Stock photo
South Africa
The construction of one of the world’s largest coal‑fired power stations faced delay and disruption amid failures of high‑strength steel bolts installed across a gigantic air‑cooled condenser structure, roughly 11No football fields in plan and about 70m tall. Hundreds of thousands of bolts were identified as potentially defective, prompting extensive replacement campaigns and a high-value dispute between the principal contractor and the steelwork subcontractor, ultimately referred to an International Arbitration.
For the purposes of this complex matter, I was asked to investigate the structural risk arising from the bolt failures and whether the bolt-replacement campaigns could have been devised in a manner that prevented critical delay. This work also included supporting the preparation of expert testimony for the arbitration proceedings.