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Engineering Blog
08 9371 7711Engineering Blog
The soon to be completed Perth Stadium Complex is in the final building phase and the associated Stadium Station Rail Project is well advanced. Lead by FEG's GM Damien Loney, Screwpile Australia has just completed the latest screw piling for the electric overhead rail line catenaries. We were elated to once again be working with the management and construction team at head contractor Laing O'Rourke (LOR) on this world class project. LOR's commitment to providing a construction site that is safe with seamless procedures was appreciated and is to be commended.
Special mention goes to LOR Construction Manager Declan Larkin and Site Engineer Tim Norris for their prompt assistance and action when technical matters required urgent response to ensure timeline continuity.
One hundred 273CHS and 168CHS (up to 12m deep) galvanised raked and vertical screw piles were installed in grouped and mono grid surveyed locations. Ground conditions were highly variable as the site largely crosses the old filled Burswood rubbish dump.
Screw pile heads terminated with gusseted shop-welded interface flange plates designed to couple directly to the catenary column steel base plates and grillage's, as tight pile installation tolerances were critical for the surveyed overhead catenary locations. These flange plates were used to drive screw pile installation.
Our detailed piling installation logs show just how accurate final outcomes are with average (x-y) tolerance being in the range of 5-10mm and a (z) tolerance of 1-5mm over the entire project, showing just how project committed our piling crew was.
With Western Australia’s largest (200,000Nm/200 tonne) calibrated pendulum rotary hydraulic powerhead and “Torq-a-tron” monitor, final installation torques averaged out at 50,000 through to a maximum of 147,000Nm.
Our 120 tonne combo-load test reaction frame allows for combined compression, tension and lateral load tests without the need for re-establishment or additional setup of the assembly. All pile settlement and deflection test results were well within specified allowable criteria.
We took this opportunity to conduct additional lateral lever arm reference load testing. When the horizontal serviceability load was applied to the pile shaft, at a lever arm of +0.5m from the specified RL, 45mm deflection occurred. When the same serviceability load was applied to the same screw pile after being driven to the specified GL-RL deflection was recorded @3mm.
Screwpile Australia's Operations Manager, Andrew Gordon, lead our installation crew in a demonstration of professional integrity and expertise, achieving all deliverables including successful load testing outcomes, repetitive precision installation, adherence to project timelines, meeting or exceeding all safety and QA systems and budgetary requirements. Challenging site conditions included variable ground conditions and working around a large number of multi-trade sub-contractor disciplines without disruption added to the overall challenges.
Structural engineer Emily Hunter from Foundation Engineering Consulting supervised the load testing regime and the screw pile installation was certified as per the design.
A big thank you to Lenore Brooks. Our old friends at Brooks Hire provided a first class 30t excavator fitted with our drive equipment and was float delivered exactly when and where required, ensuring seamless site establishment and demobilisation.
FEG is immensely proud of our team of professionals and congratulate all that made this project a total success.
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