Civil Engineering and Technology

Civil engineers locally and internationally find themselves in the unique position of providing solutions to the needs of the poulation whilst also managing the impacts their solutions have on the environment. An interesting article in Africa Geographic's July Issue "Too Clever by Half" discusses the positive and negative aspects of technology, something we should all be aware of, especially in the African context.

 

Tied to this is the recent proliferation of Public-Private Infrastructure projects. PPP, or PFI, as it is known in the UK, is a relatively new method (2 decades old) of delivering sorely needed infratructure without burdening the public purse. Articles here and here give recent insight into current thinking.

 

The Shipping News

It seems that Ports and Harbours are an area holding future potential for the South African Civil Engineering community. Recent media reports (and here)  indicate lulls in container shipping, but underinvestment in port infrastructure in South America and Africa.

As part of the logistics chain, ports form a critical point in the transport of commodities, not only from South Africa to trading partners, but from land-locked countries North of our borders.

It is a relief to hear there is no dispute between the city of Cape Town and SANRAL regarding the implementation of new tolled sections of the N1 and N2 near the city. One presumes there have been adequate public participation and Environmental Impact Assessment processes to this point, considering the PPP process is already past BAFO stage after a nine-year development process.

Reports indicate that there are still bones of contention between the two and it will be interesting to see how this plays out over the coming months.

Gautrain Water Problems

Millions of litres of groundwater are pouring into the Gautrain tunnels and causing the train service to be interrupted on a regular basis.

My suggestion, since according to reports the water is not of a bad quality, use it as grey water irrigation for the parks and fountains of Pretoria and Johannesburg! Our winter months are usually brown and most parks and fountains remain unsprinkled, here is an opportunity to relieve the tunnels of water and improve the quality of life for the cities' dwellers, sustainably!

As an aside, a couple of useful project management websites to check out to broaden your perspective... http://www.projectmanager.com/, and http://www.projectsmart.co.uk/.

SAICE PMCD Blog

Welcome to the first - test - posting of the SAICE PMCD blog. The intention of this blog is to highlight and provide comment on current developments in the civil engineering industry as they relate to project and construction management.