SAICE WC Branch The South African Institution of Civil Engineering Western Cape Branch

Article written by Alice Chang.

On Friday, 20 May 2011, third and fourth year students from the University of Cape Town had the amazing opportunity to visit this concrete-faced, rock-fill dam, located in the upper reaches of the Berg River catchment area. The students were taken on a tour of the pump station, the intake tower and the dam outlet dam. The visit into the intake tower was interesting, especially for the more adventurous students who got a chance to trek all the way down to the bottom. The only problem was, once you got to the bottom of the tower, you had to climb 160 m back up to the top again! To round off the perfect field trip, the students were treated to a ‘picnic’ of pizza and cold beers.

The SAICE Student Chapter at UCT would like to thank Bruce (GOBA) and Wallie (DWA) for taking the time to share their extensive knowledge and experience. Thanks also to GOBA for sponsoring the refreshments and Bertrand van Zyl (DWA) for organising the permit for the visit. Finally, the UCT Student Chapter would like to thank Prof Kobus van Zyl (UCT) as it would not have been possible to organise this visit without his assistance.