Van Zylspruit Integral Bridge was joint winner of the Innovation in Concrete Category at the Fulton Awards 2017. The Fulton Awards are a biennial award that recognises and honours excellence and innovation in the design and use of concrete.

This bridge was constructed without any expansions joints or bearings on the N1 near Trompsburg in the Freestate and is the longest integral bridge in South Africa, measuring approximately 90m in length. Ms Sarah Skorpen, senior lecturer in the Department of Civil Engineering, working with technicians Mr Rikus Kock and Sarel Coetzer and Prof Elsabe Kearsley instrumented the bridge for The South African National Roads Agency SOC Ltd (SANRAL) to measure approximately 500 channels of instrumentation.  

Instrumentation includes strain gauges to measure strains in the bridge deck, as well as temperature sensors, tilt-meters and earth pressure sensors behind the bridge abutments.  In addition, a pilot study is being undertaken on the bridge to test the use of a fibre optic strain measurement system in collaboration with the Cambridge Centre for Smart Infrastructure and Construction.  Fibre Optic strain measurement allows strains to be recorded with unprecedented accuracy and resolution.

Data from the instrumentation system is continuously recorded and relayed to the internet from where it can be downloaded by researchers.  The data will reveal how long integral bridges will behave under South African conditions where temperature variations can be significant and the climate is very dry.   The benefits of this research will lead to a better understanding of the behaviour of integral bridges and hopefully the wider use of integral bridges in South Africa thus saving employers ongoing costs especially bearing and joint maintenance cost over the life of the bridges.

This project demonstrates how civil engineers can benefit by applying the latest technology to learn about the behaviour of unusual structures, allow designers to design these structures with more confidence.