300720 Construction Technology : Encountered Assessment Answers

You will form groups within your surveying lab in Week 2; Tuesday and Wednesday, (28 02 17 & 01 03 17) of no more than 6 people. These groups you form will be doing their presentation in week 13 or 14 which is worth 10% for each individual member of that group. The final written report, which is submitted as a group, which is worth a further 30%. Many resources will be placed on vUWS over the next few weeks, to assist you in your preparation. See the end of this document for some websites.

The purpose of this document is to outline this Major Assignment. The groups formed in week 2, will be your groups for the Surveying (practical 1 & 2) and soils lab (Lab 1 and 2). You will be working on the Major Assignment in your own time. Specific consultation time is allowed for in week 10 (week commencing 24^th April). Please refer to the Learning Guide and Unit Outline for more details.

You are encouraged to make a visit to this development at Oran Park and examine existing buildings and infrastructures, to assess any features that could be improved upon. There are many websites advertising the virtues of Oran Park. Look for any deficiencies, restrictions or other possible poor designs within this precinct, which your group thinks could be improved on. This then would be the basis of your assignment, i.e. determining a better solution to what you have observed.

Your Major Assignment is to prepare a report detailing the requirements from a Civil perspective for these improvements to this development at Oran Park.

Should your group find this too vague, the following points numbered 1 through 8 below, are given for you to consider.

The major focus of this major assignment is on civil earthworks and the footings required for the proposed structure that your group has selected.

1. Most importantly in this major assignment, you are to focus on Work Health Safety (WHS) issues that could be encountered on this proposed construction site. More details will be covered during the lecture..
2. Your group will further detail the specific machinery you envisage will be used to undertake the earthworks for your structure. You are not designing the structure, or the building proposed, rather you are an earthworks contractor, carrying out the major earthworks, that is required to build the proposed project. These machines could range from major earthwork machinery through to hand held devices, required for detailed earthworks.
3. These first two areas (1) & (2) above, must be covered in your Major Report. These are the only mandatory areas to be included in your report.
4. Your groups Major Report, will detail in addition to the above two items, how the Civil earthworks could be carried out. You are to describe how the excavation could be done and determine an estimation of the earthworks quantities and possible costs involved. This is similar to what you have already done in Building 2, and will be doing in Estimating 1 next semester.
5. Also you will need to detail any temporary or permanent retaining wall structures, associated with the earthworks, required for this project.
6. You also need to consider a safety plan (Safe Work Method Statement (SWMS)) for a particular aspect of the project.
7. Also you also need to consider environmental issues such as Sediment Ponds and Erosion & Sediment controls. Also you need to anticipate possible local community environmental concerns. South Creek is in the vicinity of Oran Park, which is already polluted.
8. Basically you are considering a development at this precinct, as if you were the earthworks contractor, constructing it and all that that entails. Assume that Council approval has been granted for your proposal. It is most important you do not contact the Local Council or Landcom directly. We will be giving you sufficient resources to complete this project without the need to contact LG Council or Landcom themselves.

Residential construction in Western Sydney particularly in NSW has been on the upsurge in the recent years. This has been made possible due to the increase in residential density, infrastructure and zoning requirements that made the Local Councils to meet these needs. As such, development embarked in 2008 and had been going on since then to date. As planned, the Oran Park is a modern urban setting with a broad range of facilities that will be put up concurrently, and the final developments will be commercialised. The precinct of the town, once complete, will include facilities such as 18 hectares of employment land, a 50,000 square metre city centre and two neighbourhood centres, 36km of walking and cycling routes and 148 hectares of open space (Oran Park Town, 2017).

Eventually, the town is expected to have 25,000 residents living in the community whereby they will enjoy the most modern lifestyle that is both sustainable and holistic (Anon, 2017). One of the main focus in the developments will be the construction of an Olympic-sized swimming pool, with eight lanes that will offer both leisurely and recreational services to the residents of the city. This paper will look into the construction of the swimming pool with a particular focus on the civil earthworks and footings required for this structure. Also, it will discuss the Work Health Safety (WHS) issues that will be encountered during the construction of the same.

The biggest task that will need to be undertaken in the building of the swimming pool is the excavation and other earthworks. Given the size of the proposed pool, the contractors excavating will need to focus on the stability of the soil as well as the depth and alignment aspects of the walls of the pool. For such a big size pool, the most appropriate machinery to use are the backhoe excavators, Bobcat excavators, and loading trucks to damp the soil. However, before any excavation begins, it will be crucial to conducting geological investigations to establish the subsurface conditions of the site to be used for the construction. It will be done by boring about eight trial pits on the site which will give details such as; the ground water level, the depth of the bedrock, the shear strength of the soil among other characteristics. An Olympic sized pool runs 50meters long-25meters wide and 2 meters deep. As such the total volume of soil to be excavated is about 2500m3 that may cost about 5 AUD per cubic meter to excavate.

Due to the nature of the excavation some of the risks that may occur include the collapsing of the sidewalls of the pool after excavation. To avoid this, the soil may be stabilised by grouting using cement on the sides of the pool. This will also solve such problems like sediment ponds and erosion that may occur. Also, all the workers will be required to wear safety gear such as helmets, protective boots, and reflective clothes during the excavations. A temporary fence will be put up on the site that is expected to be excavated which will prevent any unauthorised access of the premise.

References:

Anon, (2017). [online] Available at: https://www.oranparktown.com.au/masterplan [Accessed 16 May 2017].

Anon, (2017). [online] Available at: https://www.oranparktown.com.au/assets/pdf/Heritage- [Accessed 16 May 2017].

Langdon, D. (2009). Spon's External Works and Landscape Price. 1st ed. CRC Press, Technology & Engineering.

Oran Park Town. (2017). Sydneys fastest growing town | Oran Park Town. [online] Available at: https://www.oranparktown.com.au [Accessed 16 May 2017].