11

PROJECT S O

Project: L , U

Sydney T I O N S

OneSteel Reinforcing helping drive construction of Westlink M7

OneSteel Reinforcing played a key role in by up to an hour and replaces the the construction of 's largest ever Cumberland as the national urban road: the 40km Westlink M7, highway link through Sydney, providing a supplying more than 40,000 tonnes of new route for the transport industry and steel reinforcing for various parts of the taking heavy vehicles off local roads. project. The massive project was built by a joint The missing link in Sydney’s orbital venture company comprising Abigroup network of motorways, the M7 is a 40km and Leighton Contractors (ALJV). 500PLUS REBAR dual carriageway motorway between the Key construction features of the project The PLUS is where M5/ at Prestons and the

S were the erection of 144 bridges and the we add value ... at Baulkham Hills. use of continuously reinforced concrete N • Integrated 500PLUS family The M7 bypasses up to 56 sets of traffic pavement for the roadway.

O of products & services lights, cutting travel times across western

I • Includes 10mm & 40mm ø

T for more efficient designs

U • Improved efficiency,

L productivity, speed & safety • Save time, money & effort O • National technical support S • Advanced Design ® assistance and software G • Prefabrication and Above left: All reo was delivered to site in cages up to three times a day. Left: Materials were colour-coded to ease N Supply & Fix packages identification and special jigs were used to weld up the frames (right), and assist the steelfixers (below). I • Extensive distribution

C network

R • OneSteel Reinforcing

O products are certified by ACRS, the Australian F Certification Authority for

N Reinforcing Steels I E R

® 500PLUS REBAR is a Registered Trade Mark used exclusively by ONESTEEL .

OSR471 11

PROJECT S O

Project: L Westlink M7, U

Sydney T I O N S

CONTACTS Continuously Reinforced Concrete two of his patented mobile steelfixing rigs S Pavement (CRCP) to place the steel, completing up to 500m Tel: 02 9794 1000 of roadway a day. N Fax: 02 9772 1689 OneSteel Reinforcing also supplied all of Western Australia the steel reinforcing for the 40km of dual The reinforcing was placed over a 200mm O Tel: 08 6332 3111 carriageway that was built using CRCP, thick concrete sub-base, with the CRCP I Fax: 08 6332 3149 one of the largest applications of the varying in thickness from 150-175mm. T Victoria construction technique in Australia. Tel: 03 9207 2200 Other Works U Fax: 03 9207 2270 To minimise wastage throughout the L As part of the site establishment works, Northern Territory roadway, OneSteel manufactured 15m OneSteel Reinforcing supplied more than O Tel: 08 8947 0330 and 10.3m lengths of the 16mm and 4000 tonnes of prefabricated reinforcing Fax: 08 8947 0358

S 12mm diameter 500PLUS Rebar used in cages for piles and columns. Queensland the pavement, with the steel delivered Tel: 07 3845 5655 direct to site from the OneSteel rolling mill Several thousand tonnes of steel G Fax: 07 3845 5697 in Rooty Hill. reinforcing was also supplied for other Tasmania

N works, including the construction of Tel: 03 6273 0300 Bundles of the steel were dropped at the

I retained earth walls, and for other precast Fax: 03 6273 0315 required intervals along the length of the concrete including standard bridge decks,

C South Australia roadway for placement by OK Steelex. and roadway elements including kerbing Tel: 08 8349 8666 R Fax: 08 8349 7555 OKSteelex principal, Lenny Beyers, used and noise barriers.

O ACT

F Tel: 02 6260 1244 Fax: 02 6260 1286 N www.reinforcing.com I E R

® 500PLUS REBAR is a Registered Trade Mark used exclusively by ONESTEEL . Left: The majority of bridges on the project used conventional precast bridge decks, as does the M7 cycleway. OSR471 The very complex reinforcement assemblies were lifted by crane into the special casting moulds, which were lined with steel formwork. Note the starter reinforcement for the concrete kerbing on the deck.

Project: Westlink M7, Sydney

Bridge Construction The large team of steelfixers assembled the very complex and heavily reinforced A major challenge for ALJV was cages using a series of special jigs. construction of the 144 bridges, including interchanges and over-and underpasses. Because the cages were being used in very accurate steel moulds, the tolerances 33 of the largest bridges for the project for the steel reinforcing being supplied by were precast segmental box girder-types, OneSteel Reinforcing were amongst the with two types of segmenOtSaRl4c7o1 nstruction tightest yet required for any project. used – span-by-span and balanced OneSteel Reinforcing’s representative for cantilever. the project, Peter Markuse, said everyone About 1750 span-by-span and 1000 involved in the project at OneSteel balanced cantilever precast concrete relished the challenge of working to such

S WESTLINK M7 segments weighing up to 70 tonne were demanding specifications. CONSORTIUM N manufactured. “Normally the tolerance for the supply of Abigroup (10%) and O A $10 million precast factory, located steel reinforcing in most building works is

I Leighton Contractors (10%) midway along the 40km motorway off around 20mm. For this project, all we

T are both partners in the Wallgrove Road at Eastern Creek, was had to play with is 5mm, which means

U consortium, which is constructed to supply the project with there was literally no margin for error.

L responsible for the design, reinforced concrete bridge segments to This was certainly one job where near construction, maintenance O meet the requirements for all of the enough was not good enough. It had to and operation of the M7

S segmental bridges within the construction be exact.” for a total of 34 years, timeframe. after which it will be OneSteel Reinforcing supplied more than G transferred back to the Special access roads were designed and 8000 tonnes of steel reinforcement for the

N NSW Government. built to accommodate the oversize low- construction of the precast concrete I The other partners in the bed vehicles required to move the segments, with up to three deliveries a

C consortium are concrete segments from the facility to day to keep the assembly process running

R (40%), which was construction sites along the motorway. as smoothly as possible. responsible for the O The precast factory comprised two main A complicating factor with the steel City Link F buildings: the Reinforcement Building, reinforcement for the precast concrete project, and Macquarie

N which was over 100m long and 30m segments was that many of the segments Infrastructure Group (40%), I wide; and the Casting Building, which differed slightly to accommodate the one of the largest E was over 250m long and 30m wide. curve of the roadway. developers and owners of R toll roads in the world. All of the reinforcement cages for the That meant making sure the reinforcement precast concrete bridge segments were for one segment did not get mixed up Above: Mating precast segments assembled in the Reinforcement Building. with another was a priority. interlock like building blocks. PROJECT S

Note the castings for the prestressing cables to pass through for installation. O The Casting Building was over 250m long and equipped with 14 casting moulds, enabling ALJV to cast up to 14 segments a day. The moulds rolled out of the

building on rails enabling the segments to be lifted by a mobile crane (see below). L U T I O N S

To overcome this problem, OneSteel the duration of the project. Reinforcing introduced a colour-coded “We also assisted ALJV by using our delivery tag system for the project. Nemetschek software to detail the most “Quality is always a priority in all of our complex areas of the cages and improve operations, but this project required us to steelfixing efficiencies.” lift our performance to a new benchmark After the reinforcement cages were for the steel reinforcing industry in assembled, they were transferred to the Australia,” said Peter. adjacent Casting Building by forklift, “We worked very closely with ALJV from where any final detailing, including the well before the project commenced, installation of prestressing ducts and providing them with advice on how best cables, was completed prior to them to tackle the assembly of the very being lifted into position in one of the 14 complex and heavily reinforced cages for casting moulds. the precast concrete segments. ALJV aimed to cast up to 14 segments “We also based one of our production every day, with the facility providing co-ordinators, on site full time to assist sufficient space for storage of up to 550 with scheduling and any other aspects completed units. concerning the supply of reinforcing for

The first large bridge completed was the 400m long structure at the Light Horse .

Segments were installed span-by-span (above) or by balanced cantilever. Complex prefabricated reinforcement was required for bridge columns (right). OSR471