Annually, Consulting Engineers South Africa (CESA) celebrate “innovation, quality, outstanding workmanship and professionalism” (Cesa.co.za) in engineering through the CESA Aon Engineering Excellence Awards.

The prestigious awards ceremony, which according to CESA serves as a platform to showcase the outstanding achievements of their member organisations, was this year held on the 14^th of Augustat Vodacom World in Midrand and saw three projects that Aurecon was involved in walk away with top honours:

• Mayfair on the lake won the ‘Projects ranging in the value of R50 million to R250 million’ category
• Nile Breweries Mbarara Greenfield Brewery was the winner in the ‘Best International Project’ category
• Chota Motala Incremental Launch Bridge triumphed in the ‘Projects with a value greater than R250 million’ category
  

  Mayfair on Lake

About Mayfair on the Lake

Leading property developer, Growthpoint Properties commissioned the Mayfair on the Lake office building in the Umhlanga New Town Centre as the first untenanted Green Star rated building in KwaZulu-Natal. In the context of a difficult market this was perceived as risky by traditional standards.

The assembly of an exceptional project team, which included Aurecon as Green Building consultants and HVAC Engineers, in combination with a client committed to the execution of their vision, produced a highly successful outcome. Mayfair on the Lake is only the third building in South Africa to achieve both Office Design v1 and As Built v1 Green Star SA ratings.

The highly attractive development offers tenants cost-efficient and environmentally-friendly office space. The adherence to sustainability and low energy consumption principles, while incurring an upfront ‘green’ premium has created a sound, long-term investment.

About Nile Breweries Mbarara Greenfield Brewery

Uganda’s largest brewer, Nile Breweries (NBL), is a subsidiary of the SABMiller group.  With the Ugandan beer market growing at more than 28% a year, the NBL commissioned an ambitious project to build a Greenfield brewery in Mbarara to double the company’s current capacity.

The challenging site for the new brewery was on sloping, uneven ground alongside the Rwizi River. Through careful design and meticulous attention to detail, the project team achieved a highly-efficient plant layout that cleverly makes provision for future expansion and meets the SABMiller global environmental standards.

The project represents the opportunity for dramatic economic transformation in a developing area such as Mbarara and has provided far-reaching commercial benefits for the local town population, as well as the country as a whole.

The new NBL Brewery is one of the finest in East Africa and is a world-class example of project management and engineering excellence.

About Chota Motala Incremental Launch Bridge

The Chota Motala interchange, of which the bridge forms a part, straddles the N3 freeway as a major access route to the Pietermaritzburg CBD. It had been operating at above capacity for quite some time, evidenced by long delays in traffic on the Chota Motala Road (R33). Of even more concern was the dangerous situation created by the backing up of traffic on the off-ramps from the freeway, resulting in through traffic on the N3 suddenly being confronted by stationary traffic in the slow lane.

After carefully evaluating several interchange upgrade options, authorities settled on a concrete bridge over the N3 which would create a much-needed third layer of traffic at this busy interchange. The South African National Road Agency Limited and the Mzunduzi Municipality appointed Aurecon, in joint venture with Illiso, for the detailed design of the upgraded interchange, with Aurecon responsible for all bridge work.

The main determining factor in the conceptual design for the bridge was the client’s requirement that any new bridge over the N3 had to be constructed without disrupting or endangering the heavy traffic on the N3 freeway. It was for this reason that Aurecon proposed the construction of an incrementally launched bridge – construction method that involves construction of the bridge superstructure section by section on one side of an obstacle and then launching them sequentially into their final position.

The completed bridge providesexceptional value for money and has met and exceeded expectations in terms of acting to improve safety in the area.