Waubra Wind Towers

The Waubra Wind Farm Project in Victoria involves the construction of a wind farm on rural properties northwest of Ballarat. InfraBuild Construction Solutions supplied BAMTEC® to Leighton Contractors for the 128 heavily reinforced wind tower bases. 

The bases were approximately 15.5 tonnes of loose reinforcing bar. Initially, a couple of the bases were fixed conventionally to determine the difference between using loose rebar and BAMTEC®. In comparison, BAMTEC® reduced the construction time for each base by hours and reduced the men required by half. 

The pad footings were 13.7 m square and up to 1.7 m deep. The bottom reinforcement consists of 10 BAMTEC® carpets with N28 at 105 mm centres, with the top reinforcing comprising four BAMTEC® carpets with N20 at 150 mm centres. The Wind Towers were attached to the footings by a 4.3 m diameter ring beam comprising 66 holding down bolts. 

“Placing the steel conventionally, it took six men till lunchtime to complete one bottom mat, whereas, with BAMTEC®, it only takes three men from one to one and a half hours!” Bill Stevens- Guaranteed Steel Fixing

Because the wind tower bases are very heavily reinforced, InfraBuild Construction Solutions conducted sophisticated 3D modelling of the reinforcing assembly to identify any potential clashes of reinforcing and to ensure constructability.