And thousands of other job-seekers are registering with the CDC ahead of deployment on construction sites as the giant project gathers momentum.
Mobilisation of construction teams has turned the construction site for the zone and new deep-water port into a hive of activity, with thousands of tons of equipment being assembled.
Executive manager: technical and planning Eugene Heeger says “even seasoned construction managers who have worked on big sites in other parts of the country are impressed with the sheer size and complexity of the operations within the Coega IDZ”.
He says the movement of monster trucks, graders and bulldozers criss- crossing the IDZ area alongside hundreds of workers is taking place within the context of very detailed planning, adding that the activity flows from the awarding of R300-million worth of construction contracts for the IDZ and a further R2,2-billion for the port itself.
He suggests that part of the excitement is that the project site resembles a “huge puzzle” at present, adding that unlike a typical construction site that can be fenced off, the construction activity currently under way on the Coega project spreads across 6 000 hectares, with no central point of entry, and different contractors undertaking different projects.
Mr Heeger says that motorists travelling on the N2 towards Grahamstown, for example, will see considerable activity as they approach the Addo road off-ramp with a 520-unit construction village rising from the clearing of the veld estate.
Built mainly by small, medium and micro enterprise (SMME) contractors, the single-, double- and triple-storey housing units will accommodate the skilled core staff of construction companies from outside the Nelson Mandela metro.
Forming part of the village is a facilities site where the construction is under way on a recreation hall, community centre, sports field and administration offices. At least R40-million has gone into this project alone.
Alongside the village, the underground civil engineering and electrical construction work is continuing, and includes a specialised operation to move a bundle of water pipes from the village across the national road in a “completely underground process”.
“In a highly specialised ‘pipe-jacking’ operation, the contractor will move two-and-a-half-metre lengths of pipe under the surface of the N2 through a 93 metre long ‘jack’ or tunnel using both machine and labour-intensive methods of construction.”
Civil and electrical work for the village is costing more than R13-million.
He says that the haul road cutting across the zone towards the sea is being built by the National Ports Authority (NPA) at a cost of R25-million and will be used to transport rock mined from the quarry at Coega Kop for the construction of the breakwaters that form part of the Port of Ngqurha.
The road is being built in such a way that it will self-destruct after three years and the right-hand lane will be stronger than the left to accommodate the weight of the trucks that will be transporting rock towards the sea, but driving back empty. The transportation of the rock is expected to take place on a double-shift, 22-hour-per-day cycle for the next three years.
Running parallel to the temporary haul road is Neptune Road – a R157-million six-lane highway project linking the port and the IDZ that includes a major systems interchange on the national road. A former pig farm now incorporated into the IDZ serves as the temporary contractors’ site for the building of access roads into the metallurgical cluster, the area where a number of large industries are mooted to go, including the aluminium smelter currently under consideration by French company Pechiney.
Across the N2 on the ocean side, 40-ton yellow monster trucks and graders have made their home on the construction site for the port that will be built over the next 36 months while at nearby Joorst Park, builders are completing a R4-million refurbishing contract of the dilapidated former municipal holiday cottages, in preparation for contractor core staff accommodation.
