CONSULTING ENGINEERS
TASEZ ‘CLUSTER 2’ FORD FRAME
T he Ford Frame hub is part of the Tshwane Automotive Special Economic Zone (TASEZ), Africa’s first automotive city. The zone has been conceived to be a catalyst for employment, transformation and socio-economic development and industry growth by being a node attracting automotive suppliers and automotive-related manufacturers, assemblers and supporting services. TASEZ is being built as a partnership between the Ford Motor Company of Southern Africa (Ford) and the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI). The Ford Frame hub is a 100 000 m² facility that consolidates offices, warehouse space for Ford and its suppliers, as well as a chassis E-coating, waxing facility, and assembly line for their vehicles. Zutari was appointed as the Structural Engineers for the building. The Ford Frame building is a massive structure with a footprint of 78 000 m² and a gross building area of approximately 100 000 m² (including the basement) (including canopies and basements). The purpose of the Ford Frame building is essentially to serve as a manufacturing, painting, and storage factory for the new Ford chassis in South Africa. The building hosts the largest Chassis E-coating pit as well as the biggest hoist structure in Africa. The quality of the structural engineering design was one of the pillars contributing to a successful project. There were many challenges in conceiving and delivering the structure for this project, such as: • The building had to be delivered within an extremely short time frame: 14 months from inception of the design process to delivering the final phase of the building to Ford for beneficial occupation. The building had to be completed in phases so that Ford could start installing their equipment, while construction of the remainder of the building was still under way. This posed numerous logistical, operational, and structural challenges as parts of the building had to be completely stable on its own, while other parts were constructed. • Due to the first bullet above, the design and delivery of this project had to run concurrently. The team was in constant collaboration with the Ford and TASEZ Representatives with design coordination meetings happening daily for the first few months. This meant that Zutari had to design the building structure to be as adaptable as possible, since many of the design parameters and constraints were not known at the time of construction. The structure had to provide Ford with the flexibility to “change their minds” at a later stage, within reason. • On this building, the structural system interfaced with all the disciplines and had to accommodate aesthetical, mechanical, electrical, wet-services and fire engineering requirements. It meant that, whereas on more conventional warehousing or commercial buildings the structural engineer mainly interfaces with the architect, on the Ford Frame building Zutari had to collaborate and coordinate directly with all trades, while
complying with the rigid budgetary allowances. The building also had to be made as easily constructable for the contractor as possible. While this had its challenges, since many of the “forces” were opposing (budget vs speed of construction, mechanical openings/weights vs structural, the tenants international design standards vs South African building norms), it also gave Zutari the unique opportunity to co-create the building – which is an exciting prospect for a structural engineer. requirements on the structure resulting from the coating tanks, plant and platforms suspended from roofs as well as dynamic loading from overhead traveling cranes demanded a quality and robust structural design. Serviceability limit states (specifically deflections and vibrations) were the governing factor in most of the cases. • From the above, it is evident that the structural design had to fulfil many functions and had to be of the highest quality so that it could be integrated with the facility’s functionality, while promoting fast-track construction and complying with the budgetary constraints. Zutari promoted the use of Revit/BIM interoperability, which also proved to be of immense value during the reviewing process of structural steel workshop drawings, where Zutari’s 3D models were overlaid on the contractor’s fabrication models, with no loss of accuracy/data during the importing/ exporting process. This process also accelerated turnaround time, allowing the contractor to fast track their fabrication. Navisworks was also used by the entire • Tenant Specific Loading and Functional Requirements: The Ford specialist loading professional team to assist in the coordination of services and the resolving of clashes between the various services, all to mitigate the risk of any delays or abortive works that could lead to negative programme and cost implications.
PROJECT INFORMATION
• Company entering: Zutari • Client: Tshwane Automotive Special Economic Zone (TASEZ) • Main Contractor: WBHO • Steelwork Contractor: Cadcon • Cladding Contractor: Tate & Nicholson • Flooring Contractor: CHC-SA Concrete Floors • Structural Engineer: Zutari • Architects: DGIT Architects • Quantity Surveyor: RPE Consultancy Services
74 21 st Best Project Awards 2022
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