Civil Engineering December 2021 | Vol 29 No 11

28 December 2021 Civil Engineering F ibre optic infrastructure is required for reliable and highspeed data transmission and telecommunica- tion connection. This, in turn, is critical for the development, operation and support of business, education, medical support, police and all other government functions. A PROJECT OF SIGNIFICANCE The National Long Distance 5&6 Fibre Project is the longest single fibre infrastructure backbone project in South Africa, covering the entire east coast of South Africa between Durban and Cape Town. This route is of significant importance to the national fibre network as it not only provides hundreds of towns and cities along the route with reliable and much increased fibre capacity, but also plays a significant purpose in providing government, business and all South Africans with a technology enabled platform to support the Fourth Industrial Revolution. It further provides network security by offering redundancy to a large geographic area of the country. Liquid Intelligent Technologies SA (LIT SA) embarked on the challenging task of installing approximately 1 700 km of fibre optic infrastructure along the N2, within SANRAL’s road reserve, and various towns along the route. They ap- pointed Light Fibre Infrastructure (LFI) as the EPC contractor for this mammoth task and construction commenced in October 2017. Mariswe was involved in the project from the commencement of the planning stages in 2017 and was appointed for statutory control services as required by SANRAL. The single biggest challenge of the project was the topographical spread of the works. This had a huge impact on all aspects of the project. The project was located over several provinces, through numerous local authorities, along several regional infrastructure owners and through various communities. A project of this nature with rigorous timelines can only be successful if it is planned and resourced correctly from the very early stages. To avoid delays it was imperative that all the construction wayleaves were in place when required for construction and that all further approvals were handled as quickly and efficiently as possible. Changes to the wayleaves due to construction difficulties also had to be handled on a day-to-day basis. Mariswe had a dedicated engi- neering team to deal with these issues. The project is considered a major accomplishment as numerous installation techniques, methods and construction details were utilised to get this vital ser- vice installed efficiently and correctly. LFI was supported by 46 subcontrac- tors and 191 SMMEs that were involved throughout the project. Connecting communities Increased broadband connection has shown worldwide to impact positively on economic growth and social upliftment. In response to the growing demand for broadband services in South Africa, LIT SA’s network will connect major com- mercial centres, rural and underserviced areas along the route, enabling more people across the country to access broadband services. The project is considered a huge suc- cess and may be one of the last major fibre rollout projects in South Africa.  SANRAL SA I CE 2021 Nat i onal Awards Category: Techn i cal Excellence FINALIST Technical Excellence category (Sponsored by Maccaferri SA) KEY PLAYERS Client: Liquid Intelligent Technologies SA Consultant: Mariswe Contractor: Light Fibre Infrastructure Design engineers: PHB Engineers & VWT Consulting National Long Distance 5&6 Fibre Project 1 700 km of fibre optic infrastructure was installed between Durban and Cape Town Numerous installation techniques and construction methods were utilised