Construction and engineering group Murray & Roberts subsidiary Wade Walker is on track to begin the commissioning of its electrical and instrumentation installation in November at a mineral sands operation in West Africa as part of a commissioning team.

Wade Walker began work on the installation in April this year, which is focused on two sections of the operation — the mineral separation plant located inland, and the wet-concentration plant, located on a dredge.

The company states that it is the first time that it has implemented electrical and instrumentation work on a floating dredge system.

Wade Walker’s scope of work includes about 1 800 lights, 28 000 m of cable racking, 256 000 m of electrical and instrumentation cabling and 10 000 terminations, ranging from 33 kV to 220 V.

The installation includes all junction boxes, stop/start stations and control devices. The scope also includes about 1 000 m of instrument tubing and the assembly of all motor control centres and medium-voltage switchgear, Wade Walker states.

Currently, there are about 25 Wade Walker management personnel on site and about 150 general workers, of whom a percentage has been recruited locally and are being trained by Wade Walker.

Wade Walker is part of the Murray & Roberts Engineering Africa Platform, giving the company ready access to a wider range of services, which allows its team to participate more fully in projects. The companies that form part of this business platform are primarily focused on the group’s core competence in industrial engineering, which, if properly applied in the early design and feasibility phases of projects, offers customers significant value.

“Working within this platform, we are able to provide a more holistic offering, particularly on the structural, mechanical and piping disciplines,” Wade Walker concludes.