The success of tilt-up construction at the Gateway development at
Umhlanga Rocks has been recognised with a major international award.
Tilt-up Contractors' Association (TCA) of the United States has
judged Gateway's use of tilt-up as the best application of the system
globally last year in the TCA's Retail category.
Charles van Eck Jr, of Tilt-up Technologies in Durban - the company
involved in the much-acclaimed Gateway project - flew to the US
recently to receive the award at a TCA meeting held at the World of
Concrete exposition in Las Vegas.
Van Eck's visit to the Expo provided him with an opportunity to
promote the merits of tilt-up construction and discuss its success in
Southern Africa. He presented two papers: one on the Gateway contract
and the other on the challenges and opportunities for tilt-up in
Southern Africa.
The cost-effective tilt-up building method is a special form of
precast concrete construction. It entails jobsite prefabrication,
during which the walls of a new structure are cast horizontally
before being tilted to a vertical position and fixed in place.
The Cement & Concrete Institute has recently produced an informative
leaflet on 'Owner Benefits of a Tilt-up Building'.
