Name of the Project
Dunnottar train manufacturing complex project.

Location
Gauteng, South Africa.

Client
Gibela Rail Transport Consortium, comprising Alstom (61%), Ubumbano Rail (30%) and New Africa Rail (9%).

Project Description
The project involves the construction of a 60 000 m² factory at the Dunnottar industrial complex to manufacture trains for South African State-owned Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA). This forms part of a R51-billion contract to supply 600 state-of-the-art X’trapolis Mega commuter trains over ten years and provide technical support, as well as spare parts, over a 19-year period, for the rail agency.

The train manufacturing complex has a geographical footprint of 78 ha, comprising:

• the total built area of the factory of 51 ha, of which only 33 ha will be developed. The remaining land comprises an environmentally sensitive wetland, the preservation of which has necessitated the construction of a dam as part of the design and layout of the plant.
• 27 ha that have been reserved for the Ubumbano Rail Park, which will house suppliers of materials and components required for the new trains. The manufacturing contract has a minimum of 65% local-content stipulation.

The factory will produce 580 trains comprising 3 480 cars.

The plant will be equipped with several kilometres of rail network, including a 1.25 km dynamic test track for the testing of completed trains.

The first 20 trains were manufactured in Brazil, with the last of these arriving in South Africa in June 2017. The remaining 580 will be built at Dunnottar. At its peak, the manufacturing facility will produce 62 trains a year.

Potential Job Creation
The number of construction workers at the building site is currently around 1 000, with 78% of this number employed from the communities surrounding the Dunnottar plant.

Local small, medium-sized and microenterprises earned about R128-million from construction work on the plant in 2017.

Plant employees are currently number more than 460, with 363 involved in rolling stock manufacturing, and 99 in maintenance and service activities.

The number of employees inside the plant is expected to increase to 625 by the end of March.

Value
R1-billion.

Duration
The plant is expected to be completed early in 2018.

Latest Developments
Gibela has initiated manufacturing trials of the first locally made train car at the Gibela train factory.

The first train’s car-body shell – essentially, its panel-clad metal frame – is expected to be completed by the end of the first quarter of 2018, with the first completed six-car train to be delivered by the end of the year.

Gibela’s head office relocated from Woodmead to the plant in early January, moving management closer to the manufacturing site.

Construction of the Dunnottar plant should be completed by March 31, with the factory’s industrial content being readied and commissioned as construction work on the various buildings wraps up.

Construction of the Dunnottar plant is currently more than 80% complete.

Completion of the rail infrastructure, such as sidings, staging rails, and the test track, is targeted for completion by mid-February.

All cranes were in put in place in December.

All mechanical installations should be completed by the end of March.

Current “pressure points” include securing municipal power supply – 40 MVA – to the plant, which is only scheduled for April. Current supply – 5 MVA – is a temporary feed made available by the Ekurhuleni municipality, with the remainder supplied by a generator.

Another pressure point is the completion of the train-testing and commissioning building.

Inside the car-body shell building, 90% of the 65 spotwelding guns have been commissioned and validated.

The eight automated welding robots have also been installed.

Commissioning of the first cathedral – a structure where the trains’ subassemblies are ‘married’ – is scheduled for the middle of the year.
Gibela will have to build two train cars a day at the peak of production in 2019.

Key Contracts and Suppliers
Aecom (engineering, procurement and construction management contractor); Trencon Construction (site clearance, bulk earthworks and civil infrastructure) and Trencon Construction and Black Jills Engineering (main site buildings, including the training centre), Saflog Consulting Services (rail infrastructure).

On Budget and on Time?
Initial timelines have been negatively impacted on by various factors, including land and other permitting delays, which had a budgetary knock-on effect. Ameliorating the effect of these forms part of the ongoing project execution.

Contact Details for Project Information
Gibela communications director Pamella Radebe, email pamella.radebe@gibela-rail.com