Holdfast Training Services Trial Blog

So with the definition of a time to Blog being the advent of a significant occurrence, and having conquered the mountain of post arrival in Australia administration (and having done as much sightseeing as I can bear for the time being) I thought it time to get involved.

Overview

I have been immersed in the (currently) 3 strong Services Delivery team for the University of Sydney Abercrombie Precinct Redevelopment project. The project is a $180 million Design and Construct of a new world class business School to house over 5000 students. Tendering was completed in early 2013 and construction started on site in Summer 2013. The Abercrombie Precinct redevelopment is the single largest increase in teaching space at the university since the 1960s and represents part of a redevelopment and expansion plan for the University that is expected to be worth > $1 billion over the next ten years. John Holland are keen to perform over the coming months in order to potentially win additional business and a slice of that $1billion

Consisting of 3 below ground floors and 6 above, Earthworks remain ongoing however the bulk of excavation of basement levels was complete in late, 2013 with construction originally scheduled for completion in Dec 14, however this is unlikely to be met owing to recent events which I will elaborate on later. In Nov 13 John Holland tendered for and won a $30 million variation to the contract to build a 3 story student accommodation block adjacent to the site. Demolition for works to start on the Student accommodation project began this week.

In terms of services the building includes
◾a 550-seat lecture theatre
◾three lecture theatres (300 seats each)
◾eight 100-seat case study rooms
◾40 seminar rooms of varying size
◾a learning hub
◾1500sqm of informal learning space

As a result AV plays a large part in the design, on top of the conventional Mechanical and Electrical Services (including AirCon) all designed to meet stringent 5 ‘Green Star’ Australian environmental standards.

Construction on a tight site has presented it’s own challenges. The site is hemmed in on three sides by university computer Sciences building (H69), privately funded university accommodation / college, and a public primary school. Access to the fourth side of the site is limited by the presence of a listed Blue Australian Gum Tree, which the planning office has said cannot be removed from site and is forming part of the architectural design of the building. Staged construction is taking place from one end of the site to the other and the Limitations on ingress and egress routes mean that careful planning must be undertaken on a daily basis. The below video highlights the phased construction of the facility, layout and access issues. .

A cramped site that is hemmed in on all sides makes for multiple trades working on top of each other.

Possibly the most expensive tree I have ever seen – An Australian Blue Gum worth $250000 to the client in LDs if it is damaged.

Design Philosophy

Until last week the construction of the business school was expected to be running approximately 3 weeks behind schedule. The design for the Business school has been subcontracted to a consultancy called Kannefinch, who are continuing to develop the design in conjunction with specialist subcontractors, over seen by John Holland engineers. This means that for the bulk of the three weeks I have been on Site, the Services manager and other Services Engineer have been based out of the design office in central Sydney. A holistic approach to design has been undertaken with the entire design (including Services) being modelled in BIM 360 from the outset (a first for the design team and contractors employed, if not John Holland as a whole) as opposed to as built drawings being used to design and manage the ongoing building life. This has presented significant challenges, not least the requirement for subcontractors to become conversant with the new software, but has allowed multiple advantages – The design can evolve while construction is underway, with designs for the higher levels of the building being undertaken with work underway on site, reducing overall design to construction time. Weekly clash detection meetings between the design team highlight areas that will cause issues, which are resolved on an ongoing basis. An example of this would be a significant conflict between the volume of air that is required to be moved by the Air conditioning system (against strict University Guidelines) verses the ceiling space that is available to house ductwork, which is governed by the usable space and limits on the building height. By having the entire design team attend clash detection meetings, including the structural engineers, design solutions could be achieved that included ‘notching of beams’ (highlighted well before the beams are poured and with the approval of the structural engineers)

As a result the remaining two members of the services team are continuing to be involved in design refinements, and are expected to move from the design office to the task site within the next week.

Tasks so far

My role so far has been as the Services Engineer on Site, replacing the previous Site services engineer who left the job last week, and whom up til now I have been conducting handover training with and attempting to extract as much information from as possible. With slab pours for the various floors ongoing my work so far has been focussed around quality assurance, designing and carrying out Inspection and Test Plans (ITPs) for services penetrations in slabs, and highlighting areas where the Formwork has been incorrect. I have also been involved with ground penetration permits and authorising permits to dig, looking for and testing for existing in ground services, as well as reviewing air conditioning designs for construction detail, allowing the designs to be manufactured and installed rather than the engineering physics of duct sizing (which incidentally has been conducted by the static regain method), and the practical applications of sequencing construction on site.

Aussie life.

It’s not bad. I think i’ll leave it at that, Brendan may have an aneurism if I say any more.

That’s the view from My flat in Neutral Bay , so New years is sorted, and I cycle to work across SHB everyday, KY has been to stay and I’m even beginning to get the rules of Aussie rules….

That should about do it for my first blog. Watch out for the sequel, coming soon – “When Good Pours go Bad’