Temporary Works
Engineered Blocks and Strong Backs for Facade Retention – Melbourne
The Project
Shore Hire designed a bespoke temporary propping solution to safely support a freestanding masonry wall during detailed demolition works at a Melbourne university.
Summary
Shore Hire engineered a solution combining Engineered Blocks, Strong Back props and mini Tilt Props on each face to manage a 24kN wall load within tight space constraints, all while preserving the university's existing trees and gardens within 500mm of the wall.
Challenge
Shore Hire was contacted by a university in Melbourne that needed a bespoke temporary propping design to support an existing masonry wall for detailed demo works.
The challenges with this project were that the masonry wall had no existing foundation and was already disconnected from the continuing wall. The total load of the wall was also 24kN, and the angles to install the tilt props were extremely limited due to space constraints and the heavy load of the wall. Another aspect that needed to be considered when installing the tilt props was the university’s existing vegetation, which was less than 500mm from the wall and needed to be preserved and maintained.
Solution
After careful consideration, our team of expert engineers determined that our newly developed Engineered Blocks would be the safest solution, due to the prop arrangement and load acting on the wall. However, we could only install two Engineered Blocks because the length of the wall was not long enough to facilitate more. This meant that we needed to combine the blocks with Strong Back props built out of our Shore 400 Modular Props as well as mini Tilt Props that were connected to both sides of the Engineered Block.
The total load of the wall was higher than usual for only one Tilt Prop, so we had to use two props in each face of the Engineered Block, which proved a challenging design factor due to space constraints.
The project was a great success; the bespoke solution we created fulfilled its purpose as assessed and expected, providing the client with assured safety and quality. Shore Hire’s in-house engineering design gave the client confidence in doing their permanent works, and the experience from our sales, operations, transport, and rigging and installation team provided a comprehensive and leading temporary works solution, which resulted in high-end customer service delivery and a very happy customer.