Increasing numbers of South African architects and structural engineers, many of whom were slow to adopt hollow-core technology, are now using it as a means to safe-guard quality, accelerate construction time and save costs. Three recent projects serve to illustrate the point. Two involved expanding existing structures, both of which could not have taken place … Continued
The 21st Century has seen South African construction professionals making increasing use of precast hollow-core slabs for the construction of multi-storey buildings and for the extension of existing structures. The MTN Data Centre, Phase 2 project, which necessitated the addition of a second floor to MTN’s Data Centre in Louwlardia Centurion, using Echo prestressed slabs, … Continued
South Africa’s Echo group has had considerable success in finding and developing new markets for hollow-core, especially in security and retaining wall applications. As South Africa has one of the world’s highest crime levels, good security walling has become an unfortunate necessity. The first leg of this article highlights a recent security walling contract which … Continued
One of South Africa’s prestressed hollow-core concrete slab pioneers, Echo Prestress, is celebrating its 20th year. The company was founded in 1995 when a factory was built in Kempton Park to manufacture prestressed hollow-core slabs. Like all green-shoot business ventures there was no guarantee that the market was ready for a substantial increase in prestressed … Continued
CPD Points offered for a Presentation on Precast Hollow-Core Concrete Floors and Walls TWO OPTIONS OFFERED Part 1 OR Part 2 in one session = 0,2 CPD Point OR Part 1 & Part 2 in 2 separate sessions = 2 x 0,2 CPD Point THE FOLLOWING VENUES ARE OFFERED Presented at your office. The minimum … Continued
ONE of South Africa’s largest steel manufacturers has ringed its Wadeville raw scrap processing plant with a formidable security wall made from toughened Echo prestressed hollow-core concrete panels – and in the process completely eliminated costly losses from scrap theft. The huge wall, 1,2km long, 4,2m high and topped with a 500mm steel palisade, forms … Continued
One of South Africa’s most important development imperatives is to answer the distress calls of hundreds of thousands of South Africans for a decent roof over their heads. In the creation of new high-density housing communities, the Echo Group, the country’s largest manufacturer of hollow-core concrete flooring slabs, is playing a pivotal role. ECHO’s advanced … Continued
SUMMERCON, one of Gauteng’s biggest and busiest home-building companies, has appointed the Echo Group as “exclusive supplier” of hollow-core concrete floor slabs for its sectional-title forward development programmes. “We have tried other hollow-core slabs on an ‘experimental’ basis, but in the end we found that Echo’s combination of product quality, design expertise and on-site professional … Continued
South Africa is 30 to 40 years behind the developed and much of the developing world in the construction of multi-storey buildings. The substantial economic advantages which European, American and Asian construction companies are realising through the extensive use of hollow-core concrete slabs and other precast concrete elements, has to date, largely been lost to … Continued
Echo Prestress has erected a security wall built with its own prestressed hollow-core concrete slabs at its prestressed hollow-core factory in Chloorkop, Gauteng. Constructed in two sections, the wall is 275m long and at its highest point, reaches 5,4m. A 0,6m section of the wall is buried below ground. The walls comprise five tiers of … Continued