News & Media
GAUTRAIN HUB PAVED FOR HEAVY DUTY
5 May 2009
THE Gautrain depot in Midrand, operational hub of the new Johannesburg-Pretoria fast rail system, is already a busy place, its main external parking area bustling with trade and business traffic rolling across a hard-wearing surface of Technicrete Double Zig-Zag concrete pavers.
A total of 7 800m² of 60mm-thick interlocking paving blocks were laid to form the parking area, an elegant continuous surface overlay enclosed within 560m of Technicrete kerbing.
The depot is getting progressively busier as construction of the rail route continues. All train movements will be coordinated from the operations control centre and the entire Gautrain fleet is to be stabled and maintained there. The depot will also house the bus operations control centre and bus stabling and maintenance centre.
“Because the depot is going to be such a busy place it was necessary to specify a very robust paver to cope with the expected heavy flow of vehicular traffic,” says Wouter Swart, Technicrete’s regional sales manager for Gauteng. “The Double Zig-Zag paving block is tailor-made for this kind of job.”
Known for its very long life, Technicrete’s Double Zig-Zag has long been a popular choice among specifiers for high-load areas such as municipal parking, petrol station forecourts, industrial and factory roads, suburban streets and high-density pedestrian thoroughfares.