The engineering department at eThekwini Municipality has a lot to celebrate after scooping four awards for engineering this week.
eThekwini competed against South Africa’s top engineering companies. They won the Institute of Municipal Engineering of South Africa (IMESA) and Consulting Engineers South Africa (CESA) awards where two city departments received recognition for four innovative projects. The awards ceremony was held at Boardwalk Hotel in Gqeberha.
Their awards included first place for the Ezimbokodweni Pedestrian Bridge in the Community Upliftment and Job Creation Project category, second place for the eThekwini Flood Early Warning System in the Environment and Climate Change category and the third place for the uMdloti Storm Damage Rehabilitation in the Engineering Excellence in Structures and Civils category. These projects fall under the Engineering Department. The Water and Sanitation Unit brought home the award for Engineering Excellence for the rehabilitation of the Mahatma Gandhi Sewer Trunk Main.
eThekwini Mayor Mxolisi Kaunda congratulated all the teams that contributed towards the city winning the awards. Mayor Kaunda re-emphasised the significance of projects such as the Ezimbokodweni Pedestrian Bridge which he said created job opportunities for local people. The bridge will also benefit local businesses and residents of Wards 86 and 94 by providing a safe and accessible passage across the river, he added.
“The awarded projects not only showcase the effort that eThekwini Municipality puts into ensuring that it delivers services to all our residents, but also that we have a highly skilled team of engineers,” said Mayor Kaunda. “The city has been recognized in a similar manner during other events. We won the prestigious Community Based Project Award at the 2023 SAICE Awards held in Monte Casino, Johannesburg. In 2020, we received the second-place award in the Most Outstanding Project for Technical Excellence category for exemplary work on the emergency rebuilding of the Seaward Road Bridge over the Umhlatuzana River.”
He added that as far back as 2017, the engineering teams secured the top position as the overall winners in the Most Outstanding Project for Technical Excellence category for the exceptional work on the IRPTN M25-C9 Underpass project. These projects were not only planned, but also designed and supervised by the municipality’s in-house engineers, said Mayor Kaunda.
