8 Chifley Square

LOCATION: Sydney CBD

CLIENT: MIRVAC

COMPLETION: September 2013

The highly distinctive appearance of 8 Chifley Square is largely due to the massive and colourful steel elements – the braces on the façade and the struts which help create a five storey public space at ground level

These steel elements and all the structural steel for the project were supplied by NEPEAN Engineering & Innovation, Australia’s leading privately owned, fully-integrated engineering house. Through their Mastermesh® Brand, NEPEAN Building & Infrastructure also supplied over 3,000 sqm of perforated metal panels as part of the project which clad the two external high rise stairs on both façades.

Thanks to NEPEAN’s integrated capability, over 3,300 sqm of Mastermesh® perforated metal panels were also supplied and installed on 8 Chifley Square as part of the external fire stairs which were fabricated at the company’s Narellan facility.  NEPEAN Engineering & Innovation offers structural steel project management solutions including inhouse fabrication and erection which was utilised in the Chifley Square project. The company had 5 people on site, including a Project Manager and a Construction Manager who followed the installation and construction process as well as managing their own in-house rigging team.  To complete the Chifley Square project, NEPEAN Engineering & Innovation utilised strong local capability coupled with NEPEAN Asia sourcing from their highly competitive Asian steel fabrication partner.

Acting as a third party inspector and project manager, their NEPEAN Asia business ensured the steel used underwent stringent quality checks by five different bodies including internationally recognized SGS acting as third party fabrication inspectors.

HIGH RISE, HIGHLY DISTINCTIVE

The protective red coating on the steel work, supplied by International Paint, also undergoes the same rigorous checking system through independent coating inspectors Incospec. NEPEAN Engineering & Innovation’s professional team working together and alongside Mirvac, managed to overcome all manner of challenges. Perhaps the greatest challenges involved the location of the project in the middle of Sydney CBD and working with extremely rigid and short installation windows. The largest mega struts NEPEAN Engineering & Innovation supplied came in at a massive 37 and 30 tonnes, each measuring 18.5 meters long, whilst the mega braces weighed approximately 9 tonnes each. Installation windows were 3-4 hours for the 37 tonne struts, including all reo cage connections, and just 1 hour for the 30 tonne mega beams!

From delivery at the foot of the building, NEPEAN Engineering & Innovation were given just a 20 minute window during which to rig, hoist and install the members without any delays, failures or problems. The pieces were so well designed and manufactured they actually fitted to within 1mm and were able to be installed immediately.

David Fuller, former Chairman of NEPEAN says, “The project team has consistently met delivery, safety and quality targets across the board; not only do we supply a high quality product, but our project management skills are considered amongst the best in the industry and our in-house rigging team is committed to zero safety issues, which is also reflected in the Chifley project.” He concludes, “An exercise like this is an incredibly satisfying experience, as well as a demonstration of how NEPEAN Engineering & Innovation’s dedication to absolute quality and specialised project management has enabled us to meet Mirvac’s strict requirements in regard to both time and quality.”