Bosch Holdings Enginuity - July 2017 Enginuity-final-31July-lres | Page 9

09 River Pass prior to starting the work and with on-site mentoring over the full duration of the work, which took approximately 6 months to complete. The value of this section of the work was almost R15m. Due to the high likelihood of fossils being found during excavation, a condition of the environmental authorisation was that paleontological monitoring must be undertaken during the excavations at the primary material source, a cutting at 77km. This was done under the supervision of Dr. Rob Gess, a renowned palaeontologist from the Albany Museum in Grahamstown. During the blasting and excavation at this cutting, a number of new invertebrates, as well as excellently preserved plant fossils of the Devonian era were discovered. These were significant as many of the species found had not yet been documented by palaeontologists. The widening of the Fish River Bridge was advertised as a separate contract and was also awarded to WBHO Construction. The contract commenced in March 2016 and includes the replacement of the existing bridge bearings, construction of 9 new bridge beams, each approximately 23m long, widening of the existing bridge deck by 1.6m and construction of new parapets. This contract is still in progress with the main deck beams having been placed and construction of the cantilever decks and the approach slabs now in progress. These works are due to be completed in July 2017. Gary Hughes - [email protected] SANRAL were instrumental in ensuring that the fossils were identified and properly recorded, making funding available for the involvement of Dr. Gess and facilitating transport and storage of material to be studied. SANRAL have instructed the construction of a rest area at the fossil find, where travelling public may stop at the face of the cutting and get a sense of the geology and paleaontology of the area. Educational displays will be available at the site explaining the find and the significance thereof. Plant fossils discovered during excavations Fish River Bridge Widening - Beam launching