South Africa’s leading building materials company, Lafarge South Africa, worked closely with Cape Town architects Stauch Vorster right from the design phase of South Africa’s first green taxi rank in Wallacedene, in the northern suburbs of Cape Town.
For the construction of the building, Lafarge supplied its innovative, market-leading product, Agilia™ self-consolidating concrete.
The product met the requirement that all materials used in the taxi rank had to be environmentally friendly and contribute to a low carbon footprint for the facility. As well as producing high-strength, durable concrete, Agilia™ is popular with architects for extending the boundaries of creative concrete expression.
Lafarge South Africa is the local presence of the international Lafarge Group, the world leader in building materials. The Group is committed to creating solutions that help to build better cities that are more durable and desirable environments to accommodate the global trend to urbanisation. With one of the largest building materials research and development centres in the world, innovation is a core strength of Lafarge.
The Lafarge Tygerberg Readymix plant supplied 133 tons of Agilia™ concrete to construct the columns and beams of the taxi rank structure. The product’s exceptional fluidity enables it to fill all corners and areas in formwork or moulds without the need for vibration, while remaining homogeneous. It is also an ideal product for achieving smoother architectural concrete finishes with minimal need for remedial work. The Lafarge Readymix team from the company’s Cape Town branch provided technical advice and on-site support for the project.
Durability is a key issue in this type of high-traffic public facility. Costing approximately R25 million, the taxi rank is expected to serve around 5,000 commuters daily, travelling in
50 minibuses. The challenge of running cost has been exceptionally well addressed with the structure’s PV panels and battery backup almost eliminating use of Eskom power. Storm-water is captured and stored in underground tanks and recycled for washing vehicles.
“This has been a fascinating project,” comments Herbert Groenewald, building marketing manager – Lafarge South Africa. “Lafarge is proud to have provided solutions for this taxi rank initiative and firmly believes it will be the model for future transport infrastructure development.”
More information from Chantál Stewart, Tel: 011 657 0000 / www.lafarge.co.za
