Projects MeerkatII Copy
- 1. project team Developer/Owner: Sasol/Royal Haskoning Dordtse Engineering Architect: Walker Smith Architects Structural Engineer: BKS (Pty) Ltd Quantity Surveyor: Royal Haskoning Project Manager: BKS Main Contractor: Haskoning International BV Steelwork Contractor: Imbabala/Van Staden Engineering MEERKAT II – FT3 BUILDING Exacting quality assurance and safety requirements together with specialist requirements for corrosion protection are a part of the challenge of constructing this great example of an industrial project. PROJECTS 32 Steel Construction Vol. 34 No. 4 July 2010 Sasol continues to develop chemical plants to beneficiate and modify by-prod- ucts from their plants into commercial specialist products. Steel structures to support a myriad of equipment and piping are the order of the day. But only those involved in such projects recognise the effort and plan- ning that goes into this type of project such as pausing the steel erection to allow for the plant installation. Exacting quality assurance and safety requirements together with specialist requirements for corrosion protection are a part of the challenge of construct- ing this great example of an industrial project. Steel was the main component and was used due to the ease and speed of erec- tion and practicality of building around the process. The primary 24m x 18m x 27m high structure went up in under three months using 555 tons of steel. The main challenge in this interesting project was to replicate an existing building and process plant in Europe here in Sasolburg where harsh local climatic conditions had to be taken into account. The BKS-Royal Haskoning Partnership had to design to South African standards based on the original European design standard – bringing together European and South African The structure had to be built according to SA standards interpreting the Eurocode. The structure went up in three months using 555 tons of steel.
- 2. PROJECTS Steel Construction Vol. 34 No. 4 July 2010 33 thinking to recreate this unique building and process. The Joint Venture recreated the building to replicate the process under significantly different local conditions, seamlessly. Throughout the phased erection, staged compliance checks and certification had to take place at different points due to vessels being brought in and the instal- lation of process equipment. A significant number of steel section sizes had to be created out of plate in South Africa. This implied that built up sections were manufactured to match large European rolled sections which do not exist locally. A typical built-up section was 437 x 412 x 505kg/m with a flange thickness of 50mm. The cladding is a special feature in that it is a sandwich panel, made up of steel sheeting inside and out with thermal insulation inside. The massive panels span six metres horizontally between columns, with no intermediate support. Multi- level flooring consisted of Q-Deck for the composite or Rectagrid for grated flooring. The value of this project was in creating a process which forms the catalyst for creating a Sasol-patented process of making liquid fuel from gas. The process vessels on the structure had to be hydro-tested in situ. This meant that the structural members had to be designed for temporary loading far exceeding the final design load for accommodating the requirements of a gas plant. The cladding is a sandwich panel – steel sheeting the bread and thermal insulation the ham. Some of the difficulties experienced by the steel- work fabricators and erectors were a very tight programme. In addition to this, the structure had to be erected involving the interface with the installation of mechanical equipment. Steel erec- tion took place around some of the larger process equipment due to the sheer size of it.