Industrial & Manufacturing Blog
Certain parts of northern and western Australia are known for their blustery conditions that seem to affect this land year-round, but the situation can become a great deal worse whenever a cyclone rolls in from the open waters. If you are involved in a major construction project, you may be eyeing the forecast with some trepidation, as you're worried that you could suffer considerable losses through wind damage in one of these frightening events. How can you make sure that the temporary structures dotted around your sprawling site are protected, so you can safeguard your investment and keep your project on schedule?
Assessing Your Risk
As you are engaged in large-scale land reclamation and preparation, your project is, by its very nature, open to the elements. It's simply not possible for you to protect any offices, storerooms or other facilities by erecting man-made support structures, so you know that if a considerable wind blows in the wrong direction everything could come tumbling down. A building site like this relies on these temporary structures to keep supplies and equipment in place, to service contractors and to keep paperwork on hand. However, the structures are not meant to be permanent and therefore are not very heavy, typically sitting on top of temporary stilts. This helps to protect them from flooding but not from the wind, which can get underneath and cause damage.
How to Protect
You need to talk with specialist equipment suppliers to see if you can buy some heavy-duty screw piles to anchor the structure. These are designed to resist even the strongest of cyclones in this area.
Each pile has a large holding capacity and can be adjusted to provide the appropriate amount of tension when installed correctly. Always make sure that you bring in contractors who know how to do this, however, as this requires some application to ensure that your structures will have a certain amount of "give" as well.
Engineers may recommend that you anchor the screw piles in a number of different places, so that tension can be increased if necessary, and should the weather forecast rapidly deteriorate. Remember, it's possible for the wind to get underneath your structure and generate an upward pressure that can be challenging to resist.
Think about the Soil
You will need to take into account the nature of the soil at your construction site, as this can vary widely. If it is rather soft, then extra care will need to be taken to install the screw piles properly.
Act Now
Many people wait until the beginning of the season and suddenly find that a major cyclone is bearing down with little warning. Don't be one of those people and take steps now to protect your installation.
Share22 October 2018
Factories are amongst our most underrated buildings, but they not only have a style and design sense all of their own--they also hold important clues to the history of the areas they're in, and each one can tell a fascinating story. In this blog I'll be highlighting some of my favourite factories around the world to discuss their architecture, what they produce, their history and what they tell us about their local areas and communities. I'll also be getting into the nitty-gritty from time to time, as it turns out that the inside world of industry is more riveting than you might imagine!