Cape Town office Structures team were proud to be announced the winner for the 2018 Best International Project at SAICE’s Western Cape Regional Awards, for the Sydney Metro Cable-Stayed Bridge project.

Located in the north west of Sydney this unique, curved three-span cable-stayed rail bridge was constructed using precast segmental concrete. The bridge forms the tail end of a 4.5km elevated viaduct that is part of the new Sydney Metro.

The cable-stayed bridge and its temporary works were designed by SMEC South Africa’s Structures team. The team first conceived the winning tender design, for contactors Salini Impregilio, in a design and build tender. They then went on to develop the detailed design and undertook the erection engineering work for its construction. It was a mammoth task that absorbed a team of up to 15 staff for over four years.

Team members from South Africa included John Anderson (Functional General Manager for Structures); Maja Wilson; Warrick de Kock; Roger Dickson; Raadiyah Gasnola; Nadine Stockwell; Nazeer Muller; Willem Stolk; Jonathan Adams; Mervyn Lewis; William Martin; Nicholas Featherston; Stefan Oberholzer. Derik Hanekom worked on the design of the bridge in the Cape Town office, and subsequently relocated to Sydney in 2015 to work on site.

Curved cable-stayed bridges are rare and curved cable-stayed rail bridges even rarer. The conceptualisation, detailed design and construction of this bridge was a huge technical challenge that went beyond conventional cable stayed practice and technology. The deck superstructure was first built as a seven span continuous girder on temporary supports using an overhead self-launching gantry. Thereafter the bridge was converted into a three span cable stayed bridge and the temporary supports were removed. The challenge became the integration of precast segmental technology with the demands of cable stayed bridge construction.