Steel Awards 2016: Winners announced

Steel Awards 2016 winners announced

The highlight of the structural steel industry calendar, the 35th Annual Steel Awards hosted by the Southern African Institute of Steel Construction (SAISC) in partnership with BSi Steel, took place on 15 September 2016 in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Kwazulu Natal concurrently. This year’s event, under the theme of Versatility, Diversity and Innovation, was attended by over 1 000 people, showcased projects completed in the previous year that demonstrated excellence in the use of structural steel.

The quality of entries for the annual Steel Awards improves each year and 2016 is no different. This year’s Steel Awards had 46 entries reflecting steel as the material of choice.

Sponsors for the event were: BSi Steel, MacSteel, Cadex Systems SA, The Association of Steel Tube and Pipe Manufacturers, Saint-Gobain, Global Roofing Solutions, Safintra, ArcelorMIttal SA, Genrec Engineering, NJR Steel and Aveng Steel.

In his opening address Paolo Trinchero, CEO of the Southern African Institute of Steel Construction said: “Steel structures of all types are now readily achievable and due to the all-round efficiency and sustainability of the material, it’s no wonder steel is being used more and more. What is encouraging is the broad range of projects from residential houses, to commercial projects, mining and industrial and some really innovative projects showing sustainability and innovation.

This bodes well for us as we need to ensure that we play in as many sectors of the South African and Southern African economies as possible. This year a number of projects displayed characteristics of a winning industry. They showed innovation in every process and the integration of design, detailing, fabrication and erection using modern CNC equipment and software which our industry has invested in so heavily.

The SAISC is passionate about training our next generation so we can continue to take advantage of opportunities in South and Southern Africa. We would like to see the industry working harder on integration and competitiveness as displayed by our winning entries.

I would like to thank the entrants which have made this event possible, the judges and the SAISC support team. Having had the privilege of attending most of the site visits and event meetings one realizes the amount of work that goes into making the steel awards such a successful event.

This year will be recorded as one of enormous challenge for our industry but as always we show that we are indeed men and women of steel. I would like to congratulate the winners and encourage our members to continue to participate and grow our industry into the future,” concluded Trinchero.

1.
Overall winner
The event culminated in the announcement of the overall winner for 2016, the Eastgate Phase 2 Redevelopment, submitted by Tass Engineering – Steelwork Contractors and project team members. In addition to being the overall winner, this project also won the Commercial Architectural Category.

 

 

This project encompasses a number of new structures, the primary change of which is the relocation of the lower level cinema complex onto a section of the roof-level car park, enabling more retail space at the lower level and incorporating substantial additional retail space within the new cinema complex at roof level.

Connection design, particularly between the numerous beams throughout the lower levels of the cinema complex and all the Bond-Dek slab support beams was a major cost saving item from a fabrication point of view. Minimal if any welding was employed rather opting for bolted connections with back to back angles bolted through the incoming beam webs to achieve all end plate connection details. Due to the high visibility of the building, great care was given to the aesthetics.

The building form consisted of scalloped segments with sloped Kingspan side cladding & aluminium roof sheeting.
Steelwork Contractor: Tass Engineering (Pty) Ltd

2.
Light Steel Frame Category – Joint Winners

 

 

Nothing emphasises more the coming of age of light steel frame building (LSFB) in South Africa than the record number of LSFB project entries for Steel Awards 2016. From this great batch of entries there were two stand-out projects that caught the judges’ imagination; both exemplifying excellence in the use of LSFB. Because of the exceptional standard, the judges had difficulty in choosing so opted for Joint Category Winners in the Light Steel Frame category. They are the new Outpatient Day Clinic for Mbabane Hospital in Swaziland and Mall of Africa Façade and Parapet Walls in Midrand.

 

 

 

 

 

 

—————————