Marr Contracting has successfully installed the first steel trusses on Powerhouse Parramatta using three of its heavy lift luffing tower cranes.
The $915 million Powerhouse Parramatta, which is being constructed on behalf of the NSW Government, will become the largest museum in NSW at 30,000sqm, featuring more than 18,000sqm of exhibition and public space. The building is being designed so the exterior superstructure is a prominent architectural feature, with the museum’s two buildings being designed with three types of steel lattices as an exoskeleton.
Contracted by multinational construction company, Lendlease, to supply the cranage solution, Marr worked in close collaboration with the construction team at Lendlease before onsite works commenced, deploying a 330-tonne capacity Favelle Favco M2480D, a 150-tonne capacity M1280D, and a 96-tonne capacity M860D. The tower crane designer and hirer needed to lift steel trusses weighing from 50 tonnes through to 120 tonnes to deliver the architectural vision, hence the decision to use heavy-lift tower cranes; by allowing bigger, heavier modularised sections of the exoskeleton of the building to be installed in a single lift, the methodology resulted in a reduced number of lifts required and a much more decongested site. Marr’s Design and Engineering Manager, Andrew Coffin, emphasised the “complexity” of the job from an engineering standpoint, labelling the project as a “significant challenge”.
“In partnering with Lendlease, as the managing contractor, we managed to jointly streamline the construction methodology and adopt a crane solution to tackle the complexity of the project and increase efficiency,” he said. “The key was understanding the desired approach to building the project and designing the crane solution around that idea.”
In tandem with the building becoming Parramatta’s first six-star Green Building, Marr’s work on Powerhouse Parramatta is one of the first projects in Australia to use 100 per cent renewable diesel in its cranes.
Construction of Powerhouse Parramatta is scheduled for completion in late 2024.
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