FEATURE - PROJECTS
OSBORNE REDEVELOPMENT GIVES SA SHIPBUILDING A BRIGHT FUTURE
EARLY ASSEMBLY HALL FRAMEWORK. PHOTO © GARY FRANCIS.
REDEVELOPMENT of the Osborne Naval Shipyard (ONS) at the northern end of Le Fevre Peninsula and with access to the Port River is one of the biggest infrastructure projects currently underway in SA. Australian Naval Infrastructure Pty Ltd (ANI), a government business enterprise, is tasked with developing and managing works across the shipyard to support a long-term shipbuilding industry. Two precincts covering approximately 85 hectares are being prepared: Osborne South is about 60 per cent ready to undertake a continuous build program for vessels up to destroyer size while Osborne North, approximately three times larger, is in the early stages of planning and design for submarine construction. The federal government has committed $535 million for the Osborne South Development Project (OSDP). Lendlease was engaged as the managing contractor in October 2017. New ship-building infrastructure is scheduled for commissioning in the second quarter of 2020. Hunter-class frigates will be built there to replace the Anzac-class, with the first of nine vessels to enter service in the late 2020s. “We are putting in this production-line equipment to support the construction of the Hunter-class for the next 35 years,” ANI Project Director Phil Cornish said. “ANI is to develop and hand over the new submarine facilities and ultimately remain as the landlord. We are the delivery authority for this critical shipyards infrastructure.”
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Laing O’Rourke is managing contractor of the Osborne North Development Project (ONDP) where a sod-turning ceremony occurred in December 2018. Site works for the new infrastructure will commence in the third quarter of 2019. Twelve Attack-class submarines will be built there in a 50-year program. The first will enter service in the 2030s with construction extending into the late 2040s to 2050.
and efficiently deliver the vessels.”
The Osborne Naval Shipyard opened in 2010 as a common user facility with a 213-metre wharf, runway, dry berth, transfer system and the largest shiplift in the southern hemisphere with a lifting capacity of 20,000 tonnes.
Four large halls are being constructed to enable shipbuilding to occur indoors out of the weather and adding to security. They are: Paint and Blast Hall – 23 metres high x 60 metres long x 30 metres wide; Steel Fabrication and Unit Workshop – 14,331 square metres comprising a West, North, Central and East hall; Block Assembly Hall – 28.46 metres high x 160 metres long x 47.8 metres wide; Block Outfitting and Ship Assembly Hall – 50 metres high x 190 metres long x 90 metres wide.
Mr Cornish said part of the program of works was to upgrade the existing facilities to support the continuous naval shipbuilding programs. “I have recently visited some of the European shipyards and the positive coming out of European advice is that we have a large amount of real estate to efficiently and effectively build ships at Osborne,” he said. “We have a facility that is giving the ship builder clear space whereas they don’t have that luxury in some of the yards in Europe. Osborne is certainly going to provide both the latest in world-class shipbuilding plant and equipment as well as the space to safely
Currently 350 to 400 people are on site, covering everything from carpentry/ formwork and structural steel, to crane operation and rigging with a broad scope of work for concreters, carpenters, plant operators and general labourers.
WITH SECURITY IN MIND
Moving through three halls, steel plate will be fabricated into the required size and units, then welded to form blocks that make up the shipbuilding process. The other main building is to be a blast and paint facility where the blocks or elements of the vessel are painted prior to consolidation in the vessel.
