Waterkloof runway work delayed

The following is a very rough translation of an Afrikaans article that appeared in the Beeld newspaper:

By Erika Gibson

The reconstruction of the runways at AFB Waterkloof is getting tougher and the chances of completing the construction work before 2010 is getting smaller.

The base is planned to play a large part with the air traffic for the World Cup soccer competition. The tender for the work, which for unknown reasons has been delayed for the third time, is believed to be more than R700 million after the previous budgeted amount was only R90 million.

The Department of Public Transport, Roads and Works, who are handling the tender, said after enquiries this week that no details about the process can be made known as the process is still "at a sensitive stage".

According to Mr Lucky Mochalibane, a spokesman, a contractor has not yet been appointed, but his department and the Department of Defence "are joined in the project and an announcement regarding the progress will made at the appropriate time".

The construction work should have commenced late in 2006, but was delayed to 1 April this year.

The operational squadron who flies Pres. Thabo Mbeki was moved to O.R. Tambo airport at great cost.

The airforce said earlier this year that they were upgrading the navigation equipment at all their bases in order to ensure the safety of visiting aircraft. The repair work on the Waterkloof runway would take a minimum of 20 months and the estimated completion time was April 2009.

The tender process for the design work began in January this year when the costs of the project was R420m, later increasing to R700m. The defence force must find the extra money from its own budget.

The next date to commence work was 1 October this year and a provisional contractor was announced.

The contract is believed to have undergone several definitions.