International Conference on Civil and Structural Engineering
Date:
7 July 2018
Event location:
Reef Hotel, Johannesburg
Event Description:
International Conference on Civil and Structural Engineering objective is to promote scientific and educational activities towards the advancement of common man’s life by improving the theory and practice of various disciplines and sectors of Architecture, Civil Engineering.
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Industry Events: WISA 2018, SASEC & Drones Conference
Event:
WISA (Water Institute of Southern Africa’s Biennial Conference & Exhibition 2018)
Date:
24 – 27 June 2018
Event location:
CTICC, Cape Town
Event Description:
The central theme of “Breaking barriers, Connecting ideas” seeks to address past, existing and future water resource challenges by promoting collaboration, cooperation and integration within the water sector. The Southern African region faces increased uncertainty and vulnerability regarding water supply. The following thematic areas for the conference seek to promote, inspire and demonstrate the value of working beyond existing mandates and perceived restrictions. While an emphasis is placed on Southern African case studies and research, international examples applicable to the Southern African context are welcome.
The conference will focus on both Solar Photovoltaic and Solar Thermal Energy technology systems and applications. The conference provides the opportunity for researchers, engineers, technologists and individuals to share and discuss recent developments in the field. It is a particularly good opportunity for postgraduate students to showcase their research progress, network and develop knowledge of solar energy technologies.
The conference comprise breakaway sessions where professionals in various industries mining, agriculture, GIS, land surveying, recreation included will explore how UAVs can be put to optimal use in their field of expertise. The conference will also tackle the technical aspect of drone use; there will be expert analysis of how data is gathered and processed and how it will be interpreted in the overall context of of the successful operations of an organisation. Presentations will be accompanied by live demonstrations of drones at work, as well as an exhibition place where a comprehensive variety of UAVs will be on show.
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Industry Events: SAPICS Annual Conference 2018 and Africa Rail 2018
Event:
SAPICS Annual Conference 2018
Date:
10 to 13 June 2018
Event location:
Century City Conference Centre, Western Cape
Event Description:
The Conference programme contains a selection of workshops, mainly on the Sunday afternoon of June 10, for which there is no surcharge. In addition, a variety of fascinating site visits are arranged at a nominal charge, mainly for Wednesday June 13. Pre-booking of both workshops and site visits is required, as there is limited space available. In summary, the programme provides 2.5 days of outstanding presentations, educational workshops, relevant site visits, networking and social activities, designed to enhance delegates’ professional knowledge, experience and standing.
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Industry Events: Industry Events: Frigair Exhibition 2018, Railway Infrastructure Maintenance Management and Bow Tie Analysis Master-Class
Event:
Frigair Exhibition 2018
Date:
6 – 8 June 2018
Event location:
Gallagher Convention Centre, Johannesburg
Event Description:
FRIGAIR is Africa’s largest heating, energy, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration exhibition. Learn about the latest industry trends and technologies, especially around the industry’s crucial role in the rapid development of eco-friendly, energy efficient and sustainable technologies for the future.
Short Course in Railway Infrastructure Maintenance Management
Date:
4 – 8 June 2018
Event location:
Pretoria
Event Description:
The Railway Infrastructure Maintenance Management short course will introduce you to the general principles of railway infrastructure maintenance and the management thereof, as applied to the fields of track, traction power supply, signalling and rail-bound, telecommunications, as well as its integration into a multidisciplinary approach.
The Bow Tie Analysis MasterClass course explains a simplistic methodology to follow during the risk analysis process. It will deal in particular with the strategic relevance of the Bow Tie Analysis, setting up a scene to compare results from audits, accidents, incidents, monitoring activities for comparison of passive and active controls related to specific scenarios determined during the risk identification process.
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South Africa’s premier masterclass on how to submit compliant and winning tenders. This workshop has now been presented to more than 2,000 delegates and with the on-going changes in the tendering legislation companies are advised to continue to align, not only their bids but also their sub-contracting processes with these regulations.
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Hard Hats; a common symbol of the Construction Industry, but have you ever stopped to wonder about the History behind this safety accessory?
History
According to Prescot Valley Tribune, “The Hard Hat originated with Edward Bullard, a WWI veteran. He brought a steel helmet home after the war. This metal headgear was the inspiration to revolutionize industrial safety. Bullard’s father worked in the industrial safety business for 20 years and sold protective hats, but they were made of leather.
Construction of the Hoover Dam, which began in 1931 was the first project in which construction workers were required to wear Hard Hats. Later, in 1933, the construction site of the Golden Gate Bridge became America’s first “Hard Hat Area”.”
The first Hard Hats were made from:
Leather
Canvas
Steel
Aluminum
Fibreglass
Plastic
and finally today’s High-Density Polyethylene (HDPE).
Functionality
The function of the Hard Hat is pretty obvious. If worn and fitted correctly it provides limited safety from shock, perforation, fire, water and heat.
Hard Hats also provide a form of identification.
A wearer can use colour coded Hard Hats to differentiate between job titles/responsibilities:
White – Managers, Engineers, Supervisors/Foremen
Blue – Electricians, Carpenters and other technical operators (besides civil workers)
Green – Safety Officers
Red – Fire Fighters
Yellow – Labourers
Brown – Welders and workers with high heat application
Grey – Site Visitors
These colour codes are general and could change according to the Project.
Over time Hard Hats, like most things also need replacing. As a wearer, you should inspect your Hard Hats before each use. Your support strap should also be replaced annually and the entire hat every five years. Hard Hats may also allow for the attachment of safety accessories; most noteworthy are face shields, respirators, hearing protection and work lamps.
Future
Today’s Hard Hat hasn’t changed much since the 1960’s and has become a staple of safety, but they may be getting an upgrade in the future.
According to Sourceable, “In Australia, RMIT has developed a system whereby sensors can be embedded onto safety glasses, helmets or boots and can monitor and inform workers of impending danger…”
Sounds really interesting, after all, technology is a part of our every day lives and why not safety too.
Industry leaders can achieve much by ‘upgrading’ the Hard Hat. For example, by monitoring and assessing stats you can take precautions; not only in the present but also in the future through behavior analysis. But this may also present issues; like how much monitoring is too much when it comes to privacy and tracking? What are your thoughts?
In conclusion, the future sure looks safe when it comes to Hard Hats. The History of Hard Hats was certainly an interesting topic to research and blog.
Finally
Do you have any Hard Hat stories or facts you’d like to share? Or do you frequently use one?
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The question I get asked the most being a Projects researcher is… ‘What are Projects all about?‘.
It is early days in 2018 and my understanding levels are still rebooting after the holidays. I thought I would try and provide an explanation that may be a little tongue in cheek and also help people remember easily what Projects are all about. So, in my analogy, I decided to do a comparison between Projects and Fishing (in my head this means only fly fishing, but you can use most fishing for this analogy).
Projects vs Fishing
What happens in a Project? Well, we follow the full life cycle of the Project (think of it like your life, from birth until your eventual end). Now a Project can be broken into a few defining stages, which is how we put our information into groups to make it easier to follow, understand and find your best area of benefit from a business perspective. So without further adieu, here are the various stages broken down for your ease of reference.
Conceptual
Projects
This consists of the appointing of the Client or Developer, Feasibility study, acquiring of funding and Request for Proposals (RFP).
Fishing
Your mind starts hatching a plan for getting away and going fishing. You are looking at your bank balance and wondering if this is a feasible decision.
Here the basic design is conceived along with the geotechnical study, EIA process, Town Planning and appointment of Professionals who will carry out these and other duties.
Fishing
You begin to look at the calendar and note when the public holidays are, what the weather is expected to be at the time (we all know how that effects fishing), the distance needed to travel and the people that will be involved in this trip.
The detailed design is completed and the Bill of Quantities prepared.
Fishing
You search fishing forums and websites, as well as Trip Advisor, Lodges and Google reviews for the best places to visit that, will supply your (fly) fishing needs.
The Project is sent to an Invited list of Bidders to Tender or goes out to Open Tender and once the Bids are received, negotiations with Contractors proceed.
Fishing
You make a decision on where you are going to fish and stay; book and pay. You alight in your chariot with all the correct tackle and head to your destination.
The Main Contractor is Awarded and applies for permits to begin on site.
Fishing
The weather is perfect, the fishing permit is in hand and as your line sinks into the watery depths, you feel a definite tug as you hook what feels like a bus of a fish.
The project is either classified as Complete, Cancelled or is Postponed.
Fishing
You successfully land the fish, or you lose the fish. The line wraps around either a tree, gets stuck in the weed or the hook breaks and the fish lives to fight another day.
And there you have it! Projects explained in a fresh and easy way. Parcels of information that help your business get a foot in the door at the right time. If you want to find out which stages are the best for what you do, take a look at ‘At which point in the Project Life Cycle can your Business find Value‘.
If you want to take a look at the other services we provide, you can take a look at ‘Snoop our Services‘.
How many fish are you planning to catch this year? Which of those fish will keep your Business in the black? Maybe taking a look at our Project service will help your Business and get you out fishing more often. If you are interested, pop me a comment on the Blog with your mail address or mail me at CarmenB@L2B.co.za and I will be sure to be in contact with you.
Construction of 372 residential units for Phase 3, Belgravia Valley for a mixture of low and middle-income groups in Belgravia. East London, Eastern Cape.
Status:
Awarded
Category:
Building
Industry:
Residential
Sector:
Private
Region:
East London
Value:
R 100 million+
Timing:
January 2018 to July 2019 (18 months)
Class
Invited / Negotiated
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Exploring New Ideas in the Role of the Project Manager
If you are involved in the construction industry you have most likely come into contact with a Project Manager (hereafter referred to as a PM) or heard of one mentioned in the process of developments and particularly larger developments.
Certainly in Leads 2 Business’ Projects Department PM’s are one of the most common professionals we deal with. The reason for this, is their role within construction projects.
So, what does a PM actually do? It would seem rather obvious right, they manage the project? But nothing is ever as simple as it seems. PM’s actually do a whole host of duties.
Some of which include: planning, organising, controlling, communicating, executing, reports, programs, advice, analysis, resource control, health and safety, budgets, administration and handover.
All of these duties are done ensure that the project runs successfully thus lowering the risks while meeting all of the objectives timeously to ensure completion which effects the profitability of the project.
So, when do new ideas come into the picture? What new ideas would PM’s have to explore in todays construction industry?
To be honest, I was at a loss when pondering this question, after all I’m not a PM and it’s not a role one easily assumes to answer. So I emailed a few PM’s to get some feedback on ideas that they might want to put out there… but still no luck, probably snowed under with work given our economic environment. I scoured the Internet and there didn’t seem to be any publications or news out there for new ideas when it comes to PM’s until I happened on some LinkedIn Posts. Phew!
This may not be a new idea but how about technology, either using existing tech and / or molding it to PM’s requirements, partnering with IT and creating PM specific tech or even sharing your tech tricks with other PM’s? For example: Ahmed H. Emam, PMP writes “Detect and Fix Dangling Activities in Time Schedule using Excel Macro.” https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/detect-fix-dangling-activities-time-schedule-using-excel-pmp
There are some things that tech, no matter how advanced it gets, cannot replace. Oliver suggests to focus on the following skills in order to stand out: “Leadership, Diplomacy, Negotiating, Public Speaking, Emotional Intelligence, Communication (verbal and nonverbal)” and instead of fighting tech, work with it to enhance your service delivery.
Another thought also came to mind: what is one of the key aspects that I think of when I think of a PM? It would have to be communication. So, what new idea would make communication more effective? What about a platform where all the schedules, notes, admin, planning and analysis can be seen by all the professionals involved in a specific project? Where each person can make notes or get alerts thus avoiding confusion, emails back and forth, potential loss of material, and saving time, something like Google Sheets for PM’s? Does this already exist? It’s possible… calling all PM’s out there, let us know! Perhaps I need to patent this idea.
After all, we all know that communication is key whether you are a PM or not. Another useful tool to facilitate communication and interaction between professionals and all other contacts which fall within the scope of projects is to use L2B (Leads 2 Business). If you are looking to get involved in the different aspects of construction, information is our business. We encourage communication, new ideas and growth in order to build and establish business.
If any of the above sparks your interest leave a Comment below or or Contact me on SashaA@L2B.co.za
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According to itsallaboutbusiness.com, “Commercial construction is the business of building and selling or leasing manufacturing or assembly plants, medical centers, retail shopping centers and standard space for offices. The business varies primarily in the size and scale of the operations. Typically, the commercial builder either contracts with a company or organisation to build the facility or builds the facility on speculation that it can be leased or sold at a later time.”
Taking the above into account lets look at some of the commercial properties making headlines in South Africa.
In 2011 Aurecon’s Offices in Century City, now known as Aurecon East, was the first building in South Africa to be awarded a 5-Star Green Star SA Office Design v1 rating by the Green Building Council of South Africa (GBCSA) but they didn’t stop there. In 2016 Aurecon West was completed, the second phase of Offices which also went on to receive a 5-Star Green Star SA Office Design v1 rating. Aurecon’s investment in Century City has inspired a number of other large corporates to relocate to the area.
In 2011 there were only 5 buildings in SA with Green Star accreditation from the GBCSA, to date there are 113 buildings with a Office Design v1 rating and 202 buildings in total with a Green Star Rating.
When you mention Kyalami most will think of the Race Track that was purchased by Porsche South Africa in 2014. Indeed, it is an historic track and recent construction and renovation at the Race Track was completed May 2016 after which it was awarded a Grade 2 racetrack certification by the Federation International de l’Automobile (FIA) and is the only current motor racing facility on the African continent to have the prestigious accreditation. But the Race Track is not the only property making headlines, Kyalami Corner, a 28 000m² retail development is due for completion in March and anticipated to open in April this year and forms part of the larger Kyalami Main on Main development in the area which includes retail, motor showrooms, offices and residential.
Another commercial development close to home is the Liberty Midlands Mall Phase 3 Expansion which will include offices and a value retail centre which was initially announced December 2013, construction was planned to commence in early 2014 and completed by mid-2015. However it seems that there were various delays and Phase 3 looks like it will be going ahead during 2017. Residents in the area have been waiting a while for the expansion and I’m sure many look forward to witnessing the progressing going forward. Watch this space.
The list of commercial construction and renovation could go on…
It’s evident that there is a significant amount of commercial construction & renovation happening in SA and what’s more all the developments I mentioned above can be found on Leads 2 Business. Want to know more? Comment below or contact us.
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