A Kaleidoscope of Pedestrian Bridges in South Africa – a road authority's perspective

This paper describes the process of procurement, as well as the conceptual and design procedures and requirements of the South African National Roads Agency SOC Ltd (SANRAL), for bridges under its jurisdiction. These procedures have resulted in a trend toward the creation of visually pleasing bridges being built for the benefit of future generations.

In the past many pedestrian bridges in South Africa reflected almost exclusively their utilitarian function with little visual appeal. The need for the executive management of any roads or other authority to be supportive towards to sustainable aesthetically pleasing infrastructure, including bridges, is encouraged.

The kaleidoscope concept, adopted as the theme of this paper, focuses on bridge aesthetics, but with due regard to the broader planning and design issues, exemplified by several pedestrian bridges created in the past decade. Some of these structures can be classified as feature bridges, whilst others have more modest claims.

Engineers who traditionally, especially in the case of road authorities, fulfil the leadership role in bridge design, have a duty to fully develop their creative skills so they are able to justify their role in exerting a beneficial influence on the conceptualisation process, aesthetic refinement and functional optimisation. This is especially true if architects are appointed as part of the design team. The aspect of design competitions is briefly dealt with in two case studies.

The author’s experience is that good aesthetics can come at little or no cost premium.

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