Project Description

Managing risk: How GLC ensured asbestos and other challenges didn’t disrupt people or business when developing Engadine’s most sought-after investment and lifestyle address

Works required: Demolition, Asbestos Removal and Contaminated Soils Management, Bulk Excavation, Detail Excavation, and Streetscaping.

The Project: This $2.7m project involved the complex demolition of over 5000m² of buildings and bulk and detail excavation of over 29,000m³ of land in Engadine, south of Sydney.

The highly anticipated new address offered opportunities for both lifestyle and investment in the city’s thriving suburb. Project complexity was increased, however, by the combination of:

• High vehicle and pedestrian traffic flow
• Shops, houses and warehouses all within the immediate vicinity, and
• The sheer scale of works.

The Challenges:

Managing large-scale demolition and civil works within a busy and population-dense area presented multiple challenges. For The Gallery, these included:

• Ensuring business as usual. With a grocery store and the Telstra Operational Centre next door, it was critical that we preserved operational integrity and ensured business remained unaffected
• Undertaking large-scale, high-risk activities within a public space. The high residential and professional foot traffic throughout the area added further complexity, particularly with the heavy vehicle and machinery required.
• The surprise discovery of underground asbestos (despite all required preliminary tests for its presence). 29,000m³ of land needed to be excavated to a depth of 6m; 5000m². All necessary preliminary checks and tests had been carried out to specification, however, when works began, asbestos was discovered, and plans were quickly made to tackle this issue effectively and with minimum disturbance to the project

Our Solutions:

We undertook an in-depth risk analysis followed by the development of a detailed project plan. This mitigated impact on:

• Surrounding business trading
• Workers’ safety
• Pedestrian safety, and
• Normal day-to-day activities

Our strategy, which included identifying client and stakeholder expectations alongside extensive planning and communications, consisted primarily of:

• Identifying and preventing potentially disruptive damage from adjoining sub structures prior to excavation, including:
  • Underpinning the grocery store, and forming and pouring structural elements of the new development
  • Reinforcing the Telstra driveway
• Minimising impact on the Telstra Operational Centre via effective scheduling of works during non-peak periods
• Minimising community impact via:
  • Advanced communications about the types and period of works, as well as specific dates
  • Regular air and noise monitoring
  • Traffic control planning and
  • Open engagement to ensure community harmony
• Minimising the impact on pedestrian traffic in the public domain by scheduling night operations
• Ensuring strict adherence to the required asbestos safety protocols, including:
  • Developing an Asbestos Removal Control Plan for friable asbestos material, with protocols in place for unexpected findings
  • Establishing specific Safe Work Methods Statements for field workers, and
  • Communicating to the grocery store owner and employees about the risk and mitigating actions

The result:

The project was delivered to scope, deadline and budget, including:

• Demolition (eight weeks): The safe and successful demolition, removal and disposal of multiple stores, houses and The Reject Shop warehouse with nil impact to surrounding structures and businesses
• Contaminated soil management (four weeks): Implementation of asbestos safety protocols and best practice contaminated soils management. This included the identification, removal and disposal of over 5,000m2 of contaminated soil, and
• Excavation (10 weeks): 29,000m3 in total of bulk and detail excavation

Our well-planned approach ensured success. While a number of previous providers were unable to successfully deliver to scope, our governance, risk and environmental management were highly regarded. This resulted in a request to deliver further works.

Over the following six-week period, GLC Civil Projects undertook comprehensive streetscaping throughout the suburb. We transformed The Gallery from a sparse, structural and visually barren environment into an inviting, attractive and appealing residential suburb; a suburb that delivered a solid ROI for our client and a dream lifestyle for home buyers.

“HDJ Constructions have engaged GLC Civil for a number of successful projects.

They have performed a great service to help complete our projects on time and within our budgets for a variety of tasks ranging from Bulk Excavation Works, Footpath reinstatement, Carpark restoration, machine hire, landscaping and drainage works. The job size or time of day does not affect their challenge to complete the work.

GLC Civil provides an essential service to our Company to help identify, programme, and manage the crucial tasks that are required during the construction process and in particular at the completion of the project.”

–Chris Burns, Construction Manager, HDJ Constructions