Maguga Dam - survey and planning

The Maguga Dam Network (MDN) had allocated an area for resettling of residents affected by the construction of the Maguga Dam, Swaziland. This area was very remote and had absolutely no infrastructure. The project therefore involved a proper planning scheme. This planning scheme involved an agricultural development program, a layout of residential areas and business areas and a design for a fully functional Cane road.

The Agricultural scheme required irrigation areas to be planned on arable land. With the assistance of our surveyors and the Agricultural engineers these areas where identified without any impact on the settlement areas and road design. These areas also required a canal to service them with water from the Komati River. A detail survey 50m wide along a route of 26km's in dense bush was required for design purposes. The layout of the residential and business areas was planned both in the office and in the field. A field surveyor equipped with a Differential GPS (0,5m accuracy) assisted the project team in allocating the most suitable areas to residential and business areas. This meant taking the ground aspect into account.

A detail survey of the route for a 6 km access "cane" road was completed for design purposes. Our survey office was allocated the task of checking all setting out works for the design team as the various phases of construction commences.

1. The main benefits of this project were:
2. Due to the size of the project survey technicians gained valuable experience in managing their teams within the scope of the entire project.
3. The limited amount of useable land was utilised efficiently.
4. With a compliment of 4 fully equipped survey teams, the design engineers were able to complete their tasks within the time frame.