Portal Frame Photos 1

Southern Cross Station

Image 1: An overall view of the interior of the station

Image 2: An overall image of the interioir of the station, in particular the roof

Image 3: The top of a large column which spreads to provide structural support

Article 4 - Galanizing gets greener

Galvanizing gets greener
Steel Australia March 2008
Page 36

GB galvanizing won the award for achieving world class efficiencies in 2007. The plan expansion aimed to improve the efficiency, sustainability and environmental friendliness of hot dip galvanizing. The new facility burns less natural gas, and electricity. The have the worlds first caustic degreaser which manages to save up to five kilolitres of water per day, and saves $6,000 per month on natural gas. It gathers its own rainwater, which the plant draws from when needed.

Article 3

Ground Floor talks cut tower build costs, Southern Cross West Tower Melbourne
Page 22
Steel Australia
March 2008

Second steel frame project built in the Southern Cross development, regarding cost, timeframe and quality commitments. Takes advantage of a number of lessons from the building of the first tower. SX1 has a central concrete core with a simple repetitive steel frame while SX2 has a side concrete core with more repetitive steelwork. Each column on SX1 went three stories high which meant that there were uneven floor cycle times upon the erection of columns which created insufficiencies in the workforce.

Whilst for SX2 the columns are two storeys high and staggered, crane and hoist connections were developed off site which saved time. The use of steel has greatly reduced the number of personnel required. Cooperation between the builder, fabricator and engineer and façade contractor lead to simplified systems and faster construction and as a result, lower costs. Ultimately the second phase of the project was helped by the amount of communication that went on, which enabled the build time to be relatively shorter.

The biggest advantage of building with steel was the turnaround time, access for trades could be provided the next day as back propping didn’t create a problem.

Article 2 - pre-cast concrete

James Luckey
The concrete society
March 2008 Concrete, page 8 and 9
Interview with Martin Clarke, CEO of British Pre-Cast

This article discusses the importance of marketing in the argument for precast concrete, one of their goals is to see the concrete precast concrete industry grow, they want market share with improved profitability.

Clarke claims that optimisation of life-cycle costs and environmental impact is the future of the industry, however precast faces a lot of prejudice.

In 2007 the precast industry had to deal with cement shortages, it is important to have a strong UK manufacturing base and an adequate supply of materials. The focus is on three main areas health and safety, sustainability, and innovation. Accidents have been decreased on site and Clarke intends to continue to see these accidents decrease.

An innovations award scheme has been put in place, British precast launched a challenging sustainability charter which member companies were invited to sign, a rewards based system acts as an incentive for companies to work on sustainability and adhere to the charter.

Ultimately Clarke’s vision is to have a global networking market for precast, ideas is the basis for this global networking market, and Clarke is starting to see this happen.