November 2001 Power Group Excels

More about the Power Group of Companies

More about the Power Group of Companies

In her well received, passionate address, Deputy Minister Mabudahfhasi said " We stand today on the threshold of a new era in the history of Knysna. An era that will be characterised by development that is sustainable, that takes into account, very seriously, environmental concerns and the need for the future generations to also sustain themselves."

She expressed her appreciation to Thesen & Co for the "for the most responsible manner in which they conducted, supported and financed the environmental research, which probably represents the most comprehensive, professional and detailed Environmental Impact Assessment ever undertaken in South Africa, (including St Lucia and Saldanha Steel). The cooperation between Thesen & Co. and the Thesen Islands Development Company with all the authorities was evident."

She ended by saying that Thesen Island has "evolved into a symbol of sound public participation, the successful management of environmental concerns, and a fresh and meaningful thrust for the socio-economic sustainability of Knysna and the South Cape Coast."

Mayor Alan Kock said that the Council had looked at all aspects of the planned redevelopment. Recognizing the need for environmental sensitivity, the Council had ensured that strict controls were imposed to ensure that the environment would be safe guarded before deciding to approve and support the project.

The Knysna Choral Choir, who the Thesen Islands Development Company have sponsored for some time, performed a number of foot tapping traditional songs to the enthusiastic response of the audience. Led by Graham Power, a number of the professional team as well as owners pledged donations totaling more than R20 000 to the choir.

With the construction of the first phase of the R800 million project having been underway since June, the guests enjoyed "Island Safaris" to view the progress achieved. Guests were dropped off at "lookouts" where construction and environmental experts were on hand to talk about the project. Already 3.4 kilometres of waterway frontage have been constructed. Guests expressed amazement at the size and scale of the waterways and at how much had already been done. Graham Power announced that construction was 2 to 3 weeks ahead of schedule.

The first phase of the development, which consists of 150 single residential stands, is scheduled for completion in July 2001. Virtually all the stands in the first phase have water frontage.

With over 120 stands sold, sections of the second phase have now been released. Included is "North Beach", a select group of North facing stands all with a private jetty and beach, smaller "Tidewater" stands set next to the wetlands and "Edgewater" stands on the banks of the Waterway. The prices of these stands start at R385,000.

The Thesen Island Development Company shareholders which include Power Developments and Wescape have provided substantial internal financing for the project. Further development funding is being supplied by Investec Bank

Errol Symons reports from Knysna.

The intention of the developers is to high-light the colourful history of Knysna, which spans the days of sailing ships, timber extraction and even a brief period of gold discovery. It was in 1870 that Arnt Thesen and his family, from Stanger in Norway, settled in Knysna. In 1904 Charles Thesen bought Paarden Island, as it is known then, which had been part of the estate of George Rex – the founder of Knysna. The Thesens started processing timber on the Island in 1922.

Dr Chris Mulder, managing director of Chris Mulder Associates Inc, said that a part of the island had been contaminated over the years with chemicals used in the treatment of timber. However, the previous owver of the island, Barlows, is to spend R10m on a decontamination programme.

Dr Mulder is probably South Africa’s most experiences property master planner. His award-winning firm is a multi-disciplinary practice covering environmental planning, landscape and building architecture and town planning. The firm has been involved in the planning of numerous southern African coastal projects from Mozambique to the West Coast, including the master plan for Knysna’s Belvidere Estate and the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens.

The major construction work – on the development of the waterways, roads, bridges, sidewalks, water ans sewerage reticulation – is to be done by Cape Town-based Power Construction. Waterways are currently being constructed using conventional earthmoving equipment. However, because of the high water table on the island special arrangement are being made to dewater areas being excavated.

The tidal flow around the islands will be natural. The CSIR used a state of the art modeling system developed by the Danish Hydraulic Institute to assist with the design and layout of the waterways. The model was used to measure water flows, levels, velocities and quality.

Talking about some of the unusual features, Dr Mulder said that in one area of the development a number of boat apartments would be constructed. “Here you can take your boat underneath your home,” he said. The minimum height of the floor level of al the buildings has to be 3m above sea level for wind surge, for high tides, storm tides, plus a safety factor built into that. Underneath these homes will be a floating jetty and from there an owner willb e able to walk up into his apartment.

The Cape-based Power Group of Companies is a dynamic conglomerate that provides a comprehensive range of civil engineering, blacktop paving, manufacturing and township development services. Through its unique synergy of complementary in-house services and a commitment of the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP), the Group has achieved unequally cost efficiency in supplying South Africa’s most vital needs – potable water, paved roads and affordable housing in fully-serviced townships.

By conventional mechanized methods, land-laid bituminous surfacing coulf be used very effectively on secondary roads and across courts (light traffic cu-de-sacs providing across to four or more silos.

“Four different bituminous working surfaces – sand asphalt, continuously graded lino sidewalk mix, chip-and-spray and Cape Seal (a prepared base covered with bituminous slurry) will be hand-laid to determine relative levels of difficulty, production quality of finish and cost effectiveness,” Judd said.
“We accept that mechanical paving techniques can be more efficient, but the road surfacing proposed for the Chris Hani branch township is just one aspect of a large contract which as a whole equates favourably with conventional contracting methods in terms of cost.

“And the socio-economic benefits of labour intensive methods are a distinct bonus. The Chris Hani branch contract will not only create employment for hundreds of people now without work, but will leave them with the skills for continued economic activity. We foresee that those workers trained to lay asphalt surfaces will be able to set up small subcontracting groups to lay asphalt, driveways or maintain the roads in small municipalities.”

“It is my belief that the system we’ve instituted now – whereby a worker receives training in a single module, moves immediately into income-earning acativity and receives a certificate for that module – will find far wider acceptance. Having received certificates for all modules over the course of one large or several smaller projects, the worker can then hand these in and receive his overall diploma in the same way a student gets credit for courses at university or at technikon,” Forrester-Jones said. (The Labour Pool Worker training programme, following a basic introduction to business principles, includes modules on supervision, kerb manufacture and laying, underground services (pipework), block-making and toilet construction, roadworks, manhole construction.)

While overall productivity has been easily maintained and sometimes exceeded (proof that the original task loading per man or per team was, in most cases, very accurately assessed) it has been necessary to adopt some new (and some not so new) working methods.

He said the control of labour had proved to be manageable that enthusiasm and motivation levels were high. And that the cost effectiveness of the overall project compared very favourably with conventional methods. “Many teams or gangs are exceeding their work targests – although some choose to work to a ‘time and finish’ system and go home in the early afternoon after completing their task and we are very satisfied, occasionally even surprised, byt the productivity we’ve achieved. Our bush clearing team, for example, staggered me with a work rate more than double our expectations and we were able to hold his team up to others as an example of what can be achieved and how much money can be made.” Forrester-Jones said that occasionally it has been becessary to yield on task targets or to amend them. With the Cape’s high water table trenches often became untenable for manual excavation. After consultation with the community and the consultants, it was agreed to excavate by machine and allow the work team to make up the lost income by laying additional pipe in the prepared trench.

“For maximum productivity, however, it is vital to select and groom a good, strong team leader, who is the only communication conduit between site management and workers. With strong team leadership, productivity targets are attainable, manageable and economicallt viable. In fact we are so pleased with the methods and systems we’ve evolved that I am applying some of the principles on contracts in George and Mossel Bay, although these are not essentially labour-intensive projects.”

Over an extended period of time Graham Power has been energetically leading a concerted effort to establish a system, whereby labour enhanced construction can take its place in the array of tools available for the development of infrastructure.