March 8, 2010

Large concrete pour creates tunnel roof in Australia

KEDRON, Australia

More than 2,800 cubic metres of concrete was laid during a marathon engineering effort recently at the Airport Link site at Kedron, Australia. Workers spent 15 hours pouring the concrete at the site to create the roof for an early section of Australia’s biggest tunnel project.

The Kedron section is the middle piece of the 6.7 kilometre, $4.2 billion Airport Link tunnel, which will connect the Clem7 tunnel to the Brisbane Airport by 2012.

It took 380 concrete trucks to deliver the concrete, arriving every two minutes — or 37 trucks an hour — at the Gympie Road work site.

Four concrete pumps were used and 300 cubic metres of concrete was poured every hour. Project director Gordon Ralph said the concrete would make up the roof of a “surface level” connecting tunnel at Kedron, which is covered by soil and landscaped into the bigger project.

The concrete slab joins another section of tunnel roof already being laid beneath the Kedron Brook.

Underneath these concrete “cut and cover” sections of tunnel is another section of the Airport Link tunnel, Mr. Ralph said.

There are about 2,500 workers on the Airport Link project, which is expected to grow to 2,600 by mid-year.

Associated Press

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