CMA TO HOLD FOUR SEMINARS ON CONCRETE RETAINING BLOCK WALLS:
Article Date: 12 June 2008
The Concrete Manufacturers Association (CMA) is to stage four half-day afternoon seminars on the design, construction and reinforcing of concrete retaining block (CRB) walls this year, the first having been scheduled for July 31 in Polokwane.
Other venues include: Bloemfontein (August 7); Port Elizabeth (September 22); and East London (September 23).
CMA director, John Cairns, says the seminars have proven to be a huge success since they were first introduced in 2006. Aimed at engineers and contractors, they will be addressed by well known CRB experts, Alan Parrock, Garth James, Linda Dobie and Silvio Ferraris, and will cover essentially the same material used in previous years.
Parrock is a partner of a leading geotechnical engineering consultants ARQ. James is marketing director at Kaytech, a leading supplier of reinforcing material, Dobie is managing director of FRS, a specialist CRB walling contractor and Ferraris is vice president of the CMA’s CRB Division. All have considerable experience and an in-depth knowledge of CRB walling.
Cairns says the events are registered with SAICE (South African Institution of Civil Engineering) and participants will qualify for CPD points.
“The seminars are being held to address poorly constructed and inadequately specified CRB walls, the occurrence of which is countrywide and far too frequent.
“Poorly constructed walls can and do collapse, endangering human life and causing damage to property worth R-millions. There are several factors which can trigger the collapse of a poorly constructed CRB wall. Many walls are inadequately specified from the outset, and this leads to poor construction and corner cutting. All it takes is one bout of unusually heavy rainfall to cause multiple wall failure,” notes Cairns.
The seminars are free and anyone wishing to attend them should contact Pam Zukor at the CMA on (011) 805-6742 or main.cma@gmail.com .
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