Barangaroo and Australian-made steel

Barangaroo is transforming the western shoreline of Sydney’s CBD, opening up a new precinct with world-class amenities and leading sustainability credentials. Australian-made steel is making it possible.   

Steel manufacturer and distributor InfraBuild (formerly LIBERTY) is playing an essential role in the delivery of one of Australia’s most iconic projects – the Barangaroo South precinct at the western end of Sydney’s CBD.

An integrated and collaborative steel supply chain delivering Australian-made reinforcing and structural steel contributed to the construction of the International Towers Sydney (ITS) buildings already completed. The next stage in the Barangaroo project, the Crown Sydney Hotel Resort, will act as a further showcase of the extraordinary construction achievements made possible by steel.

Lendlease’s Barangaroo South precinct has garnered several awards already, including being named the 2018 Australian Development of the Year at this year’s Property Council of Australia’s Innovation and Excellence Awards.

InfraBuild Construction Solutions (formerly LIBERTY OneSteel Reinforcing) supplied more than 45,000 tonnes of ACRS-certified reinforcing steel product for the completed phase of the precinct over a 4.5-year supply period. Processes were implemented to ensure a 20 per cent reduction in embodied carbon for the reinforcing steel used, which contributed to the project’s 6 Star Green Star rating.

Barangaroo South – the next phase

With the first phase of the Barangaroo South redevelopment complete, attention has turned to the landmark Crown Sydney project, with work continuing on the five-storey atrium that makes up the building’s podium. When complete in 2021, Crown Sydney will stand at an imposing 71 storeys tall and, at 275 metres, will become the city’s tallest habitable building.

Significant work was undertaken to prepare the building’s footings and to construct the perimeter retaining wall for the three-level basement car park, with almost 4000 tonnes of reinforcing bar, mesh and prefabricated material supplied by InfraBuild Construction Solutions to piling joint venture Piling Contractors Bauer Australia (PCBA JV).

Construction work involved the use of diaphragm wall elements, barrettes (cast-in-place reinforced concrete columns) and bored piles. Piling required excavating down into the sandstone bedrock and installing steel cages in concrete to provide the structural foundations for the basement and building.

The bulk and weight of the reinforcing cages used in the barrettes required significant planning and collaboration. The largest barrette, a massive T-shaped excavation measuring 6.5m x 5.5m and to a depth of 36.5m, required the installation of a 105-tonne reinforcing cage. InfraBuild Construction Solutions’ Mark Hogan said manufacturing and transporting a prefabricated reinforcing cage of that size presented an immense challenge.

“There were a lot of moving parts involved in servicing this project,” Hogan said. “I don’t think we’ll see anything like this again in terms of foundations for a long time.”

Crown Sydney atrium underway

Above-ground steel erection is now underway at the Crown Sydney site, with InfraBuild Steel Centre (formerly LIBERTY OneSteel Metalcentre) providing an integrated structural steel manufacturing and supply service to its construction partner, Sydney-based steel fabricator S&L Steel. The fabricator was awarded the contract to fabricate and erect the structural steel, welded beams and plate required for the building in 2016.

InfraBuild Steel Centre’s strong relationship with the S&L Steel team has facilitated smooth delivery of steel materials exactly when required and proved that a local supply chain can deliver to projects in the Australian market.

The bulk of the 2500 tonnes of structural steel supplied by InfraBuild Steel Centre to its customer has been processed on InfraBuild Steel Centre’s beamlines and coping lines, with the remainder processed at S&L Steel. High-grade steel plate has been used at thicknesses up to 100mm, which InfraBuild delivered directly to the S&L Steel yard from the mill as part of a cost-saving initiative.

“We were able to provide a cost saving with the transportation and handling costs by organising rapid transport arrangement, mainly at night, which we had not done before for any other customer,” said InfraBuild Steel Centre’s Muralidhara Sharma.

When fully completed in 2023, the Barangaroo South precinct will be home to 23,000 office workers, 2000 residents, a six-star hotel and casino and more than 80 restaurants, cafes, bars and retail outlets across more than half a million square metres of space.

Main image courtesy Barangaroo Delivery Authority.