SMEC South Africa wins Fulton Award for Mt Edgecombe interchange
 | Press release_SMEC South Africa wins Fulton Award for Mt Edgecombe interchange | 30.5 KB | Download |
 Preview | (L to R) Callie Coetzee, Senior Engineer, SMEC Durban; Gert van Schalkwyk, Professional Technologist SM; and Corne Roux, SANRAL | 533.67 KB | Download |
 Preview | SMEC South Africa was also commended for the stress-ribbon Pacaltsdorp Pedestrian Bridge. | 3.05 MB | Download |
 Preview | The Mount Edgecombe Interchange won in the Infrastructure Category at the 2017 Fulton Awards. | 730.17 KB | Download |
The Fulton Awards, held every two years by the Concrete Society of Southern Africa, took place at a venue in the dramatic Drakensberg mountains on 3 June. Named for the late Dr Sandy Fulton, the awards continue to celebrate the legacy of scientific and technological advances in concrete within the built environment.
The judges’ citation stated that this project showcases the use of concrete in civil engineering infrastructure, encompassing nine new road bridges, one new pedestrian bridge, nine mechanically-stabilised earth walls, and three soil nail retaining walls.
It featured three simultaneous incremental launches, with a combined deck length in excess of 1.5 km, the longest incrementally-launched viaduct in the Southern Hemisphere, and three incremental launches being constructed simultaneously. This is a South African first.
It was constructed under difficult conditions, having to deal with maintaining the requirements of the heavy existing traffic demands within a congested site. Due to the vast scope, the wide variety of engineering disciplines and different construction elements, a total of 41 concrete mixes were designed for this project, as well as three different grout mixes, and two different sprayed concrete (shotcrete) mixes.
“South Africa’s largest interchange, with its wide use of finishes, techniques, and elements, is a deserved winner of the Fulton Award in the Infrastructure Category,” declared the judges. SMEC South Africa was also proud to be awarded a Commendation: Innovation in Concrete for the Pacaltsdorp Pedestrian Bridge.
This multi-span arch structure, supporting a stress-ribbon deck, with the shallow arches flowing across the highway, and the stress ribbon across the arch, is both unique and innovative. The design created an aesthetically-pleasing, self-anchored structural system that is semi-integral, with the practical advantage of no expansion joints. Conventional formwork was used for the deck, with the soffit following simple circular curves.
“The fact that this bridge is thought to be a world-first for a concrete self-anchored, arch-supported, stress-ribbon bridge, and showcases how functional concrete structures can be a positive addition to the local environment, makes it worthy of a commendation in this category,” the judges concluded.
Ends
Notes to the editor
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About SMEC South Africa
SMEC’s origins date back to the iconic Snowy Mountains Hydroelectric Scheme in 1949. Today SMEC is consistently recognised for technical excellence and design innovation by the world’s leading engineering bodies. Striving to deliver service excellence across a range of industry sectors, SMEC has developed and refined a core service offering covering the lifecycle of a project. SMEC’s projects help to generate economic wealth and provide essential infrastructure services in some of the world’s fastest growing economies. SMEC is a member of the Surbana Jurong Group. www.smec.com.
About Surbana Jurong
Surbana Jurong Private Limited (SJ) is one of the largest Asia-based urban, industrial and infrastructure consulting firms. Leveraging technology and creativity, SJ provides one-stop consultancy solutions across the entire value chain of the urbanisation, industrialisation, and infrastructure domains. Headquartered in Singapore, the SJ Group has a global workforce of 13 000 employees in 113 offices across 44 countries in Asia, Australia, the Middle East, Africa, and the Americas, and an annual turnover of around S$1.3 billion.
SJ has a track record of over 50 years, and has built more than a million homes in Singapore, crafted masterplans for more than 30 countries, and developed over 50 industrial parks globally. SJ’s motto of ‘Building Cities, Shaping Lives’ reflects its belief that development is more than just steel and concrete. SJ creates spaces and infrastructure services where people live, work, and play, shaping cities into homes, with sustainable jobs, where communities and businesses can flourish. www.surbanajurong.com.
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