Holdfast Training Services Trial Blog

Despite the threat of rain we managd to get the 55T crane in and place all the shutters for abutment A by thu to pour fri. I was literally waiting until just before the pour on fri morning for the pour rate to be issue from the formwork sub-contractor’s independent certifier but it came through just as the first truck pulled in. The concrete was 21oC which meant we could pour at a rate of 1.6m of wall per hour. The wall is 14m in width, 1.1m in depth and 8.8-9.2m in height (crossfall variation) which meant every 1m of height was about 15m^3. It took just over 7 hours to pour and in the end the service we got from Boral concrete was pretty good and just under the pour rate for most of the day. I ordered 136m^3 and had a 1m^3 left over with about 0.5 left in the pump so just about spot on and the site is noe taking shape.We also had very good progress on abutment B with the majority of the steel now fixed. I have pulled another saturday so the steel fixers are in again today and we are also cracking the bolts on the abutment A formwork in preparation to strip the dhutters on mon with the 55T crane agin and transfer them straight over to abutment B. If we can pour abutment B on thu as intended then we should be all good to lift the deck beams on over thu, fri, sat the following week just in time for rail to come through the week after that. The main issue will be weather, when we get a day of rain it usually takes two out of the program as the entire site becomes boggy. Dickson rd site is not too bad as we have all-weathered the short access track but we still have to pump the site the next day as backfilled excavation around the pile caps tends to become a nice swimming pool.

Kemps Creek bridge is practically finished now after pouring the final CSR walkways at abutment B. Rail has been laid across the bridge up to abutment B so we could finish off our work and all that remains is the walkway stairs to be formed and poured which give access to the abutments and piers. We do have afew access issues now though so may have to wait until the access route is finished in the stabling yard to do the stairs at abutment A as we can no longer put a pump on the deck due to the tracks.