Construction contractor Concor Infrastructure has secured the contract for the extension of the ash disposal facility (ADF) at Eskom’s Kendal power station, in Mpumalanga.

This comes just a few months after securing another Eskom contract for the ADF at the Majuba power station, near Amersfoort.

Winning the two ADF projects was an indication of the company’s strong capacity and broad range of expertise in the civil engineering and construction space, a statement issued on May 20 said.

Concor Infrastructure MD Eric Wisse said the Kendal contract would entail the construction of a continuous lined ash dump and its associated infrastructure.

The extended facility will be capable of accommodating the ash generated by the power station until 2032.

The 24-month project will start on July 1 and also includes the construction of two dams, a stream diversion and site services, as well as the lowering of the wall of an existing farm dam.

“News of the Kendal ADF award has certainly been most welcome, given the uncertainty and disruption related to the Covid-19 pandemic in recent weeks,” Wisse noted. “It is also encouraging that contracts of this type and scale are becoming available for our civil engineering and construction sector, which has faced difficult trading conditions for many years.”

The project will require about 109 ha to be cleared and grubbed. It will entail almost 1.5-million cubic metres of excavation and the processing of about one-million cubic metres of fill and layerworks.

To ensure adequate environmental protection, over 750 000 m2 of 1.5-mm high-density polyethylene liner will be used, with the same amount of 1 000 g/m2 of geotextile.

Concrete works will require 39 000 m3 of concrete, and there will be 4 400 m of pipeline laid.

Wisse said the Kendal contract would be conducted in a fully integrated joint venture (JV) with partner company Lubocon Civils.

The JV is an indication of Concor Infrastructure’s commitment to empowering younger firms to grow their contribution in the sector, Wisse noted.

“Among the attributes that Lubocon Civils brings are its relationships with [qualifying small enterprise] and [exempt microenterprise] contractors, where they can assist the JV to effectively award the relevant portions of work to local firms to manage subcontractors and to develop small enterprises,” he said.