Industrial Abseiling Projects

Removal and replacement of louvre steel panels

Facilities Manager: Jones Lang LaSalle

Andersal Representatives: Project Manager – Henk van den Heuvel, Site Supervisor – Ricardo Cardoso

Consultant: Aecom

Location: Phillip Street, Sydney

Category: Industrial Abseiling and Structural Steel Repairs

Task

To carry out a comprehensive maintenance of major architectural features by upgrading metals, refining structural connections and improving protective coating systems.

• 1000 new structural sections in total
• 700m2 of new waterproofing system
• 350 structural connection cleats including 3000 individual fixings over a 1500m2 sail facade structure
• 1500m of louvre rafters on a 1800m2 slopping louvred roof with over 50 000 individual fixings

Special Challenges

• All works to be carried out above Level 44 of high rise CBD building
• Removal of structural steel connections at locations difficult to access
• Transporting new steel sections to the roof
• Removal and installation of large heavy louvre panels
• Limited work area on roof
• Preventing construction debris from falling off the roof
• Application 3 coat Protective Coating System to a large number of locations

Solutions

Works carried out by specialist industrial rope access contractor with IRATA level 3 rigger as site foreman.

• Mild steel sections changed to stainless steel and powder coated aluminium
• Full time site/QA manager for duration of works
• Design and manufacture of temporary bracing to allow for safe removal of structural connections
• Redesign of curtain wall connections to improve project efficiency and future maintenance
• Modification of Building Maintenance Unit into a lifting mechanism for steel sections
• Construction of large bird cage scaffold to create landing and working platform on the roof
• Installation of debris protection scaffold at lower levels
• NACE inspector engaged to monitor protective coating application

Client: City of Sydney Council

Location: Goulburn Street, Sydney

Task: Demolish the cavity brick southern wall (5 storeys high and about twice as wide at 37.5m). Erect a steelwork frame and install the largest tri-sign in the Southern Hemisphere.

Andersal Project Managers and Site Supervisors: Henk van den Heuvel/Jacques Calluaud/Eddie Issa

Special Challenges

• The demolition, steelwork construction and sign installation were each conducted above the main southern 6 track rail corridor.
• The work was designed not to interfere with RailCorp train operations except for a very few tasks that had to be completed during rail closure weekends (two) or during gaps between train operations.
• The car park was operational throughout.
• The car park is in a busy commercial and residential area of the city.
• The car park base structure was rough hewn and skewed in each plane.
• Car park structural drawings did not match the car park structure. A special challenge during demolitions.
• Andersal’s main crane usage was restricted to rail closure weekends as was some essential abseiling work.
• All work had to comply with stringent Work Cover, Council and RailCorp safety procedures.

Principal Companies Involved

Client Team
Principal – City of Sydney Council
Consultant Architect – FMJT
Consultant Structural Engineer – TTW
RailCorp – Approval for works above the rail corridor

Contractor Team
Principal Contractor – Andersal
Consultant Structural Engineer – AECOM
Steel Structure – Wexford Welding
Tri-Sign – Prismaflex
Cladding – Facade Innovations
Demolition of Southern Wall – Beaini Concreting, Australian Waterproofing Services
Abseil Support – Practical Access Solutions
Partition Walls – Lidoran Roofing
Traffic Barriers – Ingal Spring Steel Buffas

The Solution       

Preliminary
Andersal was initially contracted to install a large net consisting 30 x 1 tonne cables and a mesh net to prevent bricks, concrete or general collapse of the southern wall to the rail tracks below. Andersal was selected because of its’ abseiling expertise, the method it proposed and price.

Main Contract
Andersal was selected by open tender. Andersal was required to extend the Protective Element (PE), demolish the existing cavity brick wall, construct a steel frame, erect the Prismaflex sign, erect the cladding and then remove the PE. It then constructed a new partition wall on each level to separate the car park from access to the sign. The car park was operational throughout. The wall and sign were demolished and constructed directly above the main rail corridor between Central Station and the city underground. Some critical work notably abseiling to extend the PE and removing the PE and refurbishment was necessarily conducted during 2 rail closure weekends. Otherwise rail operations were not interrupted although we needed to coordinate spandrel removal in intervals between trains on the track on two weekends when removing ten 2-tonne spandrels by crane.

The Result

• Work was programmed and essentially completed to comply with the predetermined RailCorp closure weekends.
• The project was completed for less than budget (some minor scope was removed from the project).
• City of Sydney has a high quality functional tri-sign.
• Absolutely no debris was reported to have fallen to the rail tracks below.
• There were no complaints of noise, dust or interference from car park clients or local residents.
• There were no Lost Time Incidents and no safety near misses.
• There were no defects at all requiring attention in the 12 months from Practical Completion to the end of the Defects Liability period.