The project
In 2009, ArcelorMittal South Africa initiated a R250 million school building project, through which ten schools will be built in underprivileged areas around the country. With the building of The Meetse-A-Bophelo Primary School, the Mamelodi Township in Tshwane is the first community to benefit from this multi-million rand project by ArcelorMittal South Africa Foundation, and ArcelorMittal Construction.
The remaining nine schools will be built over the next seven years with two schools scheduled for the Eastern Cape and one school each for the other provinces.
All ten schools will be built using light weight steel and Arval panels with the view to promoting the use of steel in domestic buildings.
School profile
Meetse-A-Bophelo Primary School was designed to easily accommodate 1 200 learners at any given time. The site where the new school was built previously accommodated 1500 learners in classes made from prefabricated material.
The nett area on plan of the buildings constructed is 3,367m2 with a further 1,400m2 of walkways and undercover seating areas.
Amount of steel used
Portal frames 101 tonnes
Other steel sections 17,33 tonnes
Lightweight steel 8,10 tonnes
Chromadek roofing 28,47 tonnes
60mm Arval panels total area 4000m2 45 tonnes
Total tonnage 199,90 tonnes
Buildings
The schools consist of:
- An administration building: meeting rooms, offices for the Principal and 2 Vice Principals, staff room, reception, kitchen and toilets.
- A media centre which includes a computer room and library.
- Classrooms which can accommodate 1 200 learners.
- A laboratory.
- An ablution building near the sports fields.
- A Nutrition Centre which includes a kitchen and storeroom.
- A workshop.
- A caretaker's house (2 bedrooms, kitchen/lounge, bathroom)
Labour
A total of 37,428 person days were used to construct the school with 23,788 unskilled and 13,640 skilled person days. Of the total wages paid 1,422 days were paid to women and a further 9,108 days were paid to youths (persons under 35 years).
Labour on site was exposed to various technologies not normally found in domestic or school buildings. These included:
- Raft foundations.
- Steel portal frames.
- Lightweight steel construction.
- Arval panelling.
- Windcolor steel windows and flashings.
- The Vela Modular Building System consisting of expanded polystyrene (EPS) in lightweight steel framing.
- The Ikaya Future House System consisting of EPS core and high tensile, galvanised wire mesh, structural cage.
- Solar heating.
Files to download:
Meetse-A-Bophelo-Primary-School-Mamelodi