LIFTING, LOGISTICS | INSIGHT
Metro projects present a unique set of challenges for project owners, their construction partners and engineering teams. By design, metro stations are located in heavily populated urban areas. High traffic density, congested sites with limited space for construction works, and demanding construction schedules are par for the course. Since 2016 Marr has been working with Sydney Metro
and their constructors to develop a new approach to cranage that is helping to take the complexity out of large-scale transport infrastructure projects. Similar projects around the world have adopted the
cut-and-cover box method, where crawler cranes are nearly always the immediate consideration, but our approach has consistently demonstrated that strategically installing the right cranes can change the way an entire project is constructed, principally because of the ability to lift bigger pieces and remove the requirement for costly, challenging and time-consuming groundworks. From our initial engagement on the construction of
Sydney Metro’s Castle Hill station, we’ve subsequently been engaged to deliver bespoke cranage solutions across 14 stations. By adopting lessons from other projects and sectors
and working collaboratively with our clients, we’ve developed cranage solutions that have enabled the delivery of safer, faster and lower cost projects – all with the goal of simplifying construction.
EARLY ENGAGEMENT IS KEY Key to the successes we have achieved for our clients on these projects has been the willingness of project teams to engage us early in the planning stages – and to think differently about how cranage solutions can be procured and delivered. The traditional approach to construction views
cranage through the lens of achieving the crane budget, which is a small package in relative terms on most projects. This approach only considers cranage once design and procurement are established, which limits the opportunity to develop innovative solutions to address project challenges. The early engagement approach to crane selection
offers the possibility to change the way a project is delivered, with fewer engineering, procurement and construction activities. It always comes back to the fact that cranage doesn’t
need to be as hard or complex as it often becomes. It’s about getting the right solution for the project and the challenges that come with it, but there is often too much focus on the crane instead of how it is working for the project. Importantly, the cranage solution should serve the project, not be ‘star of the show’.
OUT-OF-THE-BOX SOLUTIONS Our first involvement with Sydney Metro was working with the Northwest Rapid Transit (NRT) Consortium on construction of the Castle Hill station.
NRT was initially considering a cranage solution using
crawler cranes travelling along the edge of a 200m x 30m cut-and-cover station box to cover the required lifts. However, as is the case with many metro projects, the site was congested and landlocked between two existing roads. The traditional approach would have placed a large surge load against the station box walls, with the consequence of having to excavate around the box and fill in with groundworks to specific bearing pressures. Off the back of working on Australia’s largest
resources project at the time – the Gorgon LNG Project, where we introduced large capacity tower cranes to address the challenges of working in a congested area with limited space for crawler cranes – we looked at NRT’s challenges from a different perspective. Understanding the benefits of combining fewer
cranes with greater efficiency, Marr’s solution of using two heavy lift luffing tower cranes, sitting alongside the station box, provided lifting capacity across the entire site and changed the way the whole project was constructed. Our approach – using fewer cranes with greater
capacity and reach to deliver less complex, more efficient, and safer ways of constructing – also became a new blueprint for other metro station builds on Sydney Metro.
ADAPTABLE AND FLEXIBLE SOLUTIONS Working collaboratively with our clients to deliver the best outcome for their preferred construction methodology, we’ve adapted our approach to suit the specific constraints of each project – changing where we locate the cranes from outside the station box to inside, on the side, or on gantry systems halfway between the tunnel boring machine (TBM) tunnel exit and entry points. After working with John Holland and CPB Contractors
as part of the Metro Trains Sydney Consortium, the John Holland CPB Ghella (JHCPBG) Joint Venture engaged Marr during the tender process to develop a cranage solution for Sydney Metro’s Barangaroo station. JHCPBG wanted a solution to allow heavy precast
concrete elements to be installed, reducing the construction programme. It also had to address the challenges of working on a restricted harbour-front site adjacent to another development, with limited real estate for access and the movement of equipment around the site. The other significant challenge was how to retrieve
TBM sections weighing up to 255 tonnes midway through the construction programme. JHCPBG had proposed using a crawler crane
to remove the TBMs, but the need for additional groundworks on an already congested site, with limited areas for laydown and access limitations due to night lifts to facilitate road closures (another common constraint on metro projects), made it an inefficient option.
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