ounded in 1979, Cardno Grogan Richards have an impressive portfolio of high-profile engineering projects, drawing from a wide client-base which includes builders, developers, local government and the legal profession to name a few. A fully integrated multidisciplinary practice providing structural, civil, hydraulic, fire and traffic engineering services in house, as well as sub consulting other service disciplines, Cardno Grogan Richards offer clients a ‘one-stop shop’. This was one of the many reasons they won the contract for The Olsen—the combination of structural and traffic engineering services resulted in highly efficient basement car parks. Commencing the design phase in July 2007, Cardno Grogan Richards provided the structural, civil and traffic design, documentation and construction phase engineering for The Olsen. Senior Structural Engineer and Principal Tony Growse said, “The site presented a very tight footprint which required careful coordination between our traffic and structural teams to maximise car park numbers in the basements whilst maintaining an efficient structural column grid. Loading facilities were also finetuned and carefully coordinated by our traffic engineers with the architect.” The structural solution included a bored pier and shot crete infill wall retention system to the basement walls, and conventional reinforced insitu slip form cores. The basement retention system along the northern boundary also incorporated a section of secant piles, to provide necessary support for the adjacent building and accommodate the basement access ramps. Load bearing precast walls with post tensioned flat slabs were used for the majority of the upper levels—an efficient form of construction which minimises floor to floor erection times. The flat slabs simplified service reticulation and the precast walls provided vertical load bearing WWW.ANCR.COM.AU
capacity as well as providing lateral stiffness to the building. The primary post-tensioned transfer floor was provided at level 1, to carry the upper load bearing precast walls through an open ground floor column grid and into the basement columns. Steel framed, cantilevered canopies were fitted to both the Daly and Chapel Street frontages. The most unusual challenge for Cardno Grogan Richards on The Olsen project was the steel and glass swimming pool, which cantilevers out from the Chapel Street façade. “Our engineers worked closely with a variety of specialist consultants and contractors to provide the structure required to support this unique element,” stated Tony Growse. The Olsen façades splay outward from the building to produce the desired architectural form. This presented challenges for external maintenance access. Discussions were held with a specialist building access company and structure was provided at roof level to allow access to the glass façades via abseiling techniques. A multi award-winning company, Cardno Grogan Richards pride themselves on finding the most efficient means of helping their clients achieve their project objectives. As part of the world-wide Cardno group, they have access to specialist skills and services from around the world to suit the needs of every individual project.
VIC PROJECT FEATURE THE OLSEN
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