The 2025 Fulton Awards mark 45 years of celebrating concrete excellence and innovation in concrete within Southern Africa, with this year’s edition including a special retrospective category titled ‘Judges’ Favourite’, which will revisit historical entries.

The 2025 Fulton Awards Gala Dinner, hosted by industry association Concrete Society of Southern Africa (CSSA), will take place on June 7 at the Johannesburg Country Club in Woodmead in Gauteng.

Originally recognising achievements in only two categories, namely, Building Structures and Civil Engineering Structures, the awards have since evolved into the region’s most prestigious accolades in concrete construction, CSSA director and University of Pretoria civil engineering professor Billy Boshoff explains.

“Over the years changes have been made to rules, criteria and categories to ensure that the Fulton Awards maintained its high standards in the industry and that it kept up with new technology,” he elaborates, adding the CSSA is looking forward to celebrating a ‘walk down memory lane’ alongside an exploration of the modern and advanced concrete structures that have been entered this year.

The categories for 2025 include Infrastructure under R100-million, Infrastructure over R100-million, Buildings under R50-million, Buildings over R50-million and Innovation and Invention in Concrete.

A unique aspect of the Fulton Awards is the site visits conducted by judges, allowing for thorough, in-person assessments of each entry.

This year’s judging process will focus on the use of concrete, both for structural and non-structural purposes, rather than evaluating projects as a whole. Core criteria include concrete quality and finish, sustainability and green building initiatives, inventive uses of concrete and overall aesthetic impact of the concrete aspects of the structure, among others.

For the Innovation and Invention in Concrete category, judges will evaluate the significance of the application of the innovation, the industry’s need for the innovation, its sustainability contributions and its potential to enhance the competitiveness of concrete in the market.

Webinars
To address challenges in the industry, the CSSA is actively working with its members and industry stakeholders through five key focus areas. These include promoting and supporting fair regulatory frameworks, compliance standards and best practices along with forming task-driven committees, recognising excellence and pursuing relevant industry goals.

Additionally, the CSSA aims to deliver a unified, robust technical platform by supporting research, providing practical training and organising technical events to share up-to-date knowledge. Further, it aims to represent the collective interests of members and other stakeholders by upholding and promoting industry standards.

“Our focus is on being a society to inform, educate and link the industry around the theme of ‘modern and advanced’,” Boshoff says.

Consequently, the CSSA has launched two free online webinar series, CONCRETEFiX and CONCRETEClass – Back to Basics, which have seen significant success.

Boshoff explains that these webinars have become valuable educational tools within the industry, with CONCRETEFiX focusing on technical subjects such as research, practical applications and new technologies in concrete, while CONCRETEClass revisits fundamental concepts to refresh participants’ foundational knowledge.

Both series are designed to support continued professional development, with Engineering Council of South Africa-registered consultants able to earn up to two Continuing Professional Development points through individual membership. Various tiers for company memberships are also available.

The webinars have been well attended, with the recent CONCRETEFiX, hosted last month, featuring Rod Rankine Engineering Solutions construction materials specialist Dr Rod Rankine exploring how extrinsic factors can influence true measured concrete strength, highlighting the most common mistakes and offering guidelines to avoid these mistakes.

The next CONCRETEFiX, presented by Bryan Perrie Consulting director Bryan Perrie, will offer exclusive insights into the 2025 Fulton Awards projects from the judges’ perspective.

Meanwhile, CONCRETEClass, launched in February this year, tackled issues such as alkali-silica reaction, with University of the Witwatersrand lecturer Dr Janina Kanjee explaining how this phenomenon impacts on concrete durability and integrity.

Boshoff explains that the CONCRETEClass webinar series will be expanding to include topics on structural concrete design.

Recognising the importance of maximising the use of supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) and building correctly while improving the environmental sustainability of concrete, an upcoming CONCRETEClass: Back to Basics webinar, in August, will focus on SCMs.

Additionally, CSSA’s Ready-mixed Concrete Committee has identified the need for foundational training across the industry, particularly around handling ready-mixed concrete for durable construction. As a result, webinars addressing these topics will follow “shortly”, Boshoff says.

Outlook
Looking ahead, CSSA’s immediate priorities include broadening its membership base and ensuring financial sustainability, particularly as the organisation has only recently re-launched. Alongside this, it is committed to enhancing industry education and engagement.

Plans are under way to establish forums, workgroups and committees that will address critical issues in the sector, supported by the creation of a “world-class” digital information centre and a focused drive toward sustainability in concrete construction, Boshoff says.

Overall, CSSA aims to strengthen the cement and concrete industry in Southern Africa by fostering value creation and collective growth, he concludes.