As the main contractor on the Bestwood Estate project in Kathu, Northern Cape, civil con- struction and engineering company Esor-franki Civils is on schedule to complete all civil works on the new mixed-use human settlement development by the third quarter of 2013.

“This is one of the biggest housing projects we’ve worked on in recent years. In addition to its magnitude, the project differs from traditional projects in that civils and building work are taking place simultaneously to meet the tight deadlines associated with this fast-tracked development.

“Civils infrastructure work on 1 700 stands began in February last year, followed by the start of building activities in April. As the civil works are completed, we are releasing the stands in batches to the builders,” says Esorfranki Civils director Mark Green.

So far, the company has handed over 87 stands from the first phase and 20 from the second phase. “We will be handing over about 45 stands a month from now until completion,” says Green.

Located on a 200 ha site adjacent to the N14 national road at Kathu, Bestwood Estate is being developed by Share Africa Housing, a joint venture initiative between various role- players in the property industry.

In addition to a range of affordable housing, the estate will comprise schools, retail, hospitality, medical and sporting facilities, as well as places of worship. The estate will primarily accommodate employees of local mining companies.

Green notes that the project site is characterised by the occurrence of a large percentage of solid calcrete rock. He expects that more than 100 000 m3 of rock will be blasted during the civil works and crushed on site for use as backfill.

Esorfranki’s scope includes installation of 18 km of water reticulation, 14 km of sewer reticulation and 14 km of gas reticulation.

Green says 90% of the equipment being used on the development belongs to Esorfranki and was deployed to site by road from the company’s Johannesburg headquarters.

“There are currently about 300 Esorfranki personnel on site, with an equal number of subcontractors,” he says.

The company is doing its own concrete work and, wherever possible, subcontracts have been awarded to local firms, while local labour has been employed for general site work.

An in-house sector education and training authority-accredited trainer is imparting machine operator skills to some of the local labourers who are granted certificates of com-petence in these skills on successful completion of the training.