Eighteen months later and at a cost of R20-million, the Metro Rail railway line on the southern bank of the Toti River mouth will be repaired, after a train capsized into Toti lagoon in December 2012.
Boet Fredericks of Leomat was the man in charge of the rehabilitation of the dune that was slowly eroded by the Toti River, which led to the collapse of the line.
“We only started work on the project last October, almost a year after the incident, because of red tape,” he said. “Still, we managed to finish the earthworks a month ahead of schedule.”
To stabilise and build up the dune, they first had to dig down to bedrock, before laying about 1,800 sand-filled bags in 14 rows. The bags measure 2m x 1.4m x 0.6m and were filled with an excavator. “We laid two rows of bags on top of heavy-duty bidim cloth, then folded the cloth back on top of them and back-filled with sand. We repeated this, then laid top soil on top and planted vegetation to stabilise the top soil.”
The width of the bank at the furthermost point is now extended to about 12.5 metres and 8m in height.
A water pipe was run underneath and the plants are watered every second day. A fence encloses the dune to protect the vegetation and stop anyone from sliding down the dune.
“The main problem we faced was theft. We had a tractor loader backhoe (TLB), which had been barricaded and enclosed with Jersey barrier (concrete) blocks, stolen one night, along with two trailers at a cost of about R600,000.
Every morning we first had to check what condition the water was in before we could plan our day’s activities.”
The earthworks were finished at the end of April and the project was handed over to a sub contractor at the beginning of the month to lay the second line and complete the cabling.
For the project Boet has to have a Metro Rail-approved safety officer on duty as they are only allowed to cross the existing track between 8.30am and 3.30pm every day. The crossing they are using, just past the bridge over the Toti Lagoon, is also not an official crossing.
The second line should be complete in about six weeks.
