With 700 piles to cut for the Dryandra Road Project Brisbane Company Dundrum Civil provided contractor McConnell Dowell with the ideal solution to the problem with the MotoCut Q500 Pile Cutter, supplied and installed by Premier Rock Machinery (PRM).
The Dryandra Road Project is a reinforced concrete 4-lane underpass structure, supported on approximately 700 precast concrete piles including 1.5km of roadway, full underpass fitout with portions of taxiway and airfield road mounted atop the underpass structure.
The underpass will allow vehicles to travel under the taxiways that will connect the new runway to the Brisbane Domestic and International Terminals and existing runway system. This is necessary to ensure continued access to key airport facilities such as the Royal Flying Doctor Service, General Aviation Terminal and Acacia Street viewing area.
The scope of work involved cutting a total of 701 no Precast Driven Piles. This number consisted of 297 no x 450mm sq. and 404 no x 400mm sq.
Most of these piles had to be cut and removed in 2 separate lengths which amounted to a total of approx. 950 no individual lengths. The steel configuration also determined how the cutting was executed. The 450mm had steel only in the 4 corners which permitted the piles to be cut and snapped off n 1 direction, but the 400mm sq piles had steel equally spaced intermittently between the corners as well which meant they required cutting in both directions.
Weighing 300kg the MotoCut’s pile cutter was the ideal solution for the job. The machine comes complete with two diamond blades, which can cut the pile on two sides simultaneously. A trapezoidal screw moves back and forth through the cutting unit, and each blade is pressed to the pile by the springs. The sawing process does not involve any direct force, which allows the blades to last longer.
The device is controlled from the cab using a display unit, which can be programmed for different cutting patterns as seen in the video taken on the Dryandra Road Project site …