WITH its popularity in the Australian construction industry, concrete construction may not appear to need improvement. Recent market analysis by Cement Concrete & Aggregates Australia (CCAA) confirms that the Australian commercial office construction sector continues to choose concrete framing solutions that lead the world in providing high value buildings that are low risk, low cost and fast to construct. CCAA wanted “to study structural framing in multi-rise structures,” says its manager, construction solutions, Tom Glasby, “to better understand the real value that different framing solutions offered to the many entities within a project, and how that value might be improved.”
As a starting point, CCCA spoke broadly with industry players across Australia from the grassroots upwards to try to understand what their current experiences were with concrete-framed construction, and why various decisions were taken in the design and construction process. Suppliers, developers, architects, building designers, quantity surveyors, structural engineers and the design and construct contractors “who actually put a building together” were approached for input.
From the surprisingly diverse opinions expressed and choices made, it was clear that concrete framing innovations are occurring within pockets of the sector but are not being widely shared across the industry. CCAA hoped to facilitate this knowledge transfer by producing a series of case studies looking at contemporary best practice in concrete framing under the banner of Concrete Concepts.
The five case studies to date (15 more are in the pipeline) highlight the key value points for builders, namely cost, speed and risk. Each study explains the construction and engineering challenges, the concrete solution and the result for the client. Innovative construction technologies that emerged include high performance concrete; high-tech formwork systems; optimally combining precast, in situ and post-tensioned concrete building technologies; and using concrete’s inherent flexibility to minimise delays. (See page 31 for details.)
Source: Construction Contractor