South African construction company Concor has won a Civil Engineering award for the Construction World’s Best Projects 2020 with its Roggeveld Wind Farm. The 47-turbine, 147MW project has been developed by Red Rocket under a government initiative and constructed by EPC contractor Nordex Energy South Africa.

Concor successfully completed the civil balance of plant work, including turbine bases spread over a construction footprint of 40 hectares. Accessing the sites for the wind turbine bases and hardstands was over difficult terrain, and required the construction of 34 km of access roadway.

The project consumed about 2000 tonnes of steel reinforcing Concor Project Manager Greg Oosthuizen said that the project’s challenges included the area’s uneven topography, with the highest point at 1,485 metres above sea level and the site offices a full 200 metres lower and that the project’s location is environmentally requiring strict compliance standards in all construction activities.

“We operated ten ready-mix trucks on the project, and carefully managed efficiencies at the batch plant to reduce the turnaround time of these vehicles,” he said, referring to the logistical challenges presented by the batch mixing plant.

He said there was little room for error in base construction, especially regarding the tolerances for the levelling template. With hub heights of 100 metres and rotor diameters of 130 metres, the wind farm is set to become one of the most energy-efficient wind farms in South Africa.