Local civil engineering firm Vela VKE scored an impressive win against tough competition at the annual Bentley Empowerment conference in Orlando, USA. Its work on the protection systems guarding against rockfalls on Chapman's Peak Drive in Cape Town was judged to be an excellent example of innovative civil engineering and the judges awarded Vela VKE first prize in the Road Design segment of the competition.

"What an amazing achievement," says Tex van Deventer, managing director of Bentley South Africa. "When we saw the quality of the other competitors' work, we were pretty nervous. But when the master of ceremonies read out Vela VKE's name, the five South Africans in the audience of over 1000 brought the house down. Bentley Systems South Africa congratulates Vela VKE with pride!"

With the US priding itself on its road infrastructure, it is clear that a win in this segment is no mean feat. Bentley dominates the road infrastructure market with the vast majority of the States using its technology. That means that the top civil engineering firms are also on this platform and the win was secured against the who's who in road design and construction.

That was not the end of the good news for South Africa. Judges for Building Visualisation said that although Cape Town-based Dimension Modelling, placed second in this hotly contested category, it was by the smallest of margins. This company's work on the Atlantica building in Strand was superb with most people unable to see that the interior views were not actual photos but computer generated visiulisation.

"South Africa is a hot topic around the world. And the more people look at you, the more pressure there is to perform. We are showing the world that we are up to the task," says Van Deventer. "With the 2010 Soccer World Cup in the not too distant future, it is encouraging to know that we have the engineering skills and talent to provide infrastructure for this world event of which this country can be proud of."

For more information contact Bentley Systems, 011 462 5811, www.bentley.com