November 11, 2015

Each year, the Australian Institute of Refrigeration, Air Conditioning and Heating (AIRAH) Awards recognise excellence in the HVAC&R industry. The Excellence in Innovation Award recognises significant Australian improvements in the areas of HVAC&R achieved through innovation, including new or significantly improved systems, plant and equipment, or processes.

The single biggest safety risk identified by Lendlease at Barangaroo was the installation of services risers in the high-rise towers. Previous methodology involved piecemeal installation, with multiple trades working on cantilevered scaffold over the riser void. This entailed risks from working-at-height (up to 42 storeys at Barangaroo’s Tower Two International Towers Sydney) and debris from above along with other risks associated with manual handling and multiple trades.

At Barangaroo, Lendlease appointed specialist contractor A.G. Coombs to introduce an innovative way to install services risers – one that had not been applied before to very tall buildings in Australia. By prefabricating them in three-storey sections, well in excess of 4,000 hours of complicated site installation per tower are transferred into a controlled factory environment and the need to work at height is almost eliminated. This new approach to HVAC and building services installation has very significantly reduced construction risk and provided significant other benefits, including design and quality improvements, better testing and maintenance regimes and programme scheduling benefits, on this landmark project. The use of prefabricated risers in high-rise buildings is set to become an industry standard in Australia.

Earlier this year, A.G. Coombs and Lendlease were presented with the KONE Award for Innovation at the national Property Council of Australia / Rider Levett Bucknall Innovation and Excellence Awards, for the Barangaroo risers.

Once again, A.G. Coombs and Lendlease have been formerly recognised for their innovative prefabrication initiatives and methodologies, and are proud to have received the 2015 AIRAH Excellence in Innovation Award.

“A project of this size and scope calls for innovative low-risk design and delivery methodologies. It is really pleasing to see the successful application of this new approach for the services risers in action, which had allowed us to de-risk the programme whilst still producing a high quality end result. We are setting new industry standards.”

Andrew Wilson, Managing Director Barangaroo South, Lendlease

“The introduction of large scale prefabrication methodologies to the Australian building services industry by A.G. Coombs has enabled significant improvements in construction site safety, removing from site a very large amount of the most complicated and higher risk work, and combined with Building Information Modelling technology it is also enabling significant improvements in component rationalization, and fabrication and installation methods. This all brings benefits to the construction process. Additionally it is supporting systems design enhancements and improvements to maintainability and access for maintenance that together, these combined mean better systems and benefits to the built product for the building owner.”

Russell Telford, A.G. Coombs Group Managing Director

Barangaroo is Sydney’s largest urban renewal project since the 2000 Olympics and one of the most significant waterfront transformations currently underway anywhere in the world. Lendlease is developing the southern portion of this 22 hectare former container wharf on Sydney Harbour, into a vibrant new waterfront financial district, with a mix of world class office space, premium residential buildings, as well as shopping, dining, hotel, hospitality and public places.

For more information visit: http://www.barangaroosouth.com.au.