A major milestone has been achieved at our Stromlo Leisure Centre project in Canberra with installation of the huge Glulam roof beams having commenced.
Fast facts:
- The total span of each rafter is a whopping 47 metres! This covers the full width of the pools and concourses
- Rafters are positioned at 7 metre centres
- To enable such a long span, each rafter is 1200mm deep x 200mm thick. This also allows for all steel connections to be recessed and concealed
- Once completed, Stromlo Leisure Centre will be the longest spanning Glulam installation in Australia
The installation process:
The Glulam has been fabricated in northern Italy by Rubner Holzbau and is shipped to site in 40-foot containers. The roof bays are being pre-assembled at ground level utilising engineered temporary structures located at precisely surveyed locations. This compensates for the tapering rafter contours and to allows for a modular installation due to the limited crane and work platform access inside the pool hall.
Once assembled the first bay including all componentry weighed a total of 19 tonnes.
A 300-tonne mobile crane is being used for the installation with specialist rigging crews and a fully engineered lifting spreader bar arrangement to support the installation at multiple different connection points.
A further challenge is the fact that the rafters are offset to the columns at the front of the pool hall. This is achieved by Glulam struts installed at a 45-degree angle in two directions, making for a very technical installation and the need have extensive temporary bracing and propping in place during the installation.
Nearly 12 months of planning and consideration took place prior to installation commencing on site last week. The result has seen a seamless start to this major element of what will be a fantastic new facility for the local community.
On Friday our team hosted a breakfast BBQ on site inviting project stakeholders as well as a wide variety of construction industry players to view the installation and learn about mass timber as a building product.
A special thank you to our design and construct partners:
