Formwork Blog

Archive for the ‘Concrete’ Category

Location: Port Adelaide SA

Precasting six cone shaped concrete structures 2 at a time for the Adelaide Aqua Port Stanvac Desalination project.

Scaffolding

The 400 mm thick bases for the concrete units was poured first and the 2600 mm cone shaped section will be added on top. After the bases are poured, the scaffolding is added to enable steel fixing, formwork erection and pouring of concrete.

Tube and Fitting Scaffold

Internal Formwork

The internal formwork is 1800 mm diameter (not cone shaped) which includes 2 x 6mm plywood layers bent into shape and screwed into the vertical timbers one layer at a time.

Cone Formwork Internal

External Formwork

The external formwork below is cone shaped. It will also be skinned with 2 x 6mm plywood layers. It will take a bit longer to screw the ply to the external formwork because of all the extra cutting into the cone shape.

Cone Formwork External

Below we see the skinned external formwork being added to the structure in 2 parts. There is no way this formwork would fit around the steel in one piece, so we split it in half, lifted it in two crane lifts and joined it all up in position.

Cone Formwork

Finished Precast Concrete Unit

Below we see the finished 30 tonne pre-casted concrete unit. It will later be placed on a barge with the other 5 units and floated out to Port Stanvac Desalination Project.

Cone Shaped Pre Cast Concrete

Plain old circular formwork is a bit easier than cone shaped formwork.

Location: Whyalla Pellet Plant South Australia

Here’s another thrust block formwork job we had to do, but this time it was below the water table which means that water would be continually pouring into the job the whole time.

Thrust Block Excavation

Imagine arriving at this job and they say they want a couple of thrust blocks around these pipes, and they want it quick coz it’s “just a couple of thrust blocks”

Pumping the Water Out

Not only that, Des had to be very careful while digging out this watery goop to avoid damage to the fiber optic telecomminications and electrical cables while the pump pumps water out all day long. Des named this job The Swamp Monster

Concrete Thrust Blocks (Pump Still Pumping)

Finally the job is done and the Concrete Thrust Blocks are in position. The formwork for this job was almost the same as this other thrust block formwork we did.

Location: Prominent Hill Mining Construction Site South Australia – Weigh Bridge Section

While the sump with ladder formwork was a pain in the neck to construct due to the fiddly ladder treads, it is always good to see that the job turned out pretty good.

Concrete Sump with Ladder

Concrete patchers will now come along and plug the z-bar holes.

Location: Road Bridge – Port Adelaide South Australia

Here is the concrete bridge columns resulting from the use of this column formwork. The bridge will eventually span accross one railway track and one busy main road.

Concrete Bridge Columns

Formworkers are now almost ready to cast in the bridge bearings on top of these columns which will support the steel bridge spans. But first, surveyors must mark out the exact location of the bridge bearings.

Alternative View of Concrete Bridge Columns

Instead of scaffolding, elevated work platforms (EWP’s) will be used to gain access to the column tops. For safety, tube and coupler guard rails will be errected on top of each column before any other work begins.

Video of a concretor finishing a concrete slab with a ride-on concrete troweling machine.

Video length: 0:43

Location: Prominent Hill Mining Construction Site South Australia

Concrete poured into four tread stair formwork and the formwork has just been stripped by the formworkers. It looks like these stairs might need to be patched up in order to fill in all the air bubbles on the surface of the concrete, but other than that, a job well done.

Four Tread Concrete Stairs

Location: Road Bridge – Port Adelaide South Australia

Concrete pump operator places the concrete into these bridge column forms, the concretor vibrates while the formwork carpenter stands by to secure the Bearer Pad Template.

Pumping Concrete into Bridge Column Formwork

Once the concrete is pumped almost to the top, a formwork carpenter secures the Bearer Pad Template on top of the column forms. The concrete is then topped up.

Concretor Vibrating Concrete

Due to space restrictions, the Bearer Pad Template was made strong enough to stand on so that the concretors could hand-trowel the entire surface without stepping on the concrete.

A ride-on concrete troweling machine is used to finish concrete slabs in a similar way as a regular concrete trowing machine but is handy for finishing much larger areas.

Ride-On Concrete Troweling Machine

At last, concretors can sit on their arse and finish concrete at the same time

Location: Prominent Hill Mining Construction Site South Australia

Four concrete forms held together with Column-Clamps and held down with spaghetti nailed plywood. The 700 mm long bolts took a bit of work to cast in due to the extra reinforcement steel positioned exactly in the center of the pedestal.

Pedestal Formwork Ready For Concrete

This job was not as bad as the nightmare pedestal, but still took extra time because the formworkers had to reposition the steel in order to fit the bolts in.

Concretors Anthony and Nev Vibrating Pedestal Concrete

To ensure the correct heights, the concrete and bolt-top heights were established from a known benchmark with a Laser Level instrument and not by just measuring up from the foundation concrete.

Location: Project Magnet – Iron Duke Mining Construction Site Whyalla South Australia

Concretors Darryl and and Willow about to pour concrete into this Octagonal Pedestal Foundation.

Octagonal Concrete Foundation