PROFILE: My out of SA experience - Pierre van der Spuy

Dr Pierre van Spuy a Bridge Engineer shares MY OUT OF SA EXPERIENCE when he worked in Australia and the Middle East.

Please give us a summary of your career

I graduated from Stellenbosch University in 2008 with a BEng in Civil Engineering. I started my industry career at Zutari (then Africon) in 2009 in the Buildings team where I worked on a beach resort in Abu Dhabi and an office building in Ghana, which experiences strong seismicity. In the same year I commenced with my postgraduate studies at the University of Cape Town (MEng) under supervision of Professor Pilate Moyo.

In 2010 I moved to Aurecon Cape Town’s bridges team where I immediately got exposure to a large project, the Greytown Interchange project in Pietermaritzburg where I participated in the design of an incrementally launched bridge! I have been fortunate to have outstanding mentors. Hennie Niehaus, Theo Philotheo and Rossouw Conradie stand out.

I graduated from UCT at the end of 2014 and in 2015 I joined BVI for a short period where I worked on some large SANRAL projects and a couple of windfarms. In 2016 I rejoined Aurecon and spent most of the year working on a precast segmental balanced cantilever interchange bridge in Sydney, Australia. I also registered as PrEng in 2016. 

Towards the end of 2016 I decided to put my career on hold for three years to study towards a PhD in Structural Engineering at Stellenbosch University under supervision of Professor Roman Lenner. My thesis was submitted for examination at the end of 2019 and in December we emigrated to join Aurecon in Dubai for a couple of years. COVID had other ideas and in June 2020 I immigrated back to South Africa! I rejoined the Zutari bridges team in Cape Town which is where I still am to this day. I teach at Stellenbosch University as an adjunct faculty member. 

Details of countries you worked on outside of South Africa

Most of my work outside South Africa has been in Australia and the Middle East, where I also lived until COVID-19

When did you work in these countries? 

I first worked in the Middle East in 2010 and visited the region five times. At the end of 2019 we moved to Dubai, but had to return due to COVID. My work in Australia was mainly during 2016.

How was the experience different from your experience on South African Projects?

The biggest challenge to me has not been to understand other design codes, but rather to understand different engineering cultures. The way we build is different in different regions. These different techniques are what takes time to learn. In Australia, for example, the market is completely geared towards precasting, where in South Africa in-situ is much more popular. This changes the design process dramatically and you need to constantly think about first principles when you try to decipher some foreign designs. This keeps life interesting and exciting!

Are there any positive lessons your host country/s could learn from the South African industry?

South African engineers are highly regarded overseas, especially in Australia where many senior positions in consulting engineering and contracting are held by South Africans.

In my opinion the training that we provide at our universities is at least on par with what I have seen abroad.

If you also had experience working on projects outside of South Africa you can also share your experience by submitting your details here

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