May 11, 2015

The Property Council of Australia / Rider Levett Bucknall Innovation and Excellence Awards celebrate leading practice within Australia’s property development and investment industries. The KONE Award for Innovation, which this year attracted 18 finalists, recognises innovation that creates significant advancement and improvement within an asset.

The winning A.G. Coombs-Lendlease submission demonstrated how prefabrication is resetting construction standards at Barangaroo.

The single biggest safety risk identified at Barangaroo was the installation of services risers. Previous methodology required piecemeal installation, with trades working on cantilevered scaffold over the riser voids. This entailed risks from working-at-height (up to 42 storeys at Barangaroo’s T2 tower) and debris from above along with other risks associated with manual handling and multiple trades.

At Barangaroo, specialist contractor A.G. Coombs together with Lendlease has introduced a new way to install services risers – one that had not been applied before to very tall buildings in Australia. By prefabricating them in 3-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 services installation has significantly reduced construction risk on this landmark project and is set to become an industry standard in Australia.

Property Council of Australia’s Chief Executive, Ken Morrison noted that the system has the potential to enhance the quality, productivity and safety on building sites.

“The installation of services risers in high rise buildings typically presents the single biggest health and safety risk on any project. Lend Lease and A.G. Coombs have introduced a new way to install services risers that will reduce construction risk and improve site productivity,” he said.

“Workplace health and safety is the number one consideration in our industry and this innovation has profound implications for significantly enhancing this vital aspect of our work.” *

* Source: http://www.architectureanddesign.com.au/news/8-chifley-dominates-2015-property-council-of-austr.