It was yet another successful night for Royal HaskoningDHV as they walked away with one of the biggest accolades at the South African Institution of Civil Engineers (SAICE) National Awards held on Friday, 12 October 2018.
The multi-award winning Grayston Pedestrian Bridge commissioned by the Johannesburg Development Agency was crowned overall winner in the Transportation Engineering Division Award at the event held at the Southern Sun, Cape Sun in Cape Town.
This win comes on the back of successes at the SAICE Johannesburg Regional Awards held in Midrand held on the 5th July where the bridge was awarded the Most Outstanding Civil Engineering Achievement – Community Based Category. It was also awarded the Most Outstanding Project in each SAICE Division – Transport Engineering Category. It came 2nd in the Most Outstanding Civil Engineering Achievement – Technical Excellence Category. It came 3rd in the Most Outstanding Project in each SAICE Division – Structural Engineering Category.
The Grayston Pedestrian Bridge forms part of a pedestrian and cycling corridor built to connect residents of Alexandra Township to Sandton in Johannesburg. Alexandra is one of the poorest urban areas in South Africa whilst Sandton is one of the most affluent. Previously separated by vehicle-centric infrastructure, the “Great Walk” project includes integrated bus rapid transit systems and provides unobstructed daily movement for the 10 000 people who make that journey via a 6m wide sidewalk and bicycle lane with a 289 m long cable-stayed pedestrian bridge over the busy M1 freeway at Grayston Interchange.
Commenting on this achievement, Royal HaskoningDHV Senior Structural Engineer, Darryl Klassen said, “Overall, this was a challenging yet tremendously rewarding project. The completed bridge is both functional and aesthetically pleasing. The fact that it serves such an important socio-economic purpose is fundamental to the sense of achievement the whole team gained from the work. As a company, Royal HaskoningDHV states its vision as ‘enhancing society’ – and we have certainly achieved that with the Grayston Pedestrian Bridge.”
