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The R197-million project to consolidate and upgrade the landmark Standard Bank Centre in Simmonds Street in Johannesburg's CDB is well under way, with renovations to the adjacent seven-storey building on Sauer Street already nearing completion.

Standard Bank Properties, which leases 25 Sauer Street (located across from Standard Bank at 5 Simmonds Street), is investing R120-million to upgrade the building in line with the bank's requirements.

It awarded the R64-million refurbishment contract to joint venture partners Group Five and Umthubi Construction. Renovations to the building started in April and the first three floors were complete within four months. The project is scheduled for completion in October.

Group Five has a long standing association with the Standard Bank Centre having completed the Corporate and Investment Banking building at 3 Simmonds Street in 1996. This was followed by extensive renovations to both No 5 and No 3 some years later.

The Sauer Street property spans 19 521 sq metres, including a double basement. It houses some 1 200 bank employees. A new parking garage is currently under construction on an adjacent site to supplement parking to the whole Standard Bank Centre.

The upgrade project involves substantial cosmetic enhancements including new partitioning and lighting. The kitchen and washrooms have been stripped and refitted, and new floor areas are being built.

State-of-the-art security, data and air-conditioning systems have also been installed with a no-break power supply facility supported by stand-by generators.

According to Group Five Building's managing director, Paul le Sueur, the new services, which are installed in the ceiling and floor voids, are connected to plant rooms situated on the roof and in the basement.

"While this is fairly routine work, one of the real challenges involved drilling a 260 mm diameter services tunnel five metres below Sauer Street for individual conduits to link the data optical cabling to the main centre.

"The tunnel proved to be more difficult that originally anticipated," he said, adding that existing services under Sauer Street dictated the depth of the new tunnel.

"At five metres down we hit a great deal of rock so our first attempt, using equipment directed by electrical signals, was unsuccessful."

As a second option a smaller diameter tunnel was drilled using rock-drilling equipment and this was cored out to the correct diameter.

Above ground, the newly refurbished building is linked to the main complex by a skywalk at the second floor level. The skywalk structure, to be clad in glass and aluminium, was erected over a weekend so as to minimise disruption to the traffic.

Working closely with the Johannesburg Roads Agency and Metro Police, Sauer Street was closed after hours on a Friday evening and reopened before rush hour on the Monday morning.

"During this time the circular steel skywalk was delivered to the site in four sections, assembled and lifted into position," said le Sueur.

"We have been an integral part of Johannesburg for 117 years and remain committed to the CBD," Standard Bank chief executive, Jacko Maree, said.

He said the latest project is aimed at consolidating the bank's head office in four buildings: 5, 6 and 3 Simmonds Streets and 25 Sauer Street. In total, these buildings house about 10 000 employees.

The professional team on the renovations comprises TC Design Architects, Norval Wentzel Steinberg quantity surveyors, Pure Consulting, Spoormaker and Partners and Claasen Auret.