Company Announcement - Murray & Roberts Western Cape, a division of Murray & Roberts Construction, was named the overall winner in the Building Contractors category of Construction World’s Best Projects 2015 Awards for its work on Century City Square Project. Jerome Govender, executive chairman of Murray & Roberts Construction, has lauded the achievement of the team on the Century City Square Project. “Not only is this recognition important from an industry perspective, it also underpins the Murray & Roberts Construction focus on delivering excellence in terms of sustainable and cost effective construction methodologies and solutions as well as achieving great safety ratings,” he says.

This flagship development for the Rabie Property Group forms part of the burgeoning precinct on the N1, 10 km from the Cape Town CBD. Century City Square is pioneering a new 4 star mixed-use Green Building Council of South Africa rating, ensuring that sustainable green design principles are implemented where possible.

The fast track project comprises the construction of five separate buildings, each with complexities of design, being constructed on a super basement within a confined working area, and according to Dave Heron, managing director of Murray & Roberts Western Cape, requires innovative thinking in terms of risk management and operational logistics.

Project management, logistics and coordination are critical elements to the success of the project. Contractor, Murray & Roberts Western Cape established a single site office from which all work is coordinated and this has limited duplication of infrastructure, reducing costs for the client. The contractor selected a team with recent big project experience and depth of expertise to ensure delivery of the project programme. In addition, careful selection of sub-contractors and the splitting of some of the sub-contracts also assisted in mitigating risk.

Significantly, Murray & Roberts Western Cape received a Five Star Health & Safety rating on this project from the Western Cape Master Builders Association. In addition the project placed 1st in its category in the Western Cape Master Builders Association Regional Health and Safety Competition, and as a result the project has recently been audited in the Master Builders South Africa National Health and Safety competition. This underpins the consistently high performance ratings achieved in the client’s monthly HSE audits.

Significantly the site recently passed the 1 million man hours worked milestone without sustaining an LTI. The success achieved in the safety arena can be attributed to the development of a sound health and safety culture on the project with ownership taken by all levels and supported by a proactive health and safety team. This extends to contractors who are encouraged to meet the same best practice standards on site

Strict quality control protocols were established from the start on the project and a high level of proactive interaction from all parties has ensured that high standards are being maintained. Quality assurance programmes are in place and are underpinned by a quality control inspection regime.

As part of its ongoing intention to advance skills and training to a wider segment of the market, Murray & Roberts Western Cape committed to recruiting new matriculants who wanted to spend a year in industry to decide if construction would be a viable career option for them. This initiative, which is clearly underpinned by this knowledge sharing philosophy, is the ‘Go for Gold’ programme which has seen a number of learners spending time on notable Murray & Roberts projects such as the Century City Square Project.

“Winning this prestigious award is an accolade for the entire project team including the client, the consultants and the sub-contractors, who have worked tirelessly together with Murray & Roberts Western Cape in a proactive team approach from project commencement. The Murray & Roberts Western Cape teams on site, led by contract director Mark Fugard, have put in a tremendous effort to get the project to where it is today, and remain committed to ensuring that the various critical client completion dates are achieved between now and February 2016,” Heron says.