Setting new standard for jetty development in Australia
DESIGNED by iCubed Consulting, the Wagners’ worldfirst fibre reinforced polymer wharf deck will be built to a standard not before used in Australia.
It will be 252m long, 16m wide and is designed for large bulk handling vehicles and equipment, and moorings from a 40,000 tonne vessel.
Due to the unique elements of the project such as the reinforced polymer, iCubed and the Wagners searched the world for a new standard that met the ambitious build’s aims.
“There’s not actually an Australian standard that covers the majority of the work we’re doing there,” iCubed principal consultant Nick Canto said.
“We basically had to do a global search for the best guidance of whatever part of the project we’re working on.
“For the reinforcement in this instance, we studied the Canadian standards and they’re pretty advanced.”
Mr Canto said the Earth Friendly Concrete jetty was non-corrosive, effectively doubling the lifespan of the Pin- kenba wharf ’s deck.
“The concrete cancer on marine structures is a massive problem around the world and not only maritime structures, but also in Europe and the United States, and places where they use a lot of de-icing salts,” he said.
“That highly salty environment gets in and destroys the reinforcement. This structure is just not susceptible to that at all.”
“We’ve got little doubt that people are going to pick this up in those cold climates and marine structures.”
He said materials were put through full-scale testing such as failure and fatigue tests in Toowoomba and passed.