Steel Solution Speeds Major Eastlink Bridges

Victorian company GVP Fabricators Pty Ltd has moved from the supply and erection of steel for a major new Melbourne high rise building to the fabrication and supply of trough girders for Melbourne's massive Eastlink project.

Eastlink will provide 39 kilometres of motorway and six kilometres of untolled bypasses connecting Melbourne's eastern and southern suburbs between Mitcham and Frankston.

The new roadworks start at the end of the existing Eastern Freeway and will link up with the Frankston Freeway on the Mornington Peninsula.

The project is Australia's largest urban road development and will involve the construction of a 39 kilometre roadway of predominantly three lane capacity, 17 interchanges, over 78 bridges and 1.5 kilometre twin three lane tunnels under Mullum Mullum Creek.

Joint venture partners Thiess Pty Ltd and John Holland Group Pty Ltd will also construct the non tolled Ringwood and Dandenong Southern Bypasses, which are designed to enhance traffic flows and growth in the region. Eastlink is expected to open before the end of 2008.

"GVP Fabricators has been associated with many major projects in Melbourne," the company's General Manager, Nick Palamaras, said.

"We have done some civil work before, but now we have really jumped into it with Eastlink's larger bridges and a rail bridge at Ringwood. For Eastlink we have been fabricating and supplying the trough girders for the main road overpasses."

"The trough girders are preassembled on site and then transported into position with steerable jinkers as some are over 60 metres long once assembled. Then Thiess John Holland cranes them into position using 'Snow White', which is a 600 tonne crane purchased by Thiess John Holland for this project."

The steel trough girders will carry the new motorway over the Princes Highway at Heatherton Road and over Cheltenham Road, Dandenong. Once in position they are topped with precast concrete panels and a road surface.

"I understand that steel trough girders were selected over concrete girders because of a combination of factors including spanning capability and cost," Nick Palamaras said.

"We were given design drawings by the Thiess John Holland joint venture project engineers. They did the original design and then passed them on to us for costings."

GVP Fabricators has wide experience in steel fabrication across many industries. It recently concluded a highly successful contract as steel fabricator and erector for Melbourne's 40 storey East Tower at the Southern Cross development. Nearly 7,000 tonnes of structural steel was used for that project, including XLERPLATE® steel.

"For the Eastlink road bridge trough girders we are using 350L15 Grade XLERPLATE® steel, supplied by BlueScope Steel distributor Smorgon Steel," Nick Palamaras said. "The girders just for the Heatherton Road bridge will require over 1300 tonnes of XLERPLATE® steel and another 1200 tonnes has gone into the girders for the Princes Highway and Cheltenham Road overpasses."

"This is the first time we have fabricated trough girders and the size of the project is up there with our largest, but we haven't had any difficulties," Nick Palamaras said.

The bridge spans have all required multiple sections. For instance the Princes Highway overpass spans 95 metres, which comprises of five piece girders in six rows. That's three rows for the north carriageway and three rows for the south carriageway.

The Cheltenham Road bridge spans 42 metres and requires three piece girders in eight rows.

The trough girders for Heatherton Road will be supplied in eight pieces per 225 metre span with four rows required. GVP Fabricators will produce the sections at its Mordialloc workshop from where they will be moved on steerable jinkers to D.H Corrosion D.P.C Coatings Pty Ltd for painting and then to the Eastlink site.

XLERPLATE® steel manufacturer BlueScope Steel and distributor Smorgon Steel worked together with GVP Fabricators to maximise the benefits of the steel solution for the project. Collaboration produced nesting yields which minimised material wastage.

The XLERPLATE® steel was scheduled and flow delivered according to the requirements of GVP Fabricators' production schedule. When drawing difficulties beyond GVP Fabricators' control delayed fabrication at Mordialloc, BlueScope Steel adjusted the supply schedule accordingly.

"Our company will have spent a year working on the various sections of the three bridge girder projects," Nick Palamaras said. "It hasn't been our largest project, but it has required a lot of coordination by the various parties involved.We've had that from BlueScope Steel and from Smorgon Steel, particularly with the nesting outcomes and with the flow delivery. It has definitely made the job easier. We've used XLERPLATE® steel since the establishment of GVP Fabricators. When you are tackling major projects you need to be able to rely on quality products with the assurance that technical support is available if you need it."