Mills-designed bridge in South
Africa wins steel industry award

A cable-stayed pedestrian bridge in Johannesburg, South Africa designed with the help of Glen Mills, professor of architecture at Texas A&M, was honored by the Southern African Institute of Steel Construction with a 2010 Steel Award.

Mills was a consulting architect on the project.

"This is a wonderful addition to Johannesburg's North Western gateway and the lighting at night makes it truly exceptional," said the contest's judges. "It is clearly an example of excellent use of steelwork truly deserving of this award in the bridge category."

The unique feature of the design is that, unlike a typical bridge of its type, it doesn't have a counterweight rear span, but instead features an outward-leaning concrete tower column to hold the cables that support the bridge.

The judges noted that dealing with the cables' ends is one of the intricate issues in designing, detailing and building this kind of bridge, since each slope is different and each angle of intersection between the cable and the concrete tower is different.

"This requires immaculate attention to detail, which is an omnipresent feature of this job,” they said.

A PDF file with more information about the bridge and other Steel Award winners is available at saisc.co.za.

Mills, a South African native, joined the Texas A&M faculty in 2008.

- Posted: Nov. 30, 2010 -

Contact:   Phillip Rollfing, prollfing@archone.tamu.edu or 979.458.0442.