Construction World December 2015

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Professional Services

Cosmo Mall Pedestrian Bridge, Cosmo City

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it symbolically links the people with their roots. Designed to flow in the direction of travel, the walkway and bridge deck curves like a path through the bush, providing pedestrians with an uninterrupted walkway over the traffic below”. The bridge is crossing over a prov- incial road and road reserve, i.e. Malibo- ngwe Drive (R512/K29) under the jurisdic- tion of the Gauteng Department of Roads and Transport. It is considered as a significant corpo- rate social investment by the developer of the Cosmo Mall development that will benefit Cosmo City residents by providing a much safer route to the shopping centre than crossing the busy Malibongwe Road at-grade while also creating a new focal point in the area. The structure is a multi-span struc- tural steel pedestrian bridge on concrete columns with a composite concrete deck. The expected design life is 100 years. The bridge is made up of steel U-shaped steelwork girders spanning between concrete columns. The girders are made up from H-sections, tubular-sections and angle-sections welded and bolted together. The bridge is supported by reinforced concrete pad foundations using an allow- able ground bearing pressure of 300 kPa.

The pedestrian bridge is intended to provide for a safer and convenient pedestrian and cycle crossing between the Cosmo City integrated housing development on the western side of the road and the new Cosmo Mall Shopping Centre on the eastern side of the road. The Malibongwe Drive arterial is a high- speed road of four lanes and acts as a barrier to the flow of residents from Cosmo City to the east, and to the shopping destination of Cosmo Mall. The bridge will also be accessible to pedestrians from/to the Cosmo City Regional Transport Facility and Market on Erf 671 Cosmo City Proper. It is foreseen that the new bridge will become a familiar land- mark in the area as well as a tourism attrac- tion that will be of benefit to the City and the local communities. The bridge concept has been developed by prominent concept architect, Rob Bray. The bridge design and the ‘forked’ supports are derived from the iconic thorn tree that is symbolic of the African experience, the Acacia Tree. The design statement reads as follows: “Endemic to only Africa it speaks of a great continent that is home to its many peoples. Located at the tourist gateway and the great new residential node of Cosmo City,

A new pedestrian bridge is currently under construction across Malib- ongwe Drive (K29/R512) in Cosmo City, Randburg with completion scheduled by mid-October 2015. The new pedestrian bridge is supported by the Gauteng Department of Roads and Trans- port, the City of Johannesburg’s Planning and Transportation Departments and the Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA).

Project information • Company entering: WSP Group Africa • Project start date: 1 October 2015 • Project end date: 30 August 2015 • Client: XTLS Investments 43 • Project team: WSP Group Africa, Quad Africa • Main contractor: Tri-Star & Ferro Eleganza • Architects: Rob Bray Concepts • Project manager: WSP Group Africa • Quantity surveyor: WSP Group Africa • Consulting engineer: WSP Group Africa • Project value: R16-million

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CONSTRUCTION WORLD DECEMBER 2015