The Granger Building, Cape Town
249 tonnes of reinforcing steel fixed for the biggest pour WBHO Cape has ever done.
249 tonnes, one pour: ready for concrete at The Granger
The Granger Building in Green Point, next to the stadium, was the biggest concrete pour WBHO Cape has ever done: 1,312 m³ in a single 13-hour pour, three planned pours consolidated into one.
WBHO cut the slab cycle from the usual 12 to 15 days to 11, and RMS Cape Town had to cut, bend, deliver and fix the full 249 tonnes inside that window: 24,451 bars in four to six layers across 2,160 m² of slab between 280 mm and 1,350 mm deep. RMS delivered. The team worked through both weekends, 9 days in total at about 29 tonnes a day, and the slab was ready for concrete on the morning of 14 September.
The challenge
A slab of this size and this programme leaves no room for steel that arrives late, in the wrong shape or in the wrong order. Final preparation ran through Sunday 13 September and the early hours of Monday, in wet weather, ahead of a 07:00 start.
What RMS did
RMS Cape Town cut and bent the reinforcement to the bending schedules at its Blackheath facility, delivered it in step with the fixing programme, and fixed it with a team of 104 steel fixers and 32 foremen under four RMS managers. When the programme looked out of reach, the branch drew on experience from across the RMS group to plan and resource the work. Production, delivery and fixing from one company gave WBHO a single point of contact while the dates were tight.
140 people. One project-specific team. 249 tonnes.
A project-specific team was mobilised for this pour: 104 steel fixers and 32 foremen under four RMS managers, supplied and fixed from the RMS Cape Town branch in Blackheath, about 36 km from site. Teams and rates are scaled to each project. Through both weekends, into the early hours of pour day. This one is for them.
Green Point, Cape Town
Supplied and fixed from the RMS Cape Town branch in Blackheath, about 36 km from site. Nine RMS branches cover South Africa, so projects are served from the nearest yard.
From the Blackheath yard to the last bar on the slab
Production, delivery and fixing from one company, so the people who bent the steel and the people fixing it were on the same phone call.
Cut and bend
Fabricated to the bending schedules at the Blackheath facility, with material certificates to SANS 920.
Delivery
Bundles delivered in the sequence the fixing team needed them, lifted straight onto the slab.
Steel fixing
The RMS team placing and tying 249 tonnes in four to six layers, under RMS site supervision.
The pour
1,312 m³ placed in a single 13-hour pour, from 217 trucks, over steel that had been checked bar by bar.
The last sixteen hours
- Sunday 13 September
Pre-pour planning meeting with WBHO and the site teams.
- Sunday 13 September
RMS fixers still on the slab, finishing the last mats and checks.
- Monday 14 September
Night crews on the slab, three hours before the first pump.
- Monday 14 September
Concrete starts. Boom pumps running across the full 2,160 m².
- Monday 14 September
Pour complete. 1,312 m³, 217 trucks, 13 hours.
They are committed to the job, they have got strong people, their supervision is very good, they understand their planning, their resourcing, and they are always willing to come to the party and help WBHO meet their dates.WBHO site management, The Granger Building
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Planning a large pour in the Western Cape?
Send RMS Cape Town your drawings and bending schedules early. The earlier the cut and bend is planned, the more certain the delivery and the fixing programme.
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