Supplied by Concor
While construction of the Msikaba Bridge has presented multiple technical challenges to the contractor, the CME JV (Concor – Mota-Engil Joint Venture), the project is also involving a range of measures designed to protect the natural environment which will set new standards for the civil engineering industry.
While construction of the Msikaba Bridge has presented multiple technical challenges to the contractor, the CME JV (Concor – Mota-Engil Joint Venture), the project is also involving a range of measures designed to protect the natural environment which will set new standards for the civil engineering industry.
One of the most spectacular civil engineering projects currently underway in South Africa is the Msikaba Bridge near Lusikisiki in the Eastern Cape. A 580 metre long cable-stayed structure, it spans the 198 metre deep Msikaba Gorge and will rank as the third highest bridge in Africa after the Bloukrans Bridge and the still-to-be-built Mtentu Bridge. Both Msikaba and Mtentu form part of SANRAL’s N2 Wild Coast project.
While construction of the Msikaba Bridge has presented multiple technical challenges to the contractor, the CME JV (Concor – Mota-Engil Joint Venture), the project is also involving a range of measures designed to protect the natural environment which will set new standards for the civil engineering industry.
“Part of our work, in collaboration with the environmental consultants, Simply Enviro JV, has involved an ambitious plant search and rescue programme, which has seen 14 788 plants being rescued,” says Bruce Paul, Concor’s Group Environmental Manager. “They were relocated to two on-site plant nurseries, will be monitored for several years and then re-planted within carefully selected ‘no-go’ natural areas within the vicinity of the bridge which would not be affected by construction activities.”
He stresses that care was taken to ensure that all plant species requirements were considered and that plants were only relocated to habitats that matched those where they were found.
Protected and endangered species to benefit from the programme include Stanger’s cycad, the forest cycad, the Oribi spear-leaf conebush, the bugle lily, the fence aloe and the mountain vygie.
A colony of rare Cape vultures – between 170 and 190 breeding pairs that regularly nest in the cliffs of the gorge – also needed to be protected. The Cape vulture, also known as the Cape griffon, was listed in 2015 as a regionally endangered species and the Msikaba colony has been identified by experts as a conservation priority in the Eastern Cape.
“We had to make sure that we did not unduly disturb the breeding pairs and special care had to be taken to ensure there were no chicks in the nests during blasting,” says Paul. “We monitored the colony over a period of a year while blasting for the roadworks and bridge foundations was in progress. No disturbance of the colony was observed, indicating that the control measures implemented were very effective.”
Concor and its partners also had to remove and relocate many snakes, both venomous and non-venomous, encountered at the site. The most common snakes to be relocated were puff adders, night adders, boomslangs, twig snakes and spotted bush snakes.
“Rarely have we been involved in a project where such a range of natural flora and fauna has to be protected on a single site and we are extremely happy with what has been achieved thus far,” says Paul. “The project provides an excellent example of how construction can be carried out responsibly, even in the most environmentally sensitive areas.”
