Gold Coast – Sibaya

Gold Coast Estate is a luxury family estate located in the Sibaya Coastal Precinct, which spans over 1000ha and will ultimately incorporate residential, retail and commercial developments. Located between the dense coastal forest and golden sands of KwaZulu Natal’s North Coast, around 60% of the precinct will remain undeveloped. One of our valued relationships provided us with the opportunity to showcase our skills – STRUXIT was able to offer a solution that surpassed the client’s expectations.

As with most projects in a coastal area, the site topography is never flat. Together with poor founding conditions, project feasibility and project timing (the time in which a developer has to launch a new product or offering to market), this added to the complexity of the project. STRUXIT’s scope covered both civil and structural engineering, including customised housing, apartments, a clubhouse and gate houses. Working with the architectural layouts, we reduced the bulk earthwork quantities while maintaining the original design intent. We also interfaced with various site owners, statutory bodies, and other civil engineering firms due to the size of the project and the interfacing thereof with adjacent NOT installed services.

On a structural engineering front, piled foundations are the norm when proposing a suitable founding system to any development situated in a coastal precinct. Due to the high construction cost and relatively long construction time, we proposed raft foundations. Working with one of the leading geotechnical engineers in Durban and Johannesburg we were able to reduce the developer’s construction cost from a piled founding system by 66%.