The prestigious annual SAICE--SAFCEC Awards gala event for the Most Outstanding Civil Engineering Achievements for 2015/2016 was held at Emperors Palace, Kempton Park on 13 October and attended by industry leaders and dignitaries from across South Africa.

The awards recognize international and technical excellence, as well as community-based projects and annually honour individuals and projects of excellence.  It provides recognition to well-engineered civil projects which find answers to challenging problems.  The Pacaltsdorp Pedestrian Bridge won the Vital Engineering 2016 Award for Structural Engineering.  The team behind this unique structure were, SMEC South Africa, COA Architecture & Design and Civils 2000.

The professional team behind the architectural design of Pacaltsdorp Bridge COA (Craft Of Architecture) were thrilled to receive the news.  John van Wyk from COA comments “We are delighted with this award.  The bridge engineer specialist from SMEC, John Anderson, envisioned the original ribbon concept which we embraced and is evident in the structure and detailing. It was a pleasure to work with the team and to have this project recognized”.

The new pedestrian bridge over the N2 between Thembalethu and Pacaltsdorp which was opened to Residents of Pacaltsdorp in March 2015, were overjoyed when the bridge was finally fully accessible. Designed using innovative technology with a sophisticated self-anchored stress-ribbon arch bridge structure required highly skilled structural carpenters and left little room for construction error.

The 65 metre-long continuous four-span self-anchored footbridge enables pedestrians from the Pacaltsdorp township access to work opportunities in George and surrounds. For the team it was a challenge to create a design that attracted pedestrians towards the bridge, and away from the highway.

The building of the pedestrian bridge to accommodate the community of Pacaltsdorp is a positive step towards the George Council’s priority of actively improving pedestrian safety along the N2.

The pedestrian bridge and interchange at Pacaltsdorp on the N2 is an exceptional example of a successful partnership between three public institutions - SANRAL, the Western Cape Government and the George Municipality working to the benefit of the citizens of South Africa.