From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, this is the Real Economy Report.

Sashnee Moodley:
The South African Institute of Civil Engineering has held its 25th yearly school bridge building competition, which sees pupils from across Southern Africa competing and aims to get children to apply engineering principles to make sturdy wooden bridges. Schalk Burger tells us more.

Schalk Burger:
The South African Institute of Civil Engineering’s bridge building competition saw 600 schools in Southern Africa competing, with 10 schools competing in the final in August, in Pretoria. Pupils design bridges and practice building them under tutelage of their teachers or volunteer engineers. However, the judges always place additional requirements on the day of the final. This year the height of the bridges was restricted to 150 mm, forcing some school teams to adapt or abandon their prepared designs. The bridges must span a clear length of 740 mm.

Durban University of Technology Pietermaritzburg engineering lecturer and SAICE bridge building competition supervisor Oliver Rowe gave the students an introductory lecture on the morning of the final. After explaining some of the engineering principles and typical points of failure, and how to avoid them, Rowe gave the students the dimensions of the bridges they had to build by pretending to be an engineering client giving them a tender briefing.

Once built, the bridges are tested to destruction on a specially designed rig to determine the maximum weigh each can carry, though aesthetics and mass are additional factors judges look at when weights are close.

The bridge of the first-place team from Brackenfell High School weighed 220 g and carried 209 kg. The bridge of the second-place team from St. John’s College, in Zimbabwe, weighed 210 g and carried 179 kg before breaking. The bridge of the third-place team HTS Kimberley weighed 225 g and carried 189 kg before breaking.

Durban University of Technology Pietermaritzburg lecturer and SAICE bridge building competition supervisor Oliver Rowe explains some of the principles behind the bridge building competition.

DUT PMB lecturer and SAICE competition supervisor Oliver Rowe

Sashnee Moodley:

Other news making headlines this week.

Rolfes’ Bragan acquisition leads to major profit increase
And, commercial bamboo production may have biofuel potential

JSE-listed chemicals manufacturer Rolfes Group’s acquisition of Bragan Chemicals helped the company achieve a 91% increase in headline earnings, from R41-million to R79-million, for the year ended June 30.
Rolfes CEO Lynette Lynch
 

Growing bamboo commercially could create biofuel possibilities for commercial power generation and serve to sequestrate a percentage of the carbon emitted by the same power generation facilities.
Bamboo specialist Adrian Sutton

That’s Creamer Media’s Real Economy Report. Join us again next week for more news and insight into South Africa’s real economy.