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Andrew Watson: The 'most influential' black footballer for decades lost to history

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  By Andrew Aloia BBC Sport Last updated on 11 October 2021 11 October 2021 . From the section Football Watson was a trailblazer who helped transform how football was played There are two murals of black footballers facing one another across an alleyway in Glasgow. One helped shape football as we know it, the other is Pele. Andrew Watson captained Scotland to a 6-1 win over England on his debut in 1881. He was a pioneer, the world's first black international, but for more than a century the significance of his achievements went unrecognised. Research conducted over the past three decades has left us with some biographical details: a man descended of slaves and of those who enslaved them, born in Guyana, raised to become an English gentleman and famed as one of Scottish football's first icons. And yet today, 100 years on from his death aged 64, Watson remains something of an enigma, the picture built around him a fractured one. His grainy, faded, sepia image evokes many differen
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Sanral awards R1.65bn tender for longest cable-stayed bridge

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ECONOMY /  / 
Artist’s impression of the Msikaba bridge (Pic supplied: Meropa Communications)
JOHANNESBURG - The South African National Roads Agency Limited (Sanral) announced on Thursday the awarding of the R1.65 billion tender for the second of two mega-bridges as part of the N2 Wild Coast project. 
This comes after Sanral announced in July 2017 that the tender award had to be re-advertised as it received no fully responsive tenders for the initial bid. The tender was re-advertised on 3 November 2017 and closed the new bid on 11 April 2018. The long period was required due to the size and complexity of the tender.
Sanral said the 580-metre bridge will be built near Lusikisiki over the Msikaba gorge. The construction is due to start in February 2019 for 33 months after an initial three-month ramp-up period starting in October this year. The total contract amount is approximately R1.65 billion excluding VAT.
The nearby Mtentu river bridge started construction in January this year and both form part of the future new N2 Wild Coast Road
Sanral said the successful bidder was Concor Mota-Engil Joint Venture, a strategic partnership between Concor (a large and majority black-owned South African civil engineering company) and Mota-Engil, a major international construction firm.
Concor brings a proven track record in the construction of major roads and bridge projects in South Africa and Africa, while Mota-Engil has experience in large-scale cable-stayed bridge projects and delivery of major civil engineering projects throughout Africa.
Here are some interesting facts and stats about the bridge:
  • 28 000 m3 of concrete
  • 2 700 tons of structural steel
  • 2 500 tons of cables
  • Height of piers will be127m
Length of main span 580m – it will be the longest main span constructed by cable-stay method in Africa, and the second longest main bridge span in Africa after the recently completed 3 041m total length and 680m main span Maputo-Catembe suspension bridge in Mozambique
It will have a back span of approximately 130m.
The height of deck is approximately 195m above the valley floor making it the 3rd highest bridge in Africa after Bloukraans at 216m and the Mtentu bridge at 223m. 
- African News Agency (ANA)
* This story forms part of the #HighSchoolsQuiz study material. Click here for more #HighSchoolsQuiz stories.

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