Civil Engineering October 2021 | Vol 29 No 9

4 October 2021 Civil Engineering On the cover R ecognised as one of the country’s leading pipeline contractors, M&D’s Pipelines Division has an impressive track record of delivering state-of-the-art water infrastructure to water utilities and municipalities. This includes Magalies Water Board for which M&D Construction Group has completed a number of projects. “Our performance on these contracts certainly acted in our favour when we ten- dered for the construction of the Moretele South Water Supply Bulk Pipeline. Magalies Water Board knew that M&D lives its core values of ‘being safe’, ‘doing it right’, ‘finding the best way’ and ‘doing what we say’. I am proud that we were again able to execute our work according to these high standards which are also very much in line with those of our client,” says Jacques de Coning, Contracts Manager of M&D. De Coning and his teammobilised to site in August 2018 to commence work on the Moretele project. By October 2021, 90% of the pipeline had been finalised and M&D was preparing to transfer the infrastructure to the client in November 2021. M&D is working alongside Pro-Plan Consulting Engineers, which was appointed to under- take the design of the pipeline and supervise the construction works. PROJECT OVERVIEW The project has entailed constructing a 30 km steel pipeline of 500 mm, 600 mm and 750 mm diameters from an existing pipeline at Steve Biko reservoir in the City of Tshwane, Gauteng, to current infra- structure at Carousel, Bosplaas, Mogogelo and far west villages in the Moretele Local Municipality. Along the way, it was also connected to various existing pipelines to strengthen water supply to areas. The pipeline traverses underground along the entire route. From Steve Biko reservoir, it travels along the N1 and later crosses the highway. It then traverses adjacent to the R101 before crossing the road as it makes its way towards Moretele Local Municipality. There are 55 air and scour valves along the route. The work scope also entailed the construction of 12 major concrete connec- tion chambers and three 700 kℓ surge tanks. PROJECT HIGHLIGHTS De Coning describes the project as fairly straight forward with very few technical challenges, given the Pipeline Division’s extensive experience in the field. One of the project highlights was crossing the Apies River using pipe- jacking methods. Considering difficult ground conditions, it was a three-month M&D ready to hand over state-of-the-art pipeline to Magalies Water Board Murray & Dickson Construction Group’s (M&D) Pipelines Division is nearing completion of the construction of the Moretele South Water Supply Bulk Pipeline. This critical infrastructure will strengthen bulk water supply to communities in Mogogelo in the North West province. The 3-LPE pipes used have undergone a three-layer coating process for improved performance The 30 km steel pipeline runs from the City of Tshwane in Gauteng to Moretele Local Municipality in the North West