the greater city boundaries. Around 1965 it was decid-
ed that South Africa has a surplus of “cheap” electricity,
owing to vast coal fields and a series of power stations
that fed into the national grid. The situation changed
dramatically over the past 40 years due to various fac-
tors, but at the time it was decided to create a new
town at Richards Bay and to construct a new harbour
and a series of world-class industries.

Major environmental studies were conducted by the
Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) 28°46’50.62” S, 32°02’17.83” E
and others and the first awakenings of substantial en-
vironmental awareness in South Africa were possibly
born during this period. The Mhlathuze River estuary 20. Nsezi Bridge or viaduct between Empangeni
which bears witness to a time when the sea was about and Richards Bay is one of the longest road bridges
60 m lower than it is today in the previous major ice or viaducts in South Africa. The river itself is rather
age about 200 000 years ago, provided a logical place small, the deep clay and silt valley on both sides made
to build the new harbour. There were however serious it difficult to build a simple embankment since previous
challenges since the old valley was filled with very fine experiences in this area showed that road embankments
silt and mud and it was only feasible to build berths on tend to slowly settle into the soft mud. It was decided
the cretaceous foundations on the valley edges. The en- therefore to build piers to carry the bridge sections.
vironmental studies also dictated that the river mouth Another interesting bridge in this area is the Bhizolo
had to be relocated and a massive berm was built to Bridge that carries the road to the coal terminal from
divert the river to the new artificial mouth in order to the town side. In this case, piles of up to 60 m deep to
keep silt out of the harbour basin. This berm currently reach the cretaceous layer had to be installed on which
accommodates the road, the coal terminal, the railway to situate the bridge pillars. The contractor did not have
lines as well as the services.
to drill holes or hammer in these piles, the sections
were merely lowered and penetrated the mud by their
First to be established was an aluminium smelter called own weight, until each new section was bolted to the
Alusaf Bayside and later Hillside smelters that import previous one.
bauxite from Australia, add electricity and export coal
“in the form of aluminium”. The harbour was built at 21. Dams and water pipelines in this province
the same time as the smelter. At a later stage the huge encompass substantial infrastructure to store and con-
operation by Richards Bay Minerals that separate heavy vey water in spite of the fact that the rainfall on its
minerals from sand dunes, the Mondi chemical pulp and tropical coasts can sometimes be in the form of tropical
paper mill, board mills as well as many other industries storms bringing along 200 mm in a day or two. The
followed. In terms of civil engineering structures and industrial and rapidly growing residential needs of this
services many records were broken and many unique province can therefore be sustained by dams, extensive
challenges were overcome.
water networks and water conservation measures.
The coal terminal is the world’s largest and is designed The dams are very often also the source of water sports
to export 91 million tons per annum. Coal is trans- and even include tiger fishing in the Pongolapoort Dam
ported along the dedicated Broodsnyersplaas terminal up north. At the Midmar Dam, near Pietermaritzburg,
about 500 km away, to the harbour where the wagons the world-famous Midmar Mile is a swimming event of
on 743 trains are unloaded by rotating them without note that attracts about 13 000 participants per an-
uncoupling.
num. Once more civil engineering structures such as

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