Whittens were engaged by Martinus Rail on a competitive tender for dayworks basis to provide specialist Project Management and Concrete Labour to assist Martinus Rail to lay the insitu track slab in the Forrestfield Rail tunnel, tunnel approach slabs and station rail slabs.

Whittens through cooperative value engineering changed the proposed methodology from a rail mounted rail agitator traversing in and out of the tunnel to a high-pressure concrete pump, which pumps up to 1.8km. This led to significant cost and programme savings for the project, when compared to the original methodology.

Whittens provided all of the project management, supervision and labour for formwork, reo fixing, placement and finishing of 15,000m3 of the track slab and were requested to accelerate, and double the original outputs, which was consistently achieved throughout the second half of the project, by increasing resources and splitting shifts.

Whittens conducted several pumping and placement trials above ground, to prove and enhance the methodology and concrete mix design, this achieved, circa 1.5km of concrete long line pumping and placement, which is a World record.

Detailed 3D images of all concrete pump and pipe layouts (copy attached) were produced by Whittens, to ensure all stakeholders were aligned with the plan, well in advance of the works. This was a key planning tool to ensure SIMOPS with other work groups, in multiple, very busy project sites. These 3D images and proposed bracket locations had in-depth independent engineering review of the pipeline fixings, to ensure that the set-up complies with Australian Standards.

A paper has been completed to be presented to the Concrete Institute of Australia titled ‘World’s longest pumping distance of macro synthetic fibre reinforced concrete’.

This project is an excellent example of true collaboration between all stakeholders to ensure and achieve a successful outcome.