Construction activities for SKA-Mid telescope are ramping up

BY TRACY CHEETHAM (SKAO)

The construction programme at SKA-Mid in the Karoo, South Africa, is progressing well. After almost two years of the expected seven-year construction phase of the telescope, 13 contracts have been awarded for SKA-Mid, with 13 more to go.

These contracts were awarded in a variety of countries including the UK, South Africa, Italy and Spain, and include software development, supporting professional services contracts, items required for the first construction milestone (AA0.5 delivery), and a major contract for infrastructure construction. In South Africa, a joint venture between Power and Adenco construction companies was awarded the major local infrastructure contract, known as Infrastructure 1.

Land access

A key dependency for building the telescope is land access. Overall, the National Research Foundation owns 90% of the land where SKA-Mid will be located and construction licences have been secured for this land. In addition, 73 “pockets” of land are required for the telescope’s “spiral arms” where servitude agreements are needed so the SKAO can have access and install the SKA-Mid dishes. Of these, 56 have been secured with landowners with the others in the process of negotiation.

The site conditions report, which describes the state of the land and infrastructure before construction commences, is currently being reviewed and finalised. This report is a critical document as it will form a baseline description of the land as an input to the decommissioning plan which will require the land to be returned to the same condition or better when SKA-Mid is eventually decommissioned in 50+ years.

SKA-Mid facilities

The SKA-Mid team has established an interim Engineering Operations Centre at Klerefontein, close to the telescope site in Losberg, Karoo, until the long-term Engineering Operations Centre (EOC) is constructed by SARAO, as part of its host country responsibilities.

The concept design of the long-term EOC has been completed and SARAO has advertised the tender for the design and construction of this facility. It will include new offices, meeting rooms, a server room, stores, mechanical, electrical and instrumentation workshops and a Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) reverberation chamber and is expected to be completed late in 2025. This will accommodate up to 70 SKAO staff in addition to site entity personnel (SARAO staff). SARAO is also preparing the design and construction tender for the long-term, Cape Town-based SKA Science Operations Centre and Science Processing Centre.

The Engineering Operations Centre (EOC) in Klerefontein, near the site where the radio telescope is being built in the Karoo.

Credit: Lindsay Magnus

An SKA-Mid antenna foundation under construction.

Credit: Hendrik Hurter/SKAO

Community meetings

Together, the SKAO and SARAO have incorporated important lessons learnt within the communities from the building of the MeerKAT telescope into planning for SKA-Mid. Extensive stakeholder engagements have been conducted this year with the local authorities and communities to discuss all aspects of the SKA project, particularly during the construction phase.

A requirement of the Infrastructure 1 contract awarded to Power Adenco is to ensure a certain level of local participation from the surrounding communities of Brandvlei, Van Wyksvlei, Carnarvon, and Williston. As such, Power Adenco is assessing the skills levels of the local enterprises and workforce to ensure a common understanding of the opportunities for work and needs for upskilling, and to ensure that local people can respond to construction opportunities. Following the community engagement meetings, Power Adenco has also established databases on the local labour force and small and medium-sized enterprises.

The communities have welcomed the chance to engage so thoroughly, and turnout at the community meetings has been very encouraging and positive.

SKA-Mid construction is on track with new personnel coming on board regularly. With the infrastructure construction designs underway and early access in progress, the exciting reality of AA0.5 is now in sight.