Engineering News

Khato Civils chose Rocla to partner with them on what will become a historical event in South African pipe jacking history when 370.00 cubes of rock material will have been manually hand excavated with a minimal grade on the entire length of 148,840 meters of jacked pipeline at a project in Hammanskraal, Extension Jubilee/Temba, due to be completed in October 2016.

Mornè Delport, Project Manager for Khato Civils said “This project, which commenced in May 2014, is to benefit the community of Kanana and Temba/Rockville and was initiated by Tshwane Department of Housing and Human Settlements. It was not without major challenges, which is why Rocla’s pipe jacking expertise was an essential component to the project. Their expertise coupled with the durability and quality of their product is what made Rocla a natural choice.”

“One of the major challenges with the installation of the 1473 ID sleeves was the manual excavation process, coupled with possible exposure to natural gasses such as methanol, and a restricted air supply due to an existing sewer system running parallel to the jacked pipeline to be installed. We installed additional air ventilation systems and gas monitoring equipment to ensure that all technicians and labour could be evacuated quickly in the event of gas leak detection. Additionally, a category 2 dam was located nearby making the monitoring of water pockets a crucial safety element” said Delport.

Rocla installed a HPDE lining on the inside of the 1473 ID jacking sleeves instead of the normal CIC lining, thereby extending the lifespan extensively beyond requirement.
Brendon van Vuuren from Rocla commented “This was an enormous project undertaken by Khato Civils and we were pleased to have been able to partner with them and put our expertise into practice. Huge challenges were successfully overcome and we supplied in total 150 meters of pipe jacking to this high value project.”

Pipe jacking is a technology where specifically made pipes are tunneled through the ground by hydraulic jacks thereby eliminating the need to dig up the road infrastructure. It offers greater transparency in terms of time and costs and is an environmentally friendly process.

Rocla is one of South Africa’s leading manufacturers of pre-cast concrete products for infrastructure projects. The company will manufacture to customer requirements in addition to offering standard pre-cast sizes.

Rocla is part of the IS Group of companies which also comprises Technicrete ISG and Ocon Brick.


Further information is available from: Guinevere Thomas, Group Marketing and Communications Manager, the IS Group Tel: 011 670 7733 Cell: 078 803 9863 email: Guinevere.Thomas@isgroup.com