After several months of a lull, concreting works have resumed at the 600MW Karuma Hydropower project.
The stoppage was as result of identified cracking in the dam section of the project, leading to a halt in works to examine the probable causes and definitive remedies.
As a result, Electricity Generation Company, UEGCL, as well as the contractor Sinohydro Corporation from China partnered in finding teams of experts, both local and international to get a solution to this glitch.
According to a statement issued by UEGCL, the experts worked on reducing the temperature of the concrete during placement as well as improvement on the placement methods, which demanded the use of agitator trucks.
A cooling plant has since been installed on site to ensure concrete is placed at 20 degrees Celsius.
Having rectified the cracks on the dam section, concreting works in the Power House section began early this year using the prescribed concreting methods.
Currently, the contractor, Sinohydro, has completed over 95% of the tunneling excavation and is currently concreting the tunnel.
The USD 1.7 Billion project is expected to be commissioned in December 2018. So far, the project is at slightly over 50% completion.
“This is a massive achievement in very difficult conditions and shows the seriousness of Sinohydro Corporation to deliver this critical project”, says Mr Deng Changyi, the Acting Project Manager.
According to Mr Dengserious efforts have also been made to increase local content by having in place local purchase agreement with Kampala Cement, Hima Cement as well as purchase of Steel products from Roofings Limited. It should be noted that over 4000 Ugandans are currently employed by the project.
Six Turbines with an installed capacity of 100 MW are currently being assembled off-shore by French Multinational Power generation equipment manufacturer Alstom. These are expected to be delivered and installed mid this year.
The progress of works on the Karuma project have been appreciated so far, by the Eng. Badru Kiggundu led Project Steering Committee PSC. President Yoweri Museveni, last year, constituted the committee to carry out oversight supervision of the Karuma Hydro Power Project.
It comprises among others, Permanent secretaries of the Ministries of Finance and Energy, the Solicitor General, as well as the Chief executives of UEGCL and Uganda ElectricityTransmissionCompanyLimited.
“We have all hands on Deck, marshalling the government implementation agency UEGCL, the contractor Sino Hydro and the supervisor to ensure a seamless execution of the project,” Said Eng. Kiggundu. He added that his committee is keen to have the contractor deliver on quality assurance as well as meeting of timelines.
“With this renewed commitment from Sinohydro and the remedial action so far taken to make right what had previously gone wrong, we are now confident that this project shall be delivered in Time, within Budget and to agreed technical specifications,” added Eng. Harrison Mutikanga, CEO UEGCL.