Unique industrial solution cuts through Council's costs
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Transpacific’s Industrial Solutions team has developed a system saving a Council more than $250,000.
The Council, which is located in the southern region of New South Wales, required the cleaning and resurfacing of two steel reservoirs that supply two towns in the Shire with potable water.
Traditionally, fixed-stage scaffolding would be installed to provide workers with easy access the tanks’ surfaces, however, Transpacific bypassed this with a more efficient approach.
Ross Boucher, Transpacific’s Civil Works Branch Manager, said: “Scaffolding is an expensive and time consuming work platform to install.
“We replaced the scaffolding with a spider boom and scissor lift which were lowered into the tanks using a crane.
“To further reduce the council’s costs, we used an ultra high pressure water method to achieve 80 percent of the required cleaning and surface preparation, with the remaining 20 percent completed using abrasive blasting.”
By combing the two methods, Transpacific was able to reduce the use of ‘garnet’, a product used in the abrasive blasting process by more than 75 percent.
It also helped to reduce the amount of residue which had to be removed from the site once the blasting had been completed.
“To achieve additional cost savings, we worked closely with an external paint supplier to develop a paint system that would exceed the Council’s requirements.
“This not only resulted in a high quality finish, but reduced the number of applications from three coats to two.
“Overall, the many time and money saving innovations worked together to provide the client with a timely and cost effective solution,” Ross said.
A team of four workers completed each of the tanks over a nine week period, with the project finishing in early July 2009.
Transpacific’s Civil Work’s team provides a range of specialist industrial services including concrete remediation and structural repair, passive fire proofing systems, industrial flooring, protective coatings and asbestos removal.