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Road Bridge no. 789 over the Sterkstroom
Rustenburg district, North West
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Contact Artefacts | MenuHomeUpfront Now Up Books Towns Structures People Firms Lexicon | Road Bridge no. 789 over the Sterkstroom | | ||||||
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Click to view large map Coordinates: | Crossing the Sterkstroom at Buffelspoort, North West Province, RSA Bridge no. 789 is a plain 14m long, single lane, double span, reinforced concrete bridge that crosses the Sterkstroom, a little river rising in the northern foothills of the Magaliesberg. There, on a stretch of less than one kilometre of river-run are five road crossings. These are – starting from the upstream side – a ford, the bridge on the R104, the bridge number 789 and the twin bridges on the N4. They are situated about 30km east-south-east of Rustenburg. By that ford the old wagon trail crossed the river in the olden days. President Paul Kruger of the ZAR [Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek] will have used it on his way from Pretoria to his farm Boekenhoutfontein north-west of Rustenburg. When in the early decades of the 20th century motorised vehicles increasingly became the common mode of travel, the ford's bed was paved with concrete, providing reasonably safe and comfortable crossing of the stream. The ford still attracts off-road riders. In 1939 a start was made to upgrade and tar the road from Rustenburg to Pretoria.1 The bridge that took the road over the Sterkstroom was completed in 1941. Easy access to the structure can still be gained by way of a stretch of well preserved original tar road. The bridge consists of two six metre long spans. The road-bed is five metres wide – including 0,4m wide aprons. The formwork for the concrete cast was made of rough-sawn Douglas Pine planks which left a richly patterned surface to it. Pairs of bolts projecting from the sides of the beams bear witness to the balustrades which were probably dismantled when the bridge was decommissioned in 1966. When viewing the bridge from the downstream banks of the river a surprise awaits one. There – on the side of the beam – a plaque is revealed; an unexpected feature gracing such a simple structure. Here an eagerly enterprising artisan left an astounding finishing touch to the bridge. He dabbed some cement plaster onto the concrete face, formed a panel and inscribed it. The exact size and proportions of the plaque are difficult to ascertain because of the oblique views one has of it. That this plaster panel still exists is proof of that man's sound workmanship. Close inspection of the photo of the plaster work shows that the artisan instead of using plaster sand for the mortar had used fine river sand of an even grain. While that would have made it more difficult to work with, the mix ensured that the panel survived eight decades of weathering so well. The plaque contains information – in Afrikaans – about the locality and the name of the bridge, the identification number, a not so easily understood code and a date – ostensibly of the completion of the work. The letters and cyphers P2. S4. in all likelihood are the code stated in the works-specifications for the ultimate strength requirements of the concrete. That the latter information had been included by the man who fashioned the panel shows his pride in having done excellent work. Indeed, the structure shows no signs of deterioration. This old bridge is still in constant limited use by the local populace – including vehicular traffic. The numbering of this bridge offers evidence that these numbers do not follow any chronological or geographic sequence and serve merely as an identifier. Proof of this is provided by the fact that the bridge here on route R104 built in 1966 bears a number higher than that of a nearby bridge crossing the N4 which was built in 2003 – thirty-seven years later. There are near to 9,000 numbered crossings over waterways, roads and railway-tracks exist in the whole of South Africa.2. After the decommissioning of the little bridge its number – 789 – remained dormant for almost two decades. Then in 1983 it came to life again when it was assigned to the prestigious Bloukrans River Bridge on the N2.3 (Konrad Voges, May 2021) [See also Bridge Numbering (South Africa)] References:
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