NEW TESTING FACILITY: Lindokuhle Mahlangeni and Sandiswa Jekwa both candidates at SANRAL’S Centre of Excellence (wearing white coats) with senior laboratory manager Jeremy Dick (left) and Sean Strydom SANRAL’S material lab technician.
SANRAL recently announced the opening of a new engineering materials laboratory that will see road materials from across the Eastern Cape now tested in Port Elizabeth. The facility will also double up as a skills development centre where graduate engineers in SANRAL’s experiential learning programme can get invaluable exposure to and even focus on materials engineering.
The civil engineering materials testing lab enables SANRAL to test the properties of construction materials used in road maintenance activities as well as in development and upgrading of the national roads. It will also give SANRAL a second-tier quality assessment tool through comparative or correlation tests done independently from, but concurrently with, the tests of site material labs conducted on conventional road engineering projects in the province.
“Having an independent comparison is widely regarded as one of the most valuable tools to check the site lab’s accuracy,” says Sean Strydom, SANRAL Southern Region materials specialist.
“The accuracy of test results have a significant impact on whether we accept or reject the quality of work in our efforts to deliver roads that are in line with international standards. Any additional assurance of the accuracy is of great value,” he explains.
“Through this initiative, we will be able to ensure that remote site material labs are compliant with the quality management standards similar to what is required for the accreditation of a materials testing labs through the South African National Accreditation System (SANAS),” he says.
The new engineering materials laboratory consists of testing facilities to determine the properties of soils and gravel, asphalt, concrete and bituminous binders. On a more advanced level, the lab has been equipped with a Dynamic Shear Rheometer (DSR) to understand the viscoelastic behaviour of binders used is seal and asphalt surfacing, at medium to high temperatures.
Other testing infrastructures will allow SANRAL to conduct oxygen permeability, water absorptivity and chloride conductivity tests on high durability concrete. In terms of geotechnical testing, drained and undrained triaxle testing on undisturbed or reconstituted samples which will be of huge assistance in the monitoring of potentially unstable slopes along the national road network in the region.
The new road material testing facility in PE also plays a critical role in developing South Africa’s next generation of engineering professionals. It will also serve as a training facility where SANRAL’s Centre of Excellence students can build theirunderstanding of materials engineering through practical experience. The centre currently houses 26engineering graduates from across South Africa ona three-year in-house experiential training programme, which will assist them to be able to register as professional engineers.
“From a developmental perspective, it is critical to ensure that South Africa’s future engineers have a fundamental understanding of the properties of the materials used in road infrastructure development,” says Simon Peterson, SANRAL Southern Region Manager.