Piling specialist Gauteng Piling reports that it has completed a R5-million contract for the construction of Southern Africa’s largest single-phase retail centre, Mall of Africa, in January.

The Mall of Africa, a 120 000 m2 Atterbury Property Developments project, is being built in the new Waterfall City, situated between Johannesburg and Pretoria. The mall is scheduled to start trading early 2016.

The mall’s structural and civil consulting engineers, Aurecon, entrusted Gauteng Piling with the design and installation of the concrete auger cast piles last year August. These will provide the structural support for the two-level shopping complex accommodating over 300 shops.

Gauteng Piling MD Hennie Bester says the company was privileged to have been awarded the contract.

Based on initial probing trials, it was anticipated that a total of 217 auger piles would be required, says Bester. However, based on the initial probing holes, the rock content of the soil was higher than expected and the rock also varied in both depth and strength, a factor which exacerbated the situation, notes Bester.

The soil conditions proved far more challenging than expected, therefore, the project doubled in size, he says.

“The soft rock is extremely abrasive and calls for frequent hardfacing and maximum maintenance to toughen the drilling components. These drilling challenges meant that Gauteng Piling had to rent two additional, bigger rigs to augment our own fleet for this contract,” Bester notes.

The required depth of the piling varies between 5 m to 10 m.

Gauteng Piling employed four of its own drilling rigs and a probing tractor for the contract, which was on schedule, despite exceptional fast-track requirements and internal labour incidents prior to the start of drilling, says Bester.

Gauteng Piling also handled the drilling for the initial geotechnical tests for Mall of Africa, which was conducted by geological consultants Crossman Pape & Associates.

Other work

A long-standing member of Master Builders Association North, Fourways-based Gauteng Piling’s other recent contracts, include the piling for the Fire & Ice Hotel, in Pretoria, The Grove Shopping Centre, in Pretoria, and the Bon Accord Police Station, in Pretoria. The company also handled the piling requirements for Chinese State-owned automotive manufacturing company FAW auto dealership, in Croydon, Ekurhuleni.

Gauteng Piling has attained 135% broad- based black economic-empowerment recognition and Bester adds it is strongly committed to the future development of emerging contractors in all facets of the building industry.