Salini Impregilo – NRW has received a Concrete Institute of Australia (WA) Award for Excellence in the Technology and Innovation Category for 2019.
The judges said SI-NRW had gone “well and truly above and beyond what is the norm” in the production of tunnel segments for the Public Transport Authority of WA’s Forrestfield-Airport Link.
“The tunnel segment lining has been designed and manufactured to deliver an infrastructure project that performs above industry best practice and standards,” the judges said.
The award submission, titled State of the Art Design and Manufacture of Segmental Tunnel Linings, detailed how SI-NRW, together with concrete supplier Boral, delivered a high quality, durable and sustainable product.
Some of the features include:
- The solution used for the manufacture of the segments was based on a hybrid system using steel fibre-reinforced concrete and light steel reinforcement rebar cage.
- Polypropylene fibres have been incorporated within the concrete mix to comply with the fire resistance requirements.
- The mix-design was developed based on triple-blend cementitious materials. A customised production plant was established to produce the segments, along with a dedicated concrete batching plant
SI-NRW Project Director Richard Graham thanked the West Australian Branch of the Concrete Institute of Australia for the prestigious award.
“Within six months, we turned a vacant warehouse into a purpose-built precast factory in Forrestfield,” Mr Graham said.
“At the same time a tailor-made concrete mix was designed and subjected to extensive testing, including full sized fire simulations in a German laboratory.
“Fast-forward two years to April 2019 and we successfully completed the production of the more than 9000 precast rings (or more than 54,000 segments) required to line the 15kms of Forrestfield-Airport Link tunnels.”
Mr Graham said they had created a world-class precast operation by using high-quality raw materials in an efficient manufacturing process, under very stringent quality control.
“We believe that we have set the highest standard for the production of precast tunnel lining segments in Australia, and for this we are extremely proud.”
Mr Graham thanked SI-NRW’s strategic partner Boral, all suppliers and subcontractors and, above all, the dedicated and committed local work force.
The State award win means SI-NRW is now in the running for the National Awards for Excellence in Concrete to be announced in Sydney in September.
