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One of the nominations for this year's Western Cape Branch Award for Excellence in Civil Engineering was the Romansbaai Abalone Farm near Gansbaai.
This project consisted of the development and construction of a 'farm' for Seaplant Products on which abalone (perlemoen) can be artificially bred for commercial purposes. The project was designed in stages, with the initial phase to cater for an annual production of 50 t, capable of being upgraded to 200 t.
The seawater intake consists of an inlet chamber located some 200 m out to sea and two 400 mm concrete-encased HDPE suction pipes leading to a pump station. Below the high water mark, the pipeline route was carefully selected to take advantage of a 'valley' in the natural rock, minimising rock...