Building works - Part 2

New Entrance to Site

Due to the tight entrance at Port Waterhouse, a new entrance had to be made at the Western end of site allowing better access for deliveries. This meant bringing large lorries across the customer parking strip and as a result the whole customer parking area had to be reinforced with hardcore to prevent lorries from sinking or getting stuck during the winter build. The end result will be a more robust, all-weather customer parking strip. So not an entirely wasted effort we hope!

The Ground Works

As is the case with any building project, getting out of the ground is probably the biggest challenge, and the highest risk part of the project. It has not been any different at Port Waterhouse where the site is particularly challenging!

Adrian and his team have moved over 1,500 tonnes of earth, and having struggled to find any hard rock on which to build the Western end of the new Boat House, a decision was made to revise the foundations and form a new concrete raft foundation across the full width of the site.

The raft foundation was laid on the wettest day of November (on the whole November was very dry with the exception of the day the concrete was due to be laid)! But the team persevered and worked late into the night to finish the job.

Foundations complete, Adrian and his team were quick to erect the retaining walls and block work for the ground floor boat storage area of the new Boat House with the walls mostly finished by the end of November.

We are now awaiting the steel work so that the block and beam floor and upper Boat House structure can be completed.