The Concrete Manufacturers Association’s (CMA) new category format for the 2012 Awards Excellence Competition has had a flying start. A total of 74 competition entries has been received, reflecting the strength and diversity of the precast concrete industry.

Besides the introduction of new awards categories announced earlier this year, this is the first time that the awards entry book, which showcases entry pictures and lists the professional teams involved, has been published electronically.

The competition takes on additional significance this yearwith the CMA celebrating its 40thanniversary, an achievement which will be celebrated jointly with the Awards for Excellence presentation ceremony on 3 November 2012. Like many of its peers, the association had humble beginnings as a masonry association in 1972, a paving divisionhaving been added shortly thereafter.

As anticipated, ‘aesthetics’ captured the lion’s share of the new entry format with 28 submissions, followed by ‘innovation’ (15), ‘technical excellence’ (13), ‘sustainability’ (7) and five each for ‘community involvement’ and ‘vintage’.

Judging of the awards took place on 8 August. Some entries were entered for two or more categories,for example, a paving project could have been entered into ‘aesthetics’, ‘community involvement’ and ‘sustainability’.

As in previous competitions, a trophy will be presented to the overall winner of each of the six entry categories. However, the regional and national awards of former competitions have been dropped. Instead, three commendation awards per category will be made, providing the entries are of a sufficiently high standard to merit an award.

Below is a detailed description of a civil engineering project entered into the ‘technical excellence’ and ‘innovation’ categories.

‘INNOVATION’ AND ‘TECHNICAL EXCELLENCE’

Dry-dock blocking line usedfor 25 000 t Seaway Polaris

The project involved the installation of a precast concrete blocking line to accommodate the hull of the 25 000 ton derrick lay-barge, Class 3 Shipping’s Seaway Polaris, four metres above the floorof Cape Town’s Sturrock dry-dock for routine maintenance.

This was the third time a CMA member, Concrete Units, working as the contractor with Wale Marine (the project’s engineering and project management company), had provided a blocking line for the Seaway Polaris. The first was in 2002 when Wale Marine designed and constructed the initial blocking line and the second followed in 2008.

The initial project involved the construction of 173 cruciform-shaped 200 t Safe Working Load (SWL) precast concrete blocks– a world first for dry-docking applications. The motivation for this approach was the limited capacity of the dock-side cranes.

Seaway Polaris returned to Cape Town in June 2012 and the blocking line was installed for a third time.In this instance speed ofinstallation was crucial because of a limited two-week period when the dry-dock was available. To compound the problem new safety regulations to European standardshad come into play. The new standards called for scaffolding, whichgiven the time constraintwas nota viable option.

Concrete Units, with valuable engineering input from Wale Marine, engineered an innovative rigging system as an alternative. Itinvolved handling the blocks by crane and forklift and employing a double-split cradle with a mechanical linkage. This method allowed the rigging to be managed at ground level thus negating the use of scaffolding. Once linkage was achieved the cradlescould engage the block-heads without theassistance ofadditional manual labour. And after a blockhad been lowered into position the cradle was easily disengaged and immediately made ready for lifting the next block.

Due to this innovative design lifting gear system, what had been originally programmed as a 28-shift (14days) installation period turned out to be a nine-shift(4.5 days) operation.