A customised rotary trommel will bring a taste of the exotic Middle East to the Shell Cove boat harbour development on the New South Wales south coast.
In November 2012, Shellharbour City Council and commercial developer Australand appointed Coastwide Civil, a family-owned Australian company with diverse interests in civil and marine construction and quarrying, to undertake a program of works that includes major excavation to complete the first phase of the harbour?s development.
The construction process began in January, with the final stage of works to be complete in 2020. The boat harbour and marina, which have been in the planning stages for almost 30 years, will be designed as the centrepiece of the Shell Cove project that will feature 2700 residential properties, a community centre, supermarket, golf course, hotels, accommodation, cafes and over 60 hectares of open space, including cycleways and footpaths. The harbour will cater for up to 300 boats and other vessels.
There will be three stages of construction over the next five to seven years, comprising over one million cubic metres of excavation. Stage 1 will comprise approximately 400,000 cubic metres of bulk excavation, sorting and processing of existing stockpiled material for reuse in the works, installation of the coffer dam and construction of the component of breakwall and groyne west of mean sea level and placement of excavated material in surcharge mounds. In excess of 300,000 tonnes of hard rock will be utilised in the construction of breakwaters and revetment to the harbour. The aggregate is being sourced from local quarries and reused material from site excavation.
To aid in the monumental challenge that awaits it, Coastwide Civil has ordered one of the big guns ? a Nirox CRG 504 rotary trommel ? to process the hard rock and recycled materials. The trommel, powered by a Cat power pack, can potentially crush rocks up to three tonnes and create four products at a rate in excess of 400 tonnes per hour.
Coastwide Civil director Gary Rogers said the Nirox CRG 504 ?had the right history to give me confidence that the equipment would do the job we require. Its history shows that it?s robust, which is imperative for this type of work. As far as I?m concerned, the equipment can?t come soon enough.?
Minroc, an Australian owned and Queensland-based supplier of mobile equipment to the quarrying industry, is supplying the CRG 504 to Coastwide Civil. It is no stranger to installing large custom trommel plants in some of the most unique environments in the world.
Minroc installed a similar custom Nirox trommel plant ? the RG 902 ? in 2008 as part of the construction of the artificial archipelago of the Palm Islands, off Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.
As of June 2012, the RG 902 had produced 14 million tonnes of aggregate for various Dubai projects and the machine has operated unencumbered in regular daily temperatures of 56oC all year round, with 97 per cent availability of the same barrel.
The product it has churned out is of such high quality that it is now going to neighbouring Abu Dhabi.
Minroc director Wayne Stafford said customised plant and equipment were core to the company?s business. ?We provide bespoke solutions to our customers? engineering problems,? he explained. ?Our products are always tailored to customers? unique specifications, which ensures they perform more effectively.?
Sources: Shellharbour City Council, Minroc/Garnish Marketing