Structurally sound

One of the many impressive features of the Gallery of Modern Art is its large cantilevered roof structure, fabricated and constructed by Gay Constructions. Altogether, 850 tonnes of structural steel was needed for the roof, the glazing structural support steel and the internal walls of this part of the project.

Gay Constructions prepared the detailed workshop drawings from the engineers' and architectural design specifications and drawings, then fabricated and constructed the structural steel requirements.

General manager Karle Vogt says the structural designs for each corner of the roof required complex steel fabrication and erection methodology.

"To ensure it would all work on the site, we trial-assembled each corner structure of the roof off-site. This significantly reduced the risk of any clashes in terms of alignment when the corner structures of the roof were erected on site," he says.

"In addition, because there was virtually no site lay down area for materials, we stored large volumes of structural steel off the site, and delivered it on an as-needed basis. This required all departments of both our project team and Bovis to maintain a high level of co-ordination," says Vogt.

Fabricated and installed by Gay Constructions, the site boasts one of the longest columns on a building in Brisbane. The 23m section is a 350 WB 280 and is the largest commercially available welded column in Australia.

Contact Gay Constructions, 225 Queensport Rd, Murarrie, Qld 4172, PO Box 452, Morningside, QLD 4170, phone (07) 3890 9655, fax (07) 3890 9699. Email: karlevogt@gayconstructions.com. Website: www.gayconstructions.com.

Story by: Trendsideas