48340 Construction

Notebook Part 1 -Srdjan Djukic

There were a number of construction sites that I have visited in the past couple of weeks.
These sites were of similar projects: residential, retail and commercial another differing
was electrical. They have all allowed me to observe different areas of construction. The
following construction sites were visited.

Site 1 – Illawarra Catholic Club

Prime constructor: ‘Lipman’ the obvious choice
Date visited: Monday 17th , Tuesday 18th and Tuesday 25th of March

The construction site of the Illawarra Catholic Club is located in the suburb of Hurstville
on the corner of Crofts Avenue and Cross Street. It is a project valued at $40 million that
includes four stories of car park, three stories of club and four stories of offices.

Site 2 – East Quarter Hurstville

Prime constructor: Baseline Constructions
Date visited: Thursday 20th of March

This site is a 2.8 hectare, $60 million project also located in Hurstville, on Forest road. So
far the construction has been in process for 18 months, developing a residential and retail
project.

Site 3 – Medical Center

Prime constructor: ‘Hansen Yuncken’ building value
Date Visited: Saturday 22nd (short visit) and Wednesday 26th of March

Another site that is located in Hurstville. Its position is on the corner of Queens Road and
Dora Street. The project is valued at $74 million. It began construction recently and the
completion time is 2010.

Site 4 – Pipe Jack tunnel

Prime constructor: Abergeldie complex infrastructure
Date visited: Thursday 20th and Wednesday 26th of March

This project is undertaken at two places as a pipe jack tunnel 2400mm in diameter, 120m
long is being constructed. The tunnel is dug beneath roads and railways at Carlton (corner
of Railway street and Edgehill street) and Kogarah (corner of Railway Parade and
English street). The project is required by Energy Australia and is valued at $4.7 million.
 When arriving to Site 1 what I first noticed was that the construction was not
carried out evenly. One side of the site was carrying out construction right at the base
while the other side had already 3 levels constructed. The reason for this was that there
was an electrical substation where the site had to be excavated (Fig 1). This slowed down
the construction on that side as all the electrical wiring had to be moved and a new
substation (Fig 1.1) had to be built. Their decision was to start the construction on the
other side while the process of removing and building the new substation was taking
place. This didn’t have any major impact on the construction besides the unreliability of
having two construction areas at different levels.

Fig 1.1 – Site map indicating the existing and new location of the electrical substation.

Fig 1.1 – New electrical substation (Site 1).

 On the same site rock anchorage was one noticeable operation. The use of rock
anchors was one of the most common construction operation noticed on all of the sites I
have visited. This is because the sites that were visited required deep excavation. Rock
anchor’s job is to stabilize steep slopes and walls and prevent them from collapsing from
the opposing forces. There were two different approaches to installing the rock anchors at
this site. Since there was an existing wall positioned along one of the sides being
excavated the process of anchoring was fairly simple (Fig 2). Every 1.5m of excavation
an anchor was put in 900cm at 45 down.

Fig
2 – Rock anchors stabilising an existing wall after excavation (Site 1).
 This was not the case on the other sides of the excavation where there was just
rock acting as a wall. In these situations piles are put in before the excavation can even
start. Therefore the knowledge of the existing construction work and objects needs to be
researched to use anything that can be used as an advantage to the current construction
taking place. After the piles are made (discussed later on in these notes) the excavation
process starts. Similarly to the previous method, after every 1.5m of excavation an anchor
is put in 900cm at 45 down. To further stabilise the rock wall, concrete is poured so it
bonds against the rock and the piles. This concrete is either poured into form work or
grouted against the rock wall and mesh reinforcement. This creates a concrete wall with a
rock anchor similar to the above method but this time the anchor is placed through the
pile, (Fig 2.1) being the stronger element of the wall.

Fig
2.1 – Note the rock anchors following the line of pylons (Site 1).

The installation process of rock anchors follows a down-hole drilling procedure at

a required elevation. A ribbed bar is then inserted into the drilled hole in the bedrock,
grout is then pumped into the hole to fill it up and bond to the rock and ribbed bar. After
approximately 5 days when the grout has dried and the ribbed bar has bonded, the bar or
the anchor is then post-tensioned and locked off to maintain the tension. This leaves the
concrete wall/piles compressed against the bedrock creating a safe environment to
construct the project.
 With all deep excavations piles are a necessity. There are different types of piles
used for different applications. The piles observed on Site 1, 3 and 4 are single reinforced
bored piles. I was present at Site 3 while a track mounted piling rig (Fig 3) was drilling a
20m hole for a pile. The process was long as the hole was deep and the rig had to be
pulled out to remove the drilled out soil/bedrock from the auger drill bit. Y-32 Rein-
forcement cages are then placed into the hole with the use of an 8 tone city crane (Fig
3.1) which is then followed by filling up the hole with concrete. The method of pouring
the concrete into the hole is via tremie pipe (Fig 3.1) which is attached to a concrete
boom pump (discussed later on in the notes). The tremie pipe is 20m long, this may vary
depending on the hole. It provides a compact filling of the hole maintaining its end 1-2m
below the concrete being pumped and is pulled up by the crane as the concrete level rises.
If the end is get deeper into the concrete, it will clog up and slow down the concrete flow.
This method is expensive but very reliable. If other methods such as straight dumping
from a concrete mixer are applied, the soil will start to segregate and mix with the
concrete, it may not be a compact fill, it may be cheaper but it will result in failure and
extra unwanted expenses. Even with a tremie pipe the loose surface soil occasionally
tends to fall into the hole depending on its rigidity. In such situation a temporary casing is
required within the length of the loose soil (Fig 3.2).

Fig 3 – Track mounted piling rig with an auger drill bit (Site 3).
 Fig 3.1 (above) – An 8 tone city crane holding and
controlling a tremie pipe (Site3)._________________

Fig 3.2 (left) – Temporary casing on a pile (Site 4).__

At Site 3 there was a problem with removing an existing wall and putting up new
retaining system using piles, same process as described previously. The engineers have
come up with a solution but for the project manager this solution was too costly so they
have come up with another solution they are willing to use. Fig 4 shows an existing wall
that needs to be removed. The plan is to cut the wall into 1m sections, remove the wall
and backfill. The wall was cut with a rock saw (Fig 4.1), knocked down with a jack
hammer (Fig 4.2) and backfilled with a bucket and shovel. All the tools used for this
process are attachment that can be attached to a Sumitomo SH210-5 Excavator which has
an operating weight of 20 000kg (Fig 4.3). As with every operation there are precautions
to be taken into consideration. Through this operation the precautions were, maintaining
the footpaths original structure with minimal deformation of couple centimeters. If this
was not maintained and the footpath collapsed, the underground electrical wiring could
be damaged which leads to a rise of unwanted expenses. This is the reason why the wall
was cut into 1m sections. It is the span within which the footpath concrete slab can
maintain its structure without failure.
Fig
4 – Existing wall showing minor concrete collapse, backfill and 1m section (Site 3)

Fig 4.1 (above) – Hammer jack (Site 3)___

Fig 4.2 (left) – rock saw (Site 1, also used

on site 3)__________________________
Fig 4.3 – Backfilling with the use of the Sumitomo SH210-5 Excavator and shovel (Site
3)

With most of these procedures and methods of construction it is about keeping the
structure rigid. Withstand forces without failure and deformation. Concrete is known to
be strong in compression and very weak in tension. This is the case, however even though
it is good in compression we need to make it even better. This is when reinforcement
comes in. Majority of concrete structures consists of some sort of reinforcement. Whether
it is mesh used in slabs, rods with rings used in columns, pre-stressed and post tensioned
beams. Each reinforcement differs, depending of its intended use.

To start with concrete pouring the formwork and reinforcement is laid out. For a
concrete wall the reinforcement is set out with ribbed reinforcement bars that are
interlocked with rings this is very similar to column reinforcement (Fig 5) This type of
reinforcement prevents the concrete from bursting out when under compressive loads.
The reinforcement bars are then tied with wire to prevent the reinforcement from moving
when the concrete is being poured. The reo bars need to stick out of the top of the
wall/column for continuity of reinforcement, these are called starter bars (Fig 5). The
over lap gap between the starter bars and continuing reinforcement bars in a column has
to be 4 times the diameter of the reo bar. It is important that all reinforcement is clean,
free of paint, rust and dirt. If any of this is present, there is a possibility of concrete
cancer which is caused by rust and deoxidisation causing the concrete to weaken and
eventually crack.
 Fig 5 – Reinforcement bars with rings and starter bars in a concrete wall (Site 1)

Reinforcement keeps the concrete together when dry but to keep concrete in place
when wet, that’s when formwork is built to suit the shape and need of the concrete. Most
convenient hence common type of formwork is from sheets of ply wood. This type of
formwork was seen on both Site 1 and 2 where very large beams were to be poured in
(Fig 5.1). To make formwork more convenient in cases such as retaining walls, Peri
systems are used. Peri system can be used together with wooden formwork where it is
opposing the formwork against the bedrock/existing wall (Fig 5.2). It can be adjusted to
desired size and is easy to move around.

Fig 5.1 – Formwork for a large beam and Fig 5.2 – Peri System in used for a wall (Site 1)
 To further strengthen concrete, methods such as placing Bondek with formwork
are highly efficient and flexible (Fig 6). It also acts as reinforcement and a ceiling system
for concrete slabs and beams. The usual wooden formwork needs to be stripped down as
for Bondek stays in the concrete resisting the tension forces on the bottom of the slab
allowing the slab to have a greater span between the supports.

Fig 6 – Laid out Bondek with formwork (Site 2)____________________

Another type of reinforcement, but this type slightly different and unique is
Rebox (Fig 6.1). Its purpose is to resist shear forces between two different types of
concrete structures, wall and slab/column and wall and to join the perpendicular
reinforcements of these two types of structures. Its housing material is an indented
galvinised metal which allows it to bond to concrete and holds the reo bars that are bent
outward depending on what is being put together. The case on Site 2 is that the Rebox is
placed into a concrete wall and is joining a concrete slab on the other side of the wall
(Fig 6.2).

Fig 6.1 – Unpacked Rebox (Site 2) Fig 6.2 – Rebox placed in wall (Site 2)__
 Last but not least of constructing a concrete structure is pouring the concrete into
the formwork. There are different methods that to perform such need which all depends
of the location of the slab, column, wall or beam. One of the cheapest ways is use the
chute at the back of the 6 wheeler concrete truck mixer (Fig 7) which extends out a
couple of meter and allows the concrete to slide down the chute to the required area. I
have not witnessed this method before as it was not performed on either of the sites. This
method is not always convenient, as there are areas where formwork is a few stories up or
several meters below ground level and needs to be filled. In this case one of the options,
perhaps not the best option would be pouring with a crane and a kibble (Fig 7.1). Here
the kibble is filled up with concrete, lifted by a crane and lowered where necessary. This
method may be time consuming as the kibble needs to lifted back to the truck and get
refilled. It is important to lower the kibble and pour concrete at a reasonable height so the
drop of the concrete does not damage the formwork which may cause segregation.

Fig 7 – 6 wheeler concrete truck mixer (Site 2) & Fig 7.1 – Crane lifting a kibble (Site 1)

One of the most convenient and reliable ways of pouring concrete is with the use
of a truck mounted concrete pumps (Fig 7.2). This would be the most expensive way but
it does benefit hiring them. Can access crowded areas and extend its arms to reach 500m
horizontally and 120m vertically making it very flexible. It pumps out the concrete at an
equal rate which makes it very efficient to spread out when pouring. As mentioned at the
beginning of the notes it can be attached to a tremie pipe for filling up the boring for
piling. Otherwise its main used would be distributing concrete into formwork for slabs
and beams (Fig 7.3).
Fig 7.2 – Truck mounted concrete pump (boom pump) (Site 2).__________________
Fig 7.3 – Pouring concrete into formwork from boom pumps (Site 2)______________