The work under
and around it.
Some projects need more than a building. Grottos, conference complexes, campus roads, parking and drainage: the civil scope that decides whether a site still works once it is occupied.
The part clients forget
to budget for.
Civil work is what makes a site usable. It is frequently the scope left out of an early budget, and the scope that causes trouble when it is.
Clearing, earthworks, cut and fill, and levelling to the drawn levels.
Access roads, internal circulation, parking areas and driveways.
Surface water drainage, channels and soakaways, set out so water leaves the site rather than standing on it.
Retaining structures, boundary walls, walkways and external steps.
Tennis courts, playing fields and outdoor institutional structures.
Roads, houses and farmland disturbed by our operations are made good.
Why a civil job runs
differently from a building.
Civil work is governed by levels and falls. We survey and confirm them against the drawings before anything else, because a drainage error is expensive to find later.
On an occupied campus the work is programmed around what has to keep running. That is agreed before we start, not negotiated on site.
Cut, fill and compaction with our own compactors and loaders, tested before anything is laid over it.
Drainage goes in before the surface above it. Reversing that order is the most common reason a car park floods in its first rainy season.
Roads, parking and paving laid to the confirmed falls.
Anything disturbed beyond the site boundary is put back before the work is certified.
Civil scope needs different plant from a building. All of it is ours.
Seven civil contracts.
Fewer than the building record, and each one listed with where it is.
Before they commit.
Can you do the civil work if another contractor is putting up the building?
Yes. Several of the contracts below were civil packages on sites where buildings were already standing, including the parking, driveways, tennis court and football field at Whitesands School.
Can you work on a site that is still in use?
Yes, and most of our institutional civil work has been exactly that. The programme is built around the occupier rather than the other way round, and it is agreed before we start.
What happens to the roads and farmland around the site?
They are made good. Donkem operates a standing local content and community policy on every contract: roads, houses and farmland disturbed by our operations are reinstated, and compensation runs beyond cash to repairs, replacement and relief supplies.
Do you employ locally on civil contracts?
At least 30 per cent of the labour force is recruited from the project host community, and unskilled roles such as security, cleaning and craft trades are sourced locally.
Most jobs need
more than one.
Talk to the people
who will build it.
Send the brief and we will price it, or reach the office directly. Either way you hear back within one business day.
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