Civil engineering and construction work on State-owned power producer Eskom's R70-billion Medupi power station, in Lephalale, in the Limpopo province, is expected to start before the end of the year, an Eskom spokesperson says.

Medupi power station is South Africa’s first new greenfield coal-fired power station in more than two decades and will have a capacity of between 4 200 MW and 4 500 MW by the time its last unit is commissioned in January 2015.

The Medupi units, which are scheduled for commissioning at nine-monthly intervals, will form part of the utility's integrated strategic electricity plan.

Eskom called for submissions of interest from construction companies, to carry out civil engineering and construction work, late last month, and expects the successful bidder to move on site from December 2007.

The work is expected to continue work for the next three years or so.

Eskom spokesperson Moses Mamba said that the civil engineering and construction work scheduled to start at the end of the year would include the construction of various roads, drains, foundations, column supports, floor slabs and basements, including a utility spine and connectors beneath the auxiliary bay and the boiler house and turbine hall.

Following receipt of an environmental record of decision from the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism (Deat), and the granting of a licence from the National Energy Regulator of South Africa, in May, Eskom subsequently announced that its in-house civil-engineering unit Roshcon would move on to the property to begin site preparation.

Mamba said that terracing work was currently under way to pave the way for the site.

Eskom plans to commission the first units in 2011.

It was originally scheduled to be operational in September 2010, but has been delayed by up to nine months, as a result of environmental challenges.

Declining to divulge the value of the contract, Mamba said that Eskom was currently evaluating the proposals, and therefore, could not disclose the contract value at this stage.

Engineering News has reported previously that indications were that the project’s total value might swell to beyond R80-billion, should Eskom be required to install stringent air-quality systems, but this decision would be made following air-quality monitoring and a public process led by Deat.

Mamba added that Eskom had had a good response to the local advertisement in its first week of issue, however, the company still expected further responses “once the advertisement hit international publications”.

The closing date for expressions of interest for the civil engineering and construction works was June 15.