Replacing 9 Props with 3 To Keep a Critical Loading Dock Open – Northern Sydney

Problem

An Australian logistics company needed to land a 6.5-tonne accumulator (an energy storage device) with a crane, and skate it into one of their data centres located in Northern Sydney.

The accumulator was being placed on a suspended slab over a loading dock, and this couldn’t be done without additional support due to the substantial weight of the accumulator and the 9-tonne operational weight of the mobile crawler crane.

Solution

When developing a solution, we needed to take into consideration the fact the client needed to keep the loading dock open as it was the only loading dock available on-site at the time.

As a result, we designed and installed a goal post propping solution that used our Shore Prop 400s as header and vertical beams. Screw jacks were also used at both the top and bottom of each goal post to allow for over 420mm of wind-out distance with each foot jack providing 210mm.

Due to the size of the area where the accumulator was placed on the suspended slab, we used different-sized Shore Prop 400 sections, including 125mm sections. The loading on these individual 125mm sections required the use of a stiffener underneath for extra strength.

This is different from the solution we provided for the client when we were engaged to back prop the same suspended slab for the exact same works a year prior. During these works, the client could shut down the loading dock because they had multiple loading docks available throughout the building. Our solution here was to blanket prop the area with our Titan Props to accommodate the load of the accumulator. However, this time around our engineers designed a bespoke goal post setup to ensure the loading dock could remain operational.

This case study highlights our ability to develop innovative solutions tailor-made to the unique challenges and requirements of a project.

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