Port of Brisbane Building on Strong Foundations Thanks to XLERPLATE®

More than 3,500 tonnes of BlueScope Steel's XLERPLATE® hot rolled steel has been used in the fabrication of hundreds of large pile casings for a new wharf under construction at Fisherman Islands in Brisbane. Being built by the Port of Brisbane Corporation, Wharf 9 will be 317 metres long and capable of berthing large container vessels up to 70,000 dwt (dead weight tonnage).

The principal contractor for the production of the pile casings was Brisbane based Rollpress, part of the Rollpress Proplate Group.

With a contract period of just 18 weeks, Rollpress opted to share production of its order with local manufacturer, Major Metals Queensland.

"Because of the short lead time involved, and the fact that we had other jobs in progress, we decided it would be best if work proceeded on two fronts," said Rollpress Pipe Division Manager, Richard Kearns.

"To this end, we utilised Major Metals as a subcontractor, and I'm delighted to say that between the pair of us, we managed to complete the project on time and to the satisfaction of the Port of Brisbane Corporation."

Rollpress and Major Metals used around 3,000 tonnes of 250 grade XLERPLATE® hot rolled steel in fabricating the piles.

"The Port of Brisbane Corporation's engineers specified the pile casings to be made from grade 250 steel," said Mr Kearns.

"Given the short lead time and large volumes of steel required, we immediately approached BlueScope Steel to see if they could help.

"We negotiated a staged delivery schedule with the Port of Brisbane Corporation, so that we could maintain continuity of production throughout the contract, and put in place a similar material supply schedule with BlueScope Steel so that we were, in essence, receiving the steel for the project on a just in time basis.

"I'm pleased to say BlueScope Steel's service throughout the contract period was faultless," added Mr Kearns.

"Every single shipment of steel arrived when it was supposed to and we did not encounter a single quality problem over the course of the job.

"In fact, BlueScope Steel's assistance and excellent service were a major factor in helping us to meet such a challenging deadline."

The pile casings, which vary in diameter from 900-1,200mm and are up to 18 metres long, were made from 12mm and 16mm thick 250 grade XLERPLATE®. Sheets were rolled to the required diameter and sub-arc welded longitudinally and circumferentially, both internally and externally. To help the pile pass through the ground during installation, a tapered cutting shoe, made from 32mm thick XLERPLATE®, was fitted to the leading edge of the piles.

All of the piles were then subjected to a comprehensive non-destructive ultrasonic testing program to ensure they met the Port of Brisbane Corporation's stringent quality standards.

"The pile casings have now been stockpiled on site awaiting installation," said Mr Kearns.

"Where required, some of them will be joined on site to form piles up to 48m long," he said.

"The on-site joining process is similar to factory fabrication except that the piles are generally only sub-arc welded on the external surface."

Between them, Rollpress and Major Metals supplied a total of 554 pile casings to the Port of Brisbane Corporation.

Under a separate contract Tyco Water's Wacol plant in Brisbane supplied approximately 200 spiral formed and welded piles for the same project. Around 1,000 tonnes of 12mm thick grade 250 XLERCOIL® was supplied by BlueScope Steel for this part of the project.

The spirally manufactured piles were 900mm and 1,050mm OD and were able to be produced as continuous 18 metres long lengths. Cutting shoes, made from 32mm thick XLERPLATE®, were also fitted to the leading edge of many of these piles.