Saldanha Bay Facilities

South Africa, Saldanha Bay, Western Cape Province

BACKGROUND

In 2008, the need for a new sick bay facility at Saldanha Military Base was realised as the facility was found unsuitable for a variety of medical reasons; however, due to a lack of land availability, the project could not commence. As a result, the facility further deteriorated. In recent years, crime was also a problem at the sick bay facility.

More recently, the Department of Public Works and the Department of Defence initiated a project to build a new sick bay facility at the Saldanha Military Base, Farm 284/2 in Malmesbury. The building was envisioned to be a 1 720 m2 single-storey building comprising three main components:

  • Main building containing all medical function rooms, ancillary rooms, and ablution facilities and also including dental,physiotherapy, and social services rooms, a pharmacy, and a waiting area.
  • Detached medical staff support rooms, a guard room with overnight accommodation, domestic and medical waste stores,refuse rooms, and mechanical and electrical plant rooms
  • A detached gate house for ingress and egress control.

SERVICES RENDERED

The Department of Public Works and the user-client, the Department of Defence, required the services of a multidisciplinary engineering consultancy to provide civil, structural, electrical, and mechanical engineering services, as well as architectural and quantity surveying services for the construction of the new sick bay facility.

Being a medical facility, very specific requirements had to be met with regard to ventilation, lighting, and temperature control which are governed by Acts of government. In addition, security needed to be linked to the military police and had to include CCTV, alarm systems, and lighting. The facility also had to be able to cater for mass casualty scenarios, which required adequate space for the manoeuvrability of ambulances.

CLIENT NAME: Department of Public Works

LOCATION: South Africa, Saldanha Bay, Western Cape Province

PROJECT DURATION: 40 months

START DATE: June 2014

END DATE: October 2017

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