Unemployment is currently at a high level in South Africa. The Dam Safety
Rehabilitation Programme was started in 2005 with the aim of rehabilitating
dams belonging to the Department of Water Affairs. Within the ambit of this
programme, 33 dams have been rehabilitated as at December 2012, with a
further two dams scheduled for completion at the end of March 2013. Several
rehabilitation projects have been completed using labour-intensive methods as
opposed to conventional construction methods. The labour-intensive methods
used on the dam rehabilitation projects include the use of rubble masonry
concrete and brickwork as opposed to using conventional construction methods,
for example, mass- and reinforced concrete. The aim of the research is to probe
the impact of the labour-intensive rehabilitation methods as compared with
conventional construction methods. Five dam rehabilitation projects were
investigated for this project. Three rubble masonry concrete dam rehabilitation
projects were researched in Limpopo Province, namely, Molepo Dam (spillway),
Chuniespoort Dam (spillway and parapet wall) and Mashashane Dam (spillway).
Two other dam rehabilitation projects were included for comparison purposes:
Klein Maricopoort Dam (in North West Province), a conventional concrete
spillway project, and Albert Falls Dam (in KwaZulu-Natal), a brick parapet wall
project. This research explores three key areas, namely, production rates, cost
and productivity. The findings of the research may be generalisable to other
labour-intensive construction on dam rehabilitation projects. The findings
indicate that production rates (man-hours/m3
), decrease with larger volumes of
rubble masonry concrete placed. When comparing rubble masonry concrete
construction with conventional concrete construction, there is an increase in job
opportunities created. The costs of construction using rubble masonry concrete
compared with conventional concrete using the same in-house public sector
contractor were similar in terms of ZAR per m3
. The rubble masonry concrete
structure constructed by the private sector contractor cost less than the rubble
masonry concrete structures constructed by the in-house public sector
contractor in terms of ZAR per m3
. Various reasons for the price difference are
identified in the research project. Productivity (m3
/person/day) was measured for
the different rubble masonry concrete sites and it was found that the private
contractor?s productivity rate was well above the productivity rates of the in-iv
house public sector contractor?s projects. The research report highlights various
reasons to explain this anomaly. The importance of an incentive scheme to
boost productivity on a labour-intensive project is highlighted. The findings of this
research project may provide a guide for future decision making into the use of
labour-intensive constructive methods for dam rehabilitation. The research
concludes that labour-intensive rehabilitation of dams should be continued since
it results in a technically sound and cost-competitive product and creates more
productive labour opportunities per unit of expenditure.