SOUTH AFRICA PARTICIPATES IN INTERNATIONAL PAVING CONFERENCE:
Article Date: 14 November 2009
 Buenos Aires offers an ideal setting for a conference, providing a rich cultural and architectural heritage which is nothing if not inspirational. This, and the fact that Argentina has been using concrete block paving (CBP) for the past 30 years, is why its capital was chosen as the venue for this year’s international SEPT (Small Element Paving Technologists) Conference.
Attended by 204 delegates, roughly 50% of whom were foreigners, the conference also hosted two South Africans, CMA (Concrete Manufacturers Association) director, John Cairns, and George Hattingh of George Hattingh Consultants.
Cairns, who is on the SEPT committee, presented two papers, “The testing of concrete block pavers” which covered South Africa’s revised paving standard, SANS 1058, and “Permeable Paving Developments in South Africa” a review of the permeable paving installations and applications that have taken place in South Africa to date. The latter was presented as an introduction to CBP at a pre-conference workshop for local engineers.
A total of 57 papers were presented, many of them covering environmental issues, with permeable paving and recycled materials featuring prominently. The conference took place at the Sheraton Hotel between October 18th and 21st and included an exhibition which comprised mainly of paving block manufacturing equipment.
Cairns also attended a meeting of an international group that has initiated a research project to investigate which sub-base materials are best suited to permeable paving surfaces. The project is being funded by the Australian government, as well as the CMA, CMAA (Concrete Manufacturers Association Australia), Interpave UK and UNI North America, and is being spearheaded by world- renowned paving expert, Australia’s Dr Brian Shackel. He is working on the project with Belgium and German universities.
The next SEPT workshop will be held in Dresden, Germany in May 2011, and the next conference takes place in Shanghai during November 2012, back-to-back with China’s BAUMA, an international exhibition of construction and building materials machinery.
Members of the SEPT committee seen here during this year’s SEPT conference at the Sheraton Hotel in Buenos Aires. This gathering represented the following countries: South Africa; Australia; United Kingdom; Germany; Belgium; Columbia; Holland; China; Argentina; Sweden; Israel and the United States.
DATE: November, 2009
ISSUED BY: David Beer Communication Consultants
FOR: Concrete Manufacturers Association
ENQUIRIES: John Cairns (011) 805 6742
David Beer (011) 478 0239 or 082 880 6726. Email: bigsky@ibi.co.za
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