Project Summary

In September 2010, Pradella Constructions awarded Mcilwain Civil Engineering with the Civil Works portion of the new Komatsu Facility Project, currently under construction in Wacol, southwest of Brisbane. The greenfields Wacol site, situated on a 56,000m ² block, will house Komatsu’s national Mining Division head office and will service a national customer base through a state-of-the-art remanufacturing centre where up to 70 “ultraclass” dump trucks will be assembled on site per year.

The earthworks stage of the project involved 55,000m ³ of cut to fill and included the blending of silty sands material to make up the balance of fill required for the site. Due to the extra heavy machinery which would eventually be operating on the pavements, the specification delivered high compaction targets for fill material, which, doubled with an unusually wet season, made this a challenging prospect for the site team. The site also borders Bullockhead Creek and as part of strict environmental controls the Project included the construction of 1,200m ² of Bio-retention basin to intercept all run-off prior to commencing on site. This also forms an integral part of several cutting edge environmental measures planned for the development, around the principal of ecological sustainability.

Currently the project team are working to prepare over 28,000m ² of gravel pavement for fibrecrete concrete pavement construction to all building platforms and surrounding pavement areas. Retaining wall backfill and the construction of over 500m of boulder walls up to 6.8m high is also underway, as well as over 1000m of stormwater drainage, including the installation of 4No. Solid Pollutant Filter units. Future works are to include asphalt pavement construction, kerb & channel and footpath works.  

PROJECT SYNOPSIS

• 55,000m ³ of earthworks on leads.
• 14,000m ³ of unsuitable carted off site.
• 922m of stormwater drainage pipe installation.
• 1,330m of subsoil drainage.
• 9,000 Tonnes of Roadbase material to concrete pavement areas.
• 5,795m ² of Asphalt surfacing.
• 1,331m of Kerb & Channel.
• 536m of Boulder Wall up to 6.8m high.
• 1,200m ² of Bio-retention basin construction including sandy loam and gravel placement.