North East Waste Water Treatment Works

The existing Bloemspruit Wastewater Treatment Works (WWTW) currently services the greater Bloemfontein area and is currently hydraulically overloaded.

A new project is underway to relive the load on the existing infrastructure through the construction of an additional WWTW known as North Eastern WWTW.

Constructed by Stefanutti Stocks Civils KZN the additional WWTW facility will also allow the municipality to undertake necessary maintenance work on the existing Bloemspruit works. Stefanutti Stocks Civils KZN was awarded the civil construction elements of the project by the Managing Metro Municipality in the Free State. The project started in February 2013 and construction is set to be finished by November 2014.

The North East Waste Water Treatment is the largest of its kind in the Mangaung District and the sheer size of the project makes its a great project to be involved with in the Free State. The project is the first phase of a much bigger scope of works that is set to be constructed in the near future. RMD Kwikfrom was approached by Stefanutti Stocks who had specific technical and timescale requirements for the project.

The engineers and technical team at RMD Kwikform worked closely with the site team to provide Stefanutti Stocks a range of specific equipment that would meet the demands of the job.

The scope of work includes the construction of :

• New inlet works including screw pump lifting station, mechanical screening, grit removal structures and flow measurement;
• Biological reactor comprising of anoxic and aerobic zones as well as internal recycling streams;
• Two 35-metre diameter secondary settling tanks (SSTs);
• A chlorination tank;
• A buffer pond;
• Treated sewage effluent outfall including a concrete channel and pipeline to the Bloemspruit River;
• An emergency overflow pond downstream of the inlet works;
• Three concrete lined sludge lagoons;
• A pumpstation that will pump raw activated sludge (RAS) to the biological reactor and waste activated sludge (WAS) to the sludge lagoons;
• A wash water pump station to relay treated effluent to various locations; and
• Buildings, including a two-storey MCC building, an emergency generator building, an administration building and a new chlorine-dosing building.

RMDK products used

RMD Kwikform provided Kwikstage for support access, a GTX Flex System for soffit formwork and wall formwork that included a Minima Panel System and GTX Plywood and Superslim solutions. RMD also designed and delivered special formwork for the column heads to meet the specific requirements for that component of the project.

The majority of the project had very technical and detailed aspects to it which required some problem from both parties. The close working relationship allowed the project team to be able to find solutions that were not only practical but were easily achievable on site.

Many of the structures on site were 6m or more in height with battered walls sloping at 3° with very intricate detail in their design. As with all building sites, time is always a big factor, and Stefanutti required solutions that could not only save time but could be erected safely and with ease. The technical team and formwork designers worked together to formulate a GTX Plywood solution for the walling components of the project, which made it possible for the team on site to speed up production with faster pours rates and pour cycles using a product tailored to their specific needs.

RMD Kwikform was able to utilize their wide range of equipment and experience in the market to assist with all technical aspects of the scope of works needed on site.