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.