Structural Steel projects in Africa
In North Africa our structures are in Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia, Libya, Somalia, Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco. Even in the little Moroccan port of Larache, some 50 miles down the African coast from Tangier, there are 18 of our buildings used as hangars, go-downs and customs houses.
In Eritrea, on the Red Sea, a number of our lattice portals were used to build a large agricultural school in 1934, while in Ethiopia, on the single-track railway line from Addis-Ababa to Djibouti, the steel framework and cladding for every one of the 22 railway stations was supplied by us in 1936. This line, in 1984, carried 1,000 tonnes of our steel buildings for 20 large grain stores to help with famine relief at Nazareth in Ethiopia.
We were back in Djibouti again 47 years later to erect a generating station, bottling plant and associated buildings in the Gulf of Tadjourah.
In 1990 we shipped a large number of produce store buildings through Djibouti destined for Sudan, 25 for Gezira, 11 for Rahad, 8 for new Halfa and 3 for Suki. For Kenana Sugar Company of Khartoum we supplied two large warehouses and associated buildings.
We have recently been to Somalia building warehouses, offices and workshops at Berbera and Mogadishu for the United Nations Relief Organisation. Berbera was the home of the Barbary pirates of 200 years ago and, amongst other things a base for RAF Spitfires during World War 2. In Kenya we made the workshop at Kifaru Camp for the army.
In West Africa our buildings are almost everywhere, from Mauri, Senegal, Liberia, the Ivory Coast, Benin, Dahomey, Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea right down to the Congos and Angola. For Zambia we made a hovercraft hangar.
A multi-storey hotel building at Banjul in The Gambia is helping the tourist trade whilst further up the river Kanifing are a variety of stores and warehouse buildings. We also supplied all the steelwork for the new fish and meat market.
A lot of our work is to be found in Ghana, including the recent terminal building at Kotoka Airport. Eastwards, Uganda, Tanzania, Madagascar, Mauritus and the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean account for at least 100 of our buildings between them. At the port of Beira in Mozambique there is a new warehouse of 10,000m2 designed and made by us – We supervised the erection work too.
In Nigeria, school buildings at Kano, cinemas at Jos, a distillery in Lagos and a tyre factory at Warri etc., cover thousands of square metres. For the Nigerian Air Force we designed, made and erected at Kainji 400 miles north of Lagos, a large hangar of 4,500 square metres with a clear entry width of 90 metres for C130 Hercules transport aircraft.
We even contributed to the road system nearby, between Wawa and Kaima, by supplying several large multi-span beam bridges using no less than 17,000 welded 24mm shear connectors for the composite decks.
At Freetown in Sierra Leone we constructed the framework for the Centenary Building and a large clinic at Kenema as well as many warehouses and factories.
At Gao Airport in Mali there are no less than 26 of our smaller buildings and the old air route across the desert to Algeria was pyloned in 1935 with another 36, roofed in red and white glazed enamel sheets and spaced one every 14 miles.
In Lesotho, that land locked Republic (surrounded by South Africa) a ring road has been built right around the country for which we designed, made and supervised the erection of the multi-span hot dip galvanised double lane steel bridge at the Maputseng River Crossing.