Gauteng Piling has completed a challenging piling contract – involving the large-scaled transport of equipment to Mpumalanga - for extensions of the I’langa Mall, one of the major shopping complexes in Mbombela (Nelspruit). Martin Eygelaar, Contracts Manager of Gauteng Piling, says the pipe piling method had to be used instead of conventional auger piling, to provide the foundations for extensions to the Galaxy and Woolworth stores in the shopping mall on the corner of Bitterbessie and Flambloyant streets in Mbombela.

“Pipe piling, using pneumatic hammers, was necessary because of the limited access to the site where we had to expose and extend the bases on which the columns for the extensions were to be erected. A total of 243 piles were required within a period of about a month by the main contractor, Norse Projects of Mpumalanga. Gauteng Piling achieved an average of 15 piles daily,” Eygelaar stated. The pipe piling technique utilises a pneumatic hammer placed inside a steel casing that it drives into the ground. The hammer is raised when the casing is driven into the ground so that a new section of casing can be welded in place before the hammer is lowered again to continue driving. “We employed steel pipe sections 1.5m in length and a starter spike to reach depths varying between 1.9 and 4.5 metres. The steel pipe sections are 165mm in diameter - and we had to transport about 800 of these sections from the Gauteng Piling yard at Diepsloot to Mbombela for the piling project.

“We used a dry mix concrete for the piling to prevent the closed-ended spikes splitting open when driven into the ground to strengthen existing bases.  Lafarge’s Agilia self-compacting concrete, at a strength of 30MPa, was used to eliminate the vibration of the concrete in the pile holes.” he explained.
Three Y12 steel reinforcement bars were placed as reinforcement in the piles and extended into the new pile cap to provide bondage between piles and pile caps.

Geotechnical tests were done by the client and had revealed minimal moisture in the soil, Eygelaar added. “The main piling challenges for us, basically, were the depth of piles required in a confined space.” Established 18 years ago, Master Builders Association North member Gauteng Piling (led by MBA North immediate past president, Hennie Bester), has already completed 1 500 major piling contracts and attained 135% BBBEE recognition. The company recently completed the contract for the piling for the construction of southern African’s largest single-phase retail centre, Mall of Africa, which called for over 500 piles. Other recent contracts handled by Gauteng Piling include the piling for the massive Value Logistics warehouse in Kempton Park, the Fire & Ice Hotel in Pretoria, The Grove Shopping Centre in Pretoria, and the Bon Accord Police Station, also in Pretoria. The company also handled the piling requirements for a new FAW auto dealership in Croydon in Ekurhuleni, as well as the piling for extensions to the Market Theatre complex in the Johannesburg CBD. Contracts recently awarded include apartment blocks in Crystal Park, Benoni, and a new development for Shaik Properties in Rietfontein, Pomona.