WSP in Africa, one of the largest multi-disciplinary engineering consulting firms on the continent, are proud of their team’s involvement in the project to upgrade the Fourways Mall Promotions Court, which received the ASTPM Tubular Category award at the Southern African Institute of Steel Construction (SAISC) Steel Awards 2019, presented during the annual gala dinner.

Located north of Johannesburg, Fourways Mall is now the largest mall in Southern Africa. This follows a massive extension and renovation project that doubled the size of the mall – and as part of the upgrades, it was proposed to provide a new roof for the mall extension as well.

Appointed as the Structural Engineer and Engineer subcontractor for this project, the team of engineers from WSP in Africa proposed constructing the new roof over the Promotions Court in steel from the onset.

Miguel Tavares, Regional Director, Structures, WSP in Africa, said: “Our team worked closely with the steelwork contractor, and the broader project team, to conceive the best structure and decide on the appropriate materials that would provide a roof structure that is both practical and aesthetically pleasing on the eye.”

The roof trusses are made entirely from circular hollow sections (CHS), where the cruciform columns supporting the roof was made out of plate. The fabrication process required several fabrication jigs to be made up to accommodate the roof design for the project. Also, the roof was built on ground level and erected on temporary roof support steelwork. Tubular sections were rolled into various radii and the cross bracing was individually profiled and cut to allow a stub-on connection to the main truss struts. The challenges faced during erection involved fitting a new roof onto the temporary structure and accuracy of fabrication and erection therefore was of the essence.

“This roof was designed and constructed for exhibition and events suspended loads – and as such the accurate erection of the roof was critical to ensure the roof will safely support large loads suspended from a number of built in loading points, and based on requirements for future events or exhibitions that will be hosted within the Promotions Court,” adds Tavares.

Each designated event loading/hanging point within the main roof structure is permanently fixed to bottom chord (member) of the roof’s elliptical truss system, comprising of a Patented/Proprietary YOKE Swivel Hoist Rings which have a maximum 1 tonne capacity. A total of 16 hoist rings to outer elliptical ring and 18 hoist rings to inner elliptical ring have been fixed throughout the roof structure – and a total permissible ‘events’ load that may be suspended from the Promotions Court Roof is 34 tonnes.

The aim of the annual Steel Awards is to highlight the use of steel in the built environment; where this project was described by the award judges as an excellent example of the use of tube that has been well executed – from design through to fabrication, accurate manufacturing of the trusses and erection of the roof.

“Through constant communication and strong collaboration as a collective team we were able to ensure the overall success of this project. We are very proud of our work on this project as the new roof is quite wonderful to look at and take in - and I would like to congratulate our client, the broader project team and each of our experts involved in this project, on this remarkable achievement,” concludes Tavares.