SA: Warwick Triangle Viaducts
Warwick Triangle’s location lends to it tremendous conflict between commuter traffic wishing to access or exit the inner-city and public transport /pedestrians in the area. This results in significant delays for commuter traffic and public transport, not to mention being a precarious environment for motorists and pedestrians alike.
The solution to this quandary was to separate commuter traffic from Warwick Triangle through the construction of an inbound and outbound viaduct.
The main element of this project is the construction of a 400m long inbound and 372m long outbound viaduct, that upon completion in December 2009 and May 2010 respectively, will carry three lanes of traffic in each direction.
Rumdel Construction commenced with the construction of the R230 million (30 million USD) inbound viaduct in January 2008 using a cast in-situ construction method. This project was entirely designed in-house eThekwini Municipality’s Roads Provision Department and is on track to be operational by December’s festive season 2009.
A significant road development is occurring at one of Durban’s most congested public transport nodes, Warwick Triangle, located on the outskirts of the city centre. Warwick Triangle forms the public transport gateway to the inner-city and incorporates the entry and exit points into the city from the N3 Western Freeway.
On challenges, Letele Motlomelo, director at Rumdel Construction says, “Being the busiest intersection in Durban, we had to accommodate about 500,000 pedestrians per day going through the construction works, which was compounded by having one of the busiest taxi ranks nearby.” In addition to this Motlomelo explained that sewer and water lines had to be diverted in order to accommodate pier foundations.
For the outbound viaduct, Group Five/Pandev in collaboration with design engineers, Goba, proposed a precast beam construction methodology, which utilised an innovative cantilevered-pierhead that reduced the spans of the precast beams by half, making this method viable. Due to the tight time frames imposed by need to complete the R220 million (29 million USD) project by the commencement of the 2010 World Cup, this method was viewed as most flexible due to the deadlines.
Echoing the challenges of the inbound viaduct, Dave Thomas concurs that the tight time deadlines ahead of the 2010 World Cup posed a daunting obstacle. “Additionally, the relocation of numerous low, medium and high voltage electricity cables prior to the commencement of certain elements of the piling was challenging,” says Thomas. “However eThekwini Electricity did a fantastic job in relocating the cables ahead of the programme.”
Thomas noted that significant and unforeseen underground concrete obstructions were encountered at the Eastern abutment, which necessitated a change in the piling operation as these obstructions were either removed or drilled through to accommodate the piles.
Once both viaducts are completed, the separation of commuter traffic, travelling out of central Durban from the pedestrian traffic and public transport in Warwick Triangle will be a tremendous benefit that ensures a safer environment all around and will also enable the redevelopment of Warwick Triangle into a world-class public transport interchange.
Project Team
Inbound Viaduct
| Client Design & Contract Administration |
eThekwini Municipality, Roads Provision Department |
| Contractor | Rumdel Construction (Cape) Pty Ltd |
Outbound Viaduct
| Client | eThekwini Municipality, Roads Provision Department |
| Contractors (joint venture) | Group Five Pandev |
| Design | Goba Consulting Engineers |
| Project Managers | SSI Consulting Engineers |
