NW Gray Prepping Electrical Rooms at Kusile Power Station

After 8 long years since the project started, Kusile Power Station have committed to synchronising their first unit in the first half of 2017. Time is of the essence and contractors are being pushed to meet stringent deadlines under challenging circumstances.

South African based company, NW Gray and Sons are no strangers to the stress and challenges of large construction building sites.  With 40 very successful years of experience in concrete cutting and drilling, NW Gray certainly know how to overcome these challenges with tried and tested solutions and accumulated knowledge.

In 2015, NW Gray were awarded the contract to drill 100 holes into suspended concrete slabs in all the electrical rooms at Kusile Power Station. In total, there are approximately 29 units. However, the contract has been renewed on a number of occasions and currently more than 1500 holes have been drilled.

The slabs are made up of high strength and heavily reinforced concrete. The project’s requirements are for each unit to be drilled with 160mm and 350mm diameter holes, approximately 200mm to 350mm deep. This is paving the way for electrical cables to be fed from the cable trays of the basement to each electrical room above where all the DV boards are housed.

This has been achieved by using a R2231 Shibuya Core drill machine and 158mm and 350mm diamond segmented core barrels. Diamond Products are the sole distributor of Shibuya Core drill machines. Diamond Products also offer retipping facilities where we are able to retip used core barrels with new segments. This is a service that NW Gray are well familiar with and use consistently as it is environmentally friendly in that we can reuse the steel bodies and provides a substantial cost saving in the long term. NW Gray partner with Diamond Products due to the reliable equipment, quality tools, expertise and excellent service that is offered. This is an absolute necessity for any contractor or project manager not only for practical assistance, but peace of mind knowing that the correct product, advice and stock are always available.

Due to the nature of the site being a raw construction zone, there is no access to water or power. In addition to this challenge, there has been lack of scaffolding as well as correct marking out of each of the holes that required drilling.

NW Gray were able to overcome these challenges by implementing a strategy whereby each of the electrical rooms were prioritized and a team would be sent ahead to prep the site before work would commence. In doing this, there has been very little down time with the projects being completed at their required deadlines.