Tiling installation materials, tiling tools, building solutions and construction adhesives manufacturer and supplier Tal has supplied its largest order of X-Calibur X-Stop polyvinyl chloride (PVC) Waterstop extruded water bars to date to the lower Thukela bulk water supply scheme, near Mandeni, in KwaZulu-Natal, over the past year.
“Tal supplied about 3 400 m of the four X-Stop PVC Waterstop profiles for use in the project’s concrete reservoir structures. These profiles include the CF 250X, the CF 250C, the RF250 X and the RF250C,” Tal sales representative Dylan Weweje tells Engineering News.
The X-Calibur range of products, which Tal manufactures under the X-Calibur licence in South Africa, includes construction-specific items which include waterproofing systems, concrete repair and rehabilitation products, as well as specialised flooring systems.
The X-Stop PVC Waterstops are manufactured from a high-quality virgin PVC compound, which has been formulated to provide substantial flexibility and durability when used in concrete construction. Product advantages include a proven design, which incorporates a four- diamond bulb design that handles compression and extension well. The deep rib tortuous path provides better bond for concrete and water tightness, and a wide expansion bulb enables joint fillers to be fully supported.
Other key features include reinforced eyelet edge flanges for positive fixing and a range of intersection pieces, which allow for simple on-the-job-site welding, Weweje points out.
While the company has completed the delivery of the waterstops, Weweje says Tal remains involved in specifying, recommending and supplying the appropriate products to the construction industry as the contractors incorporate the products into the water retaining structures. Depending on future scheme expansions, Tal is positive that the company will supply more products to the scheme, Weweje says.
The Thukela bulk water scheme project will provide infrastructure for the extraction, treatment and distribution of water from the Thukela river to the existing network.
Further, the scheme “will ensure that the areas in the North Coast, to the north of Durban up to the Thukela river, are supplied with the requisite amount of water as the demand for this precious resource continues to grow in this area”, according to the South African government website.
Construction includes reinforced-concrete water-retaining structures, a high-lift pumpstation, continuously welded steel pipelines, high-density polyethylene interconnecting pipework and sludge return pipelines, service water and sewerage reticulation systems, stormwater pipes and canals, as well as a chemical dosing building, a chlorination building, a centrifuge building, a gatehouse and an administration building.
Tal also supplied the X-Calibur X-Stop PVC Waterstop to the Manguang municipality’s New North eastern wastewater treatment facility, in Bloemfontein, and the South African National Roads Agency’s N2 Ballito Interchange project, on the North Coast of Kwazulu-Natal, over a three-month period in 2013/14, where the product was incorporated into the road structure to prevent leakage and damage to the structures.
