Following a successful pilot project, the Gauteng Department of Infrastructure Development (GDID) will be developing its own policy on the use of drones as a monitoring tool during the construction of public projects facilitating site visits, troubleshooting and intervention, if required.

In view of the continued disconnect between the real-time activity at construction sites and the information reported to the department by officials, the use of drones to observe the progress of construction sites on a quarterly basis will be implemented in the near future.

Late last year, Engineering News reported the intention of the GDID to trial drones to accurately monitor on-site progress of its projects across Gauteng’s five development corridors.

The pilot kicked off in January with one drone to monitor the first consolidated pipeline of projects that had been rigorously tested by means of the newly developed project toolkit, the Project Readiness Matrix (PRM).

The pilot exceeded expectations, revealing a divergence between project manager’s report on project status and the real-life situation on the ground in several projects.

Infrastructure Development MEC Jacob Mamabolo says:

“We are introducing the use of drones to monitor and connect oversight on construction site performance [to Lutsinga] . . . as part of our tools in Lutsinga and part of our project management method.”

The GDID will be mulling all its options to permanently incorporate the technology into the PRM and link it to Lutsinga Infrastructure House, the department’s electronic monitoring hub and project nerve centre.

Despite the success of the “tool within a tool”, the Construction Site Management Toolkit, which controls the issues of standards, protocols, site management, logistics and materials, besides others, has become necessary to back up the data that is generated on site with visuals.

This has triggered a series of initiatives, including exploring the use of drones and image-based mobile applications, to ensure tighter on-site control and bring outside inefficiencies under control.

The first concept was to have service providers’ project managers submit photographic evidence of the progress at site using a mobile application linked to Lutsinga.

In a prior exclusive interview with Engineering News, GDID head of department Bethuel Netshiswinzhe said that the plan was to dispatch drones to check up on activities and to acquire visual surveys of the projects.

“Pictures tell a story,” he said.

In addition, the incorporation of drones into the project management method unlocks opportunities to introduce new technological skills and training, with a dedicated team managing the pilot and another expected to manage the drone integration.

This emerges as the GDID announces a multibillion-rand infrastructure project pipeline after two years of revamping the department’s back-office delivery processes to ensure the implementation and delivery of high-quality public infrastructure on time and within budget.

 

Last week, the GDID unveiled the first consolidated pipeline of projects that have been rigorously tested through the PRM, which tests a project’s fundamentals against the more than 160 non-negotiable steps that a public infrastructure development project takes from conception to completion.

This means that there is no room for excuses when it comes to delivering these infrastructure projects within the stipulated timeframe and budgets – and to the quality required – as they have been proven project ready.

The GDID has earmarked 340 projects, valued at R4.5-billion over the current medium-term expenditure framework, for staggered delivery over the next three years on behalf of the Gauteng provincial government.

The GDID is responsible for the development of public infrastructure for the Gauteng Education and Health departments, as well as the Roads and Transport; Social Development; Sports, Arts, Culture and Recreation; and Agriculture and Rural Development departments, which are aggregated under the acronym STARS.

“In fact, we are so confident that we have brought capacity into the GDID that projects will no longer go backwards and forwards, causing frustration for communities who urgently need these facilities to improve the quality of their lives,” Mamabolo says.

Classified and profiled into three categories – platinum, silver and coal – according to the various stages of development, the first series of projects, under the ‘platinum’ banner, comprises 63 projects, valued at R459-million, to be completed within the current 2018/19 financial year.

Under the ‘silver’ category of projects, 188 projects, with a 2018/19 financial year budget of R966-million, are planned for delivery in 2019/20, while another 89 projects are grouped under the ‘coal’ category, valued at R260-million and being prepared for delivery in 2020/21.

The total project pipeline is expected to grow beyond the nearly R2-billion budget in the 2018/19 financial year as the ‘silver’ and ‘coal’ projects receive more funding.

“The project pipeline will be used to prioritise projects which are ready for implementation for tracking and monitoring to improve project management processes, as well as to speed up delivery to Gauteng communities,” Mamabolo concludes.