Abstract
THE all-welded structure of the new municipal bus and tram sheds at Johannesburg is claimed to cover an area greater than that of any other welded structure in South Africa. In Electric Welding of August, it is stated that, excluding an office block of reinforced concrete, the building has a frontage of 465 feet and an area of approximately 186,000 square feet. The outer walls are of concrete but all the interior walls are steel-framed. The floor is of concrete throughout. To give unobstructed floor space, the number of columns was cut down to a minimum. The largest of the girders span 90 feet and are 12 feet deep. They were dispatched by road from the company's workshops at Benoni, where all the steelwork was fabricated. To allow of transportation through Johannesburg, they were split into halves, the halves being welded together at the site and the girders lifted in one piece. A striking feature of the design is the absence of gusset plates and the lightness of all the sections employed. The entire framework is welded, including oven the site connexions. The saw-toothed type of roof employed produces excellent internal lighting. The percentage of windows to floor space is about thirty. The lamps provided are of the mercury vapour type. Between 500 and 600 tons of steel were used in the erection of the sheds, the greater portion of this steelwork being produced in South Africa.
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Johannesburg Municipal Bus and Tram Sheds. Nature 144, 704 (1939). https://doi.org/10.1038/144704a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/144704a0