THE COEGA DEVELOPMENT Corporation has appointed almost 100 contractors to work on various infrastructure projects within the Coega Industrial Development Zone. Some 1 500 people are employed on various construction sites in the zone, with thousands of other job-seekers being registered ahead of deployment on construction sites, according to spokesperson Vuyelwa Vika. Rapid mobilisation by construction teams has turned the construction site for the zone and new deepwater port 20km from Port Elizabeth into a hive of activity, with thousands of tons of equipment being assembled. "Even seasoned construction managers who have worked on big sites in other parts of the country are impressed with the sheer size and complexity of the operations within the Coega IDZ and the mobilisation process currently underway," says CDC executive manager: technical and planning Eugene Heeger. Until now, the area has consisted of vast expanses of marginal farmland, dilapidated buildings and limited activity around a few businesses. The activity emanates from the award of R300-million worth of construction contracts for the IDZ and R2.2 billion for the deep-water port of Ngqura. Contractors on site have described Coega as "an exciting project, which has created a lot of hype in the construction fraternity". Part of the excitement may be that the project site resembles a huge puzzle at present. Unlike a typical construction site which can be fenced off, the construction activity currently underway on the Coega Project spreads across 6000 hectares, with no central point of entry, and different contractors undertaking different projects. Driving on the national road (N2) towards Grahamstown, motorists cannot miss the bustle of activity as they approach the Addo road off-ramp. Rising from the clearing of the veld is a 520-unit Construction Village (CV) housing estate. Built mainly by small, medium and micro enterprise (SMME) contractors, are single, double and triple storey housing units that will accommodate the skilled core staff of construction companies from outside of the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Municipality (NMMM). Forming part of the CV is a facilities site where the construction is underway on a recreation hall, community centre, sports field and administration offices. At least R40 million has gone into this project. Alongside the CV, the underground civils and electrical construction work is continuing, and includes a specialized operation to move a bundle of water pipes from the CV across the national road in a completely underground process. In a highly specialized "pipe-jacking" operation, the contractor will move two-and-a-half metres length of pipes under the surface of the N2 through a 93 metre long "jack" or tunnel using both machine and labour intensive methods of construction. The CV's civil and electrical work is done at a cost of over R13-million. A right-hand turn on the Addo road into the Old Coega Road (R435) leads one into a myriad of more construction and related activity. Rising phoenix-like on the left is the R7, 3-million multi-use recruitment centre, which will be central to the zone's recruitment and labour-related processes. Cutting across the zone from a northerly direction towards the sea is the haul road, which is being built by the National Ports Authority (NPA) at a cost of R25-million. The road will be used to transport rock, which will be mined from the quarry at Coega Kop for the construction of the breakwaters that form part of the deepwater port of Ngqura. The road is built cost-efficiently and in such a way that it will self-destruct after three years. The right-hand lane is built stronger than the left-hand lane, to accommodate the weight of the trucks that will be transporting rock towards the sea, but driving back empty on the left lane. The rock operation is expected to take place on a double-shift 22-hour-per-day cycle for the next three years. The road has already been tarred through an underpass below the national road, with only a couple of hundred metres of construction remaining before it reaches the shoreline. Running parallel to the temporary haul road is Neptune road, a six-lane highway which will link the port and the IDZ, and which will include a major systems interchange on the national road. Systems interchange site manager Phil Simpson describes the R157 million construction job as a "five-star project". However, Simpson adds that construction will use both the mechanical plant and labour intensive methods to ensure job creation and SMME participation alongside the highly specialized technologically driven solutions. A former pig farm now incorporated into the IDZ serves as the temporary contractors' site for the building of access roads into the metallurgical cluster, the area where a number of large industries are mooted to go, including the aluminium smelter currently under consideration by French company Pechiney. Across the N2 on the ocean side, 40-tonne bright yellow monster trucks and graders have made their home on the construction site for the port, which will be built over the next 36 months. At nearby Joorst Park, builders are completing a R4 million refurbishing contract for the dilapidated former municipal holiday cottages, in preparation for contractor core staff accommodation. "Coega is the biggest infrastructure development project currently underway in South Africa. We've always said that the project is a huge one which will have a significant, long-term impact on this region. The large construction operation and the economic impact which is already apparent as a result of the many contractors who have been mobilized, reflects that scale," says Heeger.