Neckartal delayed by 6 months
Billed to be completed this month, the delivery of the massive Neckartal Dam near Keetmanshoop has been delayed by six months due to a cut in shifts because of non-payment by government.
Despite a slowdown in construction activities witnessed at the Neckertal Dam site, Salini believes that the project is still poised to be completed in 2018 as scheduled. The dam was originally planned to be completed this month.
This is according to its spokesperson Gilles Castonguay who provided a brief update on the project.
“Construction activity at the site is going well. We expect to complete our part of the project by mid-2018,” he said briefly.
Salini recently reduced its 12-hour work shifts to seven and a half hours to circumvent layoffs and the payment of overtime to workers and subcontractors.
“Work has been reduced to a minimum and it will be the case until we get paid,” Castonguay said in an update.
The slowdown in construction activities at the Neckartal site is not expected to affect the completion of the project, according to him.
“We are working to complete the project on schedule, we are working towards that target,” said Castonguay.
Construction activities were split into two phases. The first involved the construction of a temporary enclosure called a cofferdam on the left side of the river.
Standing at a height of 10 metres, it allowed workers to complete the excavations in safety, prepare the foundations of the dam, start pouring the reinforced concrete and build a diversion culvert, which allows water to flow under its structure. The second phase will see the deviation of the river through this diversion culvert so as to allow workers to complete the job on the right side of the riverbed. Construction work on the dam started in September 2013. Once complete, Neckartal will be three times the size of Hardap Dam, while its dam wall will be three stories high. Neckartal forms part of the Ministry of Water, Agriculture and Forestry's master water plan.
STAFF REPORTER
This is according to its spokesperson Gilles Castonguay who provided a brief update on the project.
“Construction activity at the site is going well. We expect to complete our part of the project by mid-2018,” he said briefly.
Salini recently reduced its 12-hour work shifts to seven and a half hours to circumvent layoffs and the payment of overtime to workers and subcontractors.
“Work has been reduced to a minimum and it will be the case until we get paid,” Castonguay said in an update.
The slowdown in construction activities at the Neckartal site is not expected to affect the completion of the project, according to him.
“We are working to complete the project on schedule, we are working towards that target,” said Castonguay.
Construction activities were split into two phases. The first involved the construction of a temporary enclosure called a cofferdam on the left side of the river.
Standing at a height of 10 metres, it allowed workers to complete the excavations in safety, prepare the foundations of the dam, start pouring the reinforced concrete and build a diversion culvert, which allows water to flow under its structure. The second phase will see the deviation of the river through this diversion culvert so as to allow workers to complete the job on the right side of the riverbed. Construction work on the dam started in September 2013. Once complete, Neckartal will be three times the size of Hardap Dam, while its dam wall will be three stories high. Neckartal forms part of the Ministry of Water, Agriculture and Forestry's master water plan.
STAFF REPORTER
Comments
Namibian Sun
No comments have been left on this article