48340 Construction Notebook Part 1

Site : Eastern Portal, Artarmon Road

Artarmon
Lane Cove Tunnel Project

Date visited: 4th September 2006

Prime Constructors: Connector Motorways, Thiess John Holland ( engaged by RTA )

The roller shown in Figure 1.1 below is known as a Tamping Foot or Pad roller, its drum
is covered with spaced feet and it has a vibrating function. This type of roller is suitable
for a wide range of materials, in particular cohesive soils as well as broken up granular
materials. This roller was being used to compact broken shale in preparation for the
construction of the main tunnel exit road.

Behind the roller a horizontal beam is running across the face of the row of piles. The
beam is held in place by soil anchors which are spaced at every third pile. The beam
provides resistance against bending loads in the piles; its use reduces the number of
anchors required. Without the restraining beam every pile would need an anchor which
would probably be more expensive and time consuming.

Figure 1.1 – A Bomag Tamping Foot Roller

The hydraulic excavator shown below is a Kamatsu PC300 which weighs 30 tonnes. It is
on a pile of backfill and was being used to transfer material into trucks using a bucket
attachment with teeth. The excavator has a long reach, easily able to pick up material
several metres below it and dump it in trucks on the edge of the fill. Once full the trucks
transported the material to a finished section of tunnel where it was dumped and used to
backfill areas above the tunnel.

The excavator was extremely efficient at moving the material; I watched it fill a 12 tonne
capacity truck with 4 bucket loads. However, the process was being slowed down with
difficult access for the trucks off a main road and not enough trucks being used. This
meant that the excavator was often idle while waiting for the next truck to fill. This
highlighted the fact that earthmoving processes are often chains and it is the process as a
whole which must be efficient. The large excavator is an expensive piece of equipment
and it is important to use it and its operator in the most efficient manner possible. If this
process was more efficient the task would be finished earlier and the excavator could then
be used elsewhere on the site.

Interestingly the excavator has a fire extinguisher mounted on the front as a precaution in
case of fire. I noticed that most of the large excavators on site had one, but the smaller
ones did not.

Figure 1.2 – Large hydraulic excavator with bucket attachment

Figure 1.3 shows a Komatsu tilt dozer which weighs approximately 50 tonnes and has a
blade that is approximately 4m wide with a 14 cubic meter capacity. The tilt dozer has a
front blade which can be raised or lowered hydraulically using the two push arms on the
side, but the angle of the blade cannot be varied.

The dozer has a ripper mounted on its rear which allows it to break and loosen hard soil
and some types of rock. The ripper is mounted using four hydraulic jacks which enables
the operator to keep the tooth of the ripper perpendicular to the ground regardless of
depth. This is important because the ripper is generally most efficient at this angle; it also
helps to reduce wear on the tooth of the ripper.

This dozer had been used to break up soil and shale with its ripper and then push the
material into a large pile which will be used as backfill at a later stage. The dozer has
been driven up onto the fill to keep it out of the way while a grader and rollers work on
the area that was prepared using it. Its ripper has been driven into the fill to help keep it
stable, the grade of the fill pile was much steeper than it appears in the photo. The
combination of tracks and large engine power made this an easy task for the dozer.

Figure 1.3 – Large bulldozer with ripper attachment

Figures 1.4 and 1.5 show a set of cattle grids which were located at one of the access
points to the site. The grids help to remove dirt and rock that has accumulated on the
tyres of trucks as they drive around the site. As an exiting truck drives over the grid the
ridges scrape off and collect some of the dirt, this removed material can be seen on the
peaks of the cross bars in Figure 1.4. Each grid is placed over a wide shallow hole that
has been scraped out and driven into the ground, allowing some of the removed material
to fall through and reduce build up on the grids. This type of grid is particularly effective
in muddy conditions after the site has had some rainfall.

It is important that trucks exiting the site onto roadways have reasonably clean tyres.
Muddy or dirty tires will not have good traction on the road which could be extremely
dangerous, especially for a truck with a large payload. It is also important to keep public
roadways as clean as possible. Trucks exiting with muddy tires will leave dirt on the
asphalt roads which makes the road unsafe for motorists. This was a crucial
consideration at this exit point as it opened directly on to the Gore Hill Freeway which is
a very busy road with cars travelling at 80-90 km per hour.

Figure 1.4 – A set of “Cattle Grids”

Figure 1.5 – An exiting truck using a set of “Cattle Grids”
The hydraulic excavator shown in Figures 1.6 to 1.8 is a Hitachi Zaxis 350H which
weighs approximately 20 tonnes. The excavator was being used to remove some of the
cattle grids and load them on to a truck to be taken elsewhere on the site. Initially a
toothed bucket was used to dig the grid out of the ground (Figure 1.6). The operator then
cleared all the mud that had gathered between the crossbars of the grid. This was done by
jerking the arm of the excavator about while keeping the grid balanced on the teeth of the
bucket and also by dropping the grid on the ground from a reasonable height. The
amount of control and precision that the operator demonstrated while performing this task
was very impressive.

After the grids were loaded on to a truck I watched the excavator change attachments and
was surprised at how quickly this was done. It took the excavator approximately 30
seconds to remove the toothed bucket and attach a flat edged bucket. I was told that it
would not be so easy with all types of attachments, for example a rock drill might be
slightly harder to position and attach.

Figure 1.8 shows the excavator using the back of the flat edged bucket to spread crushed
rock around the truck access point. This is another technique that is commonly used to
try and minimise the amount of dirt and mud that is on a trucks tires when it exits the site
on to the main road. Watching this excavator at work really showed me the versatility of
hydraulic excavators as well as the importance of having a skilled operator in order to
take full advantage of their capacity.

Figure 1.6 – A hydraulic excavator removing cattle grid

Figure 1.7 - A hydraulic excavator cleaning cattle grid

Figure 1.8 – A hydraulic excavator spreading crushed rock

Figure 1.9 shows men laying pipes which will be used as service ducts and may carry
electrical and communications wires. The trench was cut using the excavator shown in
Figure 1.10 with a rock cutting attachment. This attachment was used instead of a bucket
or backhoe because the trench needed to be dug in fairly solid shale. The rock cutter was
able to dig the trench with a fairly straight and tidy edge. Once the pipes have been
placed in the trench it will be filled in with some of the excavated shale and compacted.

Figure 1.9 – A trench for service ducts

Figure 1.10 – Medium sized excavator with rock cutting attachment
 Site : Moree St
Gordon
High rise residential building

Date visited: 21st September, 2nd October 2006

Prime Constructors: Key Concrete Systems

There are three office areas on the site which are shown below in Figure 2.1, they are
relatively small most likely one or two people per room. These are easily portable
buildings which are hired from the construction equipment company Coates. Each office
has bars on the window to provide security, which is an important consideration on
construction sites. The offices would probably be used for the day to day managerial
work associated with running the site, communications and storage of plans and other
documents.

The yellow pole in the foreground of the photo is a small temporary telegraph pole which
has also been hired. The pole has been used to connect the offices with a power supply
and with communications such as telephone lines and internet connections, which are
essential to running the project. A small first aid room is located slightly out of picture to
the right of the third office. This provides the workers with the facilities to treat minor
injuries that may occur on site

Figure 2.1 – Portable Site offices and temporary telegraph pole

The main crane in use on this high rise development site is the tower crane shown below
in Figure 2.2. The tower crane has a good lift capacity, provides extremely good lifting
height and has a working radius that allows it to service the whole area of the site. This
crane will be providing service to the site from start to project completion and is a fairly
standard piece of equipment on a high rise construction site.

The machinery sections and boom of the crane are delivered to the site on large trailers.
A mobile crane would then be used to assemble them at the desired location. The crane
builds itself higher one tower section at a time using a climbing frame which fits over the
top most section of tower. The slewing unit is detached from the top of the tower and
hydraulic rams in the climbing frame push it up. The crane operator then lifts another
section of tower into the gap opened by the climbing frame where it is bolted into place
by a crew of workers.

Figure 2.2 – Tower crane with angled main boom

Part of the building has been constructed around the base of the tower (Figure 2.3). The
tower passes through the structure to a large concrete slab below which it is heavily
bolted to, providing stability for the crane. The slab would most likely have been poured
several weeks before the crane arrives.

This photo highlights another significant advantage of the tower crane, the limited space
that it takes up on site.

Figure 2.3 – Lower section of tower crane

Figures 2.4 and 2.5 show a flatbed truck with a small rear mounted hydraulic crane
delivering materials to the construction site. The materials were quickly unloaded onto
pallets using the trucks crane. The crane on this truck is purely for use in unloading the
truck, it is not a “truck crane” as such and would not be used anywhere else on a
construction site.

Once a bag was loaded onto a pallet the tower crane was used to distribute the supplies
either to an area of the site were it would be used or to a storage area (Figure 2.6). A
purpose built yellow cage was used to make sure that the load was secure and could not
fall during the lift. This is important as the crane lifts the pallets over areas of the site
where people are working. The cage is suspended from the crane’s cable, lowered over
the pallet and then two horizontal bars are slid through the bottom of the pallet and loops
on the bottom of the cage. To ensure that this process was conducted safely, the worker
securing the cage checked very carefully that each pallet was in good condition before it
was loaded and that the cage was secure (Figure 2.5).

Figure 2.4 – Rear mounted hydraulic crane on a flatbed truck

Figure 2.5 – Worker overseeing the tower crane lift

Figure 2.6 – Tower crane lifting site supplies

The small hydraulic excavator shown below was being used to load crushed rock into the
yellow bucket on the right. The bucket was tapered towards the bottom and could be
opened at the bottom so that the material didn’t have to be tipped out. The tower crane
was used to transport the bucket across site where a worker released the material.

Watching this once again highlighted the advantage of having the tower crane on site. It
was capable of quickly moving material and equipment to all areas of the site. Before
coming to this site I had thought that because they were so large, tower cranes would
mainly be used for high and heavy lifts that other cranes couldn’t reach. However, this
crane was constantly in use performing numerous small lifts.

Figure 2.7 – Small excavator and crane bucket

Figure 2.8 shows a wall that is being constructed of precast concrete blocks. During
construction steel reinforcement is placed both vertically and horizontally within the wall.
Each full size block has two large rectangular hollow sections running through it from top
to bottom. The blocks are laid in a standard staggered formation with each row having
half a block of horizontal shift with respect to the row above or below. This means that
when vertical reinforcements are inserted down through each hollow section each block
is connected by reinforcement to two blocks above and two blocks below. The vertical
reinforcements can be seen protruding from the top of the finished wall in Figure 2.9.
Horizontal reinforcement is placed in grooves that are located on one of the blocks
horizontal faces. The combination of horizontal and vertical reinforcement connects each
block to all the blocks that surround it.

Once the wall has been erected with cement and all reinforcement has been placed it is
filled with concrete by pouring through the open hollow sections at the top. This type of
wall is relatively easy to fabricate, provides excellent durability and strength and is
commonly used in multi story buildings.

Figure 2.8 – Construction of a concrete block wall

 Figure 2.9 – Construction of 1st residential level above basement

In Figure 2.9 an outer brick wall is being constructed around the completed concrete wall.
Interestingly, I was told that this is being provided at the clients request as an aesthetic
feature and is not required in a structural capacity. The exposed reinforcement protruding
from the tops of the walls will be incorporated into the concrete slab that makes up the
next level of the building.

Figures 2.10 and 2.9 show wooden beams that are being supported by load bearing
falsework frames. The frames have adjustable jacks at the top which enables fine
adjustment of the height. Cross bracing in the frames prevents the buckling of vertical
members under load.

In order to construct the next level of the building thin precast concrete slabs will be
lifted into place on top of the beams. These slabs act as permanent formwork for the
bottom of the main slab which will be poured on top. The precast slabs have looped
reinforcements protruding from the top. This provides a good structural bond between the
precast slab and the poured main slab creating a slightly thicker composite slab.

A grid of reinforcement bars is placed on top of the precast slabs and the side sections of
formwork are erected. Figure 2.10 shows a section of the building which has the precast
slabs placed. Most of the reinforcement is in place and the beginnings of the side forms
can be seen at the back.
Once all the reinforcement is placed and the side formwork has been completed the main
slab can be poured. Initially the weight of the poured concrete will be taken by the
falsework frames. Once the concrete hardens and gains strength the frames can be
removed and the slab will be self supporting.

The whole process will be repeated as the next level of the building is constructed with
this slab being the floor of the new level and the roof of the level underneath. Figure 4.12
shows a section of a main slab that has been completed with the reinforcement from the
wall beneath coming through.

I found it interesting that different sections of the building were always at different stages
of construction. At one section the block walls were being erected, at the next the
falsework was erected and the wooden beams were placed. At another section the
preparation for pouring the main slab would be underway.

Greater efficiency is achieved by staggering the activities that are taking place on site. It
enables the company to split their workforce into a set of teams which can always be
performing the same function. For example, one team may construct the block walls,
another might place falsework and formwork. This increases the output of individuals
and teams as there is a learning curve associated with repeated activities.

Furthermore, the amount of required equipment is reduced, for example the falsework
frames are not required at all sections of the site at the same time and so the total number
of frames required is reduced.

Figure 2.10 – Load bearing falsework frame

Figure 2.11 – A section with precast slabs and reinforcement placed

Figure 2.12 – End section of a main slab

There was a significant amount of signage at the entrance of the site. Construction is a
reasonably dangerous industry and it is important that correct procedures are adhered to.
All visitors to the site must sign in at the site office and have correct safety equipment
including work boots and a hardhat before they are allowed into the construction area.
There are also signs warning the general public to keep out of the site and the inspection
of power tools and electrical leads.

There was a significant amount of advertising at the site as well with the main contractor
(Key Concrete Systems), Subcontractors, the security company and the crane company
having various signage placed around the site.

Figure2.13 - A range of warning signs at the site entrance

Many thanks to Bob English of the Roads and Traffic Authority (RTA) for sacrificing his
time to show me various work on the Lane Cove Tunnel Project.

References

How Stuff Works

http://www.howstuffworks.com

The Engineering Tool Box

http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com

Anderson, T., 2006, Construction Study Guide, Module 1: Equipment, Technology &
Process