| Testimonial
“Macmahon
are working on the Newman Hub mine ore handling facility in
the Pilbara and we have been particularly pleased with RMD’s
efficient designs and adaptable products which have allowed
us to achieve fast construction times. Their products are easy
to use, particularly their new Alshor Plus shoring system which
has considerably enhanced our productivity on this project.” Martin Headd
Senior Project Engineer,
Newman Hub MACMAHON
Project Information
BHP Billiton
is the World’s largest diversified resources company
and owner of Iron Ore operations throughout Western Australia.
As part of its self entitled $1.85 billion
Australian dollar ‘Rapid Growth Project 4’, which
will increase its Iron Ore mining capacity to 155 million tonnes
per year, BHP Billiton awarded the $80 million contract to build
a new screening plant, crushing station and coarse ore stockpile
facility, to specialist Australian contractor Macmahon Holdings
Limited.
The project, that included extensive foundations,
a myriad of plinths and bases for conveyors and rail lines,
the large scale crushing station and coarse ore stockpile facilities,
required the use of formwork and shoring to construct the more
than 30,000 cubic metres of structural concrete.
The remote nature of the location of the facilities
in the Pilbara region in the North of Western Australia, meant
that the movement of equipment to the site required rigorous
planning and built in redundancy, in order to ensure work was
not interrupted by the need to source equipment from the nearest
RMD Australia branch some 1,000 km’s away in Perth.
Commenting on the project RMD Australia Sales
Representative, Simon Hastings said: “With any large scale
construction programme like the ‘Rapid Growth Project
4’, there are numerous activities taking place at any
one time that depend on each other in order for the project
to progress.”
Given just seven months to complete the formwork and shoring
stages of the project, RMD Australia began work onsite in February
2008, shipping in 200 tonnes of equipment for the project, including
Alshor Plus, Megashor, Rapidshor and Rapidstage access scaffold
to the site. The main walls were formed using crane handled
Super Slim Soldier and Alform beam shutters.
Simon: “In all, the project required the construction
of two main structures. The 22.5m by 10.5m ‘Crushing Station’
with walls up to four metres high and 750mm thick and the larger
‘Coarse Ore Stockpile’ building, measuring 65.0m
by 10.2m.
“The project was complex with
the main challenge being the shoring to the 1500mm thick upper
slab in the ‘Coarse Ore Stockpile’. Large cast-in
steel chutes, along with 45 degree soffit chamfers on both sides
of the internal structure, meant that the design team would
need to come up with a design solution that would cater for
the integration of cast-in chutes and the concrete slab. “In
order to achieve this we designed and manufactured special cranked
soldiers to allow support for the 45 degree angles in the upper
slab. Thanks to the swift response of our design team and the
flexibility of the Rapishor shoring system, we were able to
overcome the challenge and complete the final pour to finish
the upper slab in mid September 2008 - right on schedule.”
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