Water purification plant repairs

Citi-Con completed major concrete repairs to a water purification plant in the Mpumalanga coal fields on behalf of a leading coal miner.  

Work commenced with the repair of the base of the two concrete tanks, with workers lowered down the 6m-high structures using rope-suspended platforms.

We first drilled a hole into the damaged areas of the bases of the two water-retaining structures. An acrylic reinforced cementitious, flexible waterproof coating was then used to plug these areas. Forming a hard wearing, seamless, waterproof membrane, the liquid was poured directly into the damaged areas via a conduit that was inserted into the various holes that we drilled in the damaged areas of the base of the reservoir.

One of the challenging aspects of this component of the work scope was repairing the 1m diameter pipeline between the two tanks. The team had to enter the pipeline and work in an extremely confined space to seal areas that were leaking.

The damaged areas of the clarifiers were repaired using epoxy-injected grouting methods and Hypalon bandage, which was also deployed to repair concrete defects on the thickeners.

Rope access systems were used by the contractor to gain access to various damaged areas. All of the company’s rope access practitioners have completed their Rope Access Level 2 training and have, therefore, undertaken many thousands of hours working in the field.

Working for a mine, the company had to ensure that it complied with very strict mine health and safety protocol. There were no incidences during the entire duration of the project.