Brick arch culvert upgrades
Culvert invert removal and replacement, new bush access stairs
It is not often that you associate a daily commute, thousands of kilometres of raw steel track or endless tonnes of ballast, with a place of tranquillity and peace. Namberry Ridge was offered a truly unique opportunity to quote on what seemed a standard culvert repair job removing and replacing the concrete invert inside a 110m long brick culvert. “Throw in some crack repair work while you’re down there” as well. What ensued was one the companies most challenging undertakings but one of our most enjoyable outcomes.
From the first inspection though, our team could tell that this was no ordinary rock up to site and get into it kind of job! Located on the edge of national parklands at Stanwell Park on the downside of the Illawarra escarpment we met for the pretender meeting. A long bush walk down the 30-40degree slope past fallen trees, lantana and a few leeches later we surmised that we would need to put extra thought and effort to ensure we provided a quality job despite the challenges.
Some outside of the box thinking and foresight allowed us to formulate a strategy that allowed NR to reduce the overall length of construction, reduce the need for more than two possessions and limit our impact on the rail network.
Within our tender we went into great depth of how we would mitigate and overcome some of these unique obstacles
- First we would need to build a suitable working platform equipped to enable an emergency evacuation of any injured personnel via a … system also to be large enough to enable hoisting out of 100t of rubble to be removed and enabled safe access down the 4m drop.
- Build a dam to stop the constant flow of water and redirect it to allow any of the works to begin.
- Set up lighting and power.
- Remove the debris after demolition.
- Pump concrete over 250lm down the ravine and place and finish concrete
- Reinstate the access way via a bush stairway and stabilise the area to prevent further erosion.
We as a company are proud to say that we delivered on time without variations, a job that for us was one of our most rewarding outcomes we believe what we left behind was an area in the rail corridor that was of parkland quality that unfortunately will not be seen by any on that daily commute but that will be endeared within our company and hopefully project who we are and the work we strive to produce for our clients. No matter the location.
