A massive 900m2 billboard has drivers in Johannesburg agog. Raised in honour of the launch of the new Audi A5, it has a 2.7km run up and is billed as the largest free-standing billboard in the southern hemisphere.
“It’s an incredibly big structure,” says Outdoor Exchange’s Maureen du Toit. “It weighs 22 tons and we poured 94m2 concrete. I must say the most challenging thing was working in high rainfall, lightening and wind and so the rigging of the sign was more challenging than anticipated,” says Du Toit, who worked closely with Van Till Outdoor to get the billboard up.
“The face weighs just a tad over 700kg and so it was a daunting task for 25 people just to pull the face to the top of the structure. The 27-hour flighting equalled four hours preparation work to fit the cables and pocket rods and the hoisting of the first back face on day one. Then the face needed to be fastened, which took another 13 hours. The front face took another 10 hours to prepare and fasten!”
The site of the Audi billboard is at the N3 Linksfield off-ramp. Du Toit says Outdoor Exchange has acquired the approval for two of these sites. “This is the first one. We certainly hope there will be many more approvals on sites such as impactful as this,” she says.
