Civil Engineering April 2021 | Vol 29 No 3

Civil Engineering April 2021 55 signals, and even damage the telescopes themselves. As a result, Concor has to set up their office in the town of Carnarvon, some 100 km from the site. Nearer the time of site establishment, a specialised RFI container will be established on site from which the team can communi- cate and operate certain electronic equip- ment. The container will be insulated to prevent any signal reaching the telescopes. Dealing with RFI means that every vehicle and item of equipment required on site will need to be tested and certified, explains Concor site agent Roy van Leeve. He notes that just about every model of construction vehicle built within the last decade is likely to include telematics, which presents a potential RFI risk in this project. The construction camp itself also needs to be located a suitable distance from the MeerKAT site to avoid RFI, and it is planned to be roughly 15 km away. ROADWORK For the roadwork, Concor will be operating in a geological environment of mainly sandstone and calcrete, overlying mudstone and shale, where 20 t hydraulic excavators will be put to work. “It is vital that the roads be well de- signed and constructed, especially in terms of their vertical and horizontal alignment. This will ensure that the low-beds and other heavy trucks delivering construction material and large componentry can navi- gate the route safely,” says Van Leeve. TELESCOPE FOUNDATIONS Concor will be using two methods, depending on conditions, for the radio telescopes’ concrete foundations. Where bedrock founding conditions are deeper than 3 m to 4 m, eight piles will be cast for each foundation’s 7 m diameter cap; most of the foundations will be done this way. In those cases where the bedrock is shallower, a pad foundation will be cast with an 11 m cap. The limited number of foundations has meant that Concor’s common practice of establishing its own on-site batch plant is not feasible. Instead, the concrete will be sourced commercially – presenting another logistical challenge. “We will require about 5 000 t of concrete aggregates, which will have to be delivered some distance in trucks with capacity of 34 t each. Added to this, the trucks will need to undergo RFI testing well in advance, so that they have the necessary RFI permit to enter the site and discharge their load,” explains Van Leeve. The same restrictions apply to all suppliers that must deliver to site. Where the testing and permitting of vehicles is not possible or viable, a certain amount of double-handling of equipment and materials is likely to be inevitable. Broadly speaking, however, Nell believes that Concor’s proven track record on constructing similar projects has positioned it well for the work at MeerKAT. The infrastructure aspects are quite similar to the eight wind farms that the company has constructed to date. Concor will also be making use of SMME suppliers from the local Kareeberg municipal area, which includes the towns of Carnarvon, Brandvlei, Williston, Loxton and Vanwyksvlei.  Real-Time Q/C Assessment of Drilled Shaft Verticality and Base Cleanliness SHAPE ™ for Shaft Verticality • Quickly and economically determine excavation radius, volume, and verticality • Data acquisition at a rate of approximately one scan per second • Quick connection with Kelly bar or top mount winch system SQUID for Base Cleanliness • Measures thickness of soft material or debris at various locations at the shaft bottom • Generates three independent force vs displacement penetrometer measurements • Provides real-time, quantitative assessments To learn more about SHAPE or SQUID systems, visit www.pile.com.