Winslow Infrastructure was contracted by Melbourne Water to construct seven large culverts underneath an existing rail line in Ravenhall, Victoria. Rockfall protection was required to stabilize the rock slopes and protect workers from possible rock detachments in the excavated drive and reception pits. Steelgrid HR30 mesh was selected and installed due to its high strength, low displacement, and ability to be easily anchored to the slope without needing tensioning or overlapping between panels. The Steelgrid HR30 mesh successfully stabilized the rock face during construction of the culverts.
Winslow Infrastructure was contracted by Melbourne Water to construct seven large culverts underneath an existing rail line in Ravenhall, Victoria. Rockfall protection was required to stabilize the rock slopes and protect workers from possible rock detachments in the excavated drive and reception pits. Steelgrid HR30 mesh was selected and installed due to its high strength, low displacement, and ability to be easily anchored to the slope without needing tensioning or overlapping between panels. The Steelgrid HR30 mesh successfully stabilized the rock face during construction of the culverts.
Winslow Infrastructure was contracted by Melbourne Water to construct seven large culverts underneath an existing rail line in Ravenhall, Victoria. Rockfall protection was required to stabilize the rock slopes and protect workers from possible rock detachments in the excavated drive and reception pits. Steelgrid HR30 mesh was selected and installed due to its high strength, low displacement, and ability to be easily anchored to the slope without needing tensioning or overlapping between panels. The Steelgrid HR30 mesh successfully stabilized the rock face during construction of the culverts.
Winslow Infrastructure was contracted by Melbourne Water to construct seven large culverts underneath an existing rail line in Ravenhall, Victoria. Rockfall protection was required to stabilize the rock slopes and protect workers from possible rock detachments in the excavated drive and reception pits. Steelgrid HR30 mesh was selected and installed due to its high strength, low displacement, and ability to be easily anchored to the slope without needing tensioning or overlapping between panels. The Steelgrid HR30 mesh successfully stabilized the rock face during construction of the culverts.
August 2012 Melbourne Water Winslow Infrastructure Ravenhall, Victoria
Rockfall Protection - Steelgrid HR30
Winslow Infrastructure was contracted by Melbourne Water to construct a drainage facility underneath the existing Melbourne to Ballarat rail line. The drainage scheme consisted of seven large culverts running parallel to one another. The culverts are 1650mm diameter pipes that were installed using pipe jacking techniques. The culverts have 6m of cover to the existing rail line and the culvert lengths are all 50m. The drive and reception pits that were excavated in rock are part of the main inlet and outlet structures and are to be finished after the tunnelling operations have been completed.
Steelgrid HR30 mesh cast into the top concrete edge beam
As part of the temporary works to support the rock
slopes, Winslow Infrastructure determined that an anchored rockfall protection mesh was required to stabilise the face to protect workers in the pits from possible rock detachments. The geology of the excavation was basalt with various degrees of weathering. The requirement for the mesh system was that it needed to be high strength, low strain/displacement and be easily anchored to the slope. The mesh selected was the Steelgrid HR30 supplied by Geofabrics Australasia. Due to the Steelgrid HR30s inherent stiffness and unmatched strength vs strain relationship (184kN/m at only 6%), the mesh does not need to be tensioned in position on the slope, does not require depressions around the anchor heads to mobilise its strength and does not need overlapping between panels of mesh. This reduces installation time for this already cost effective system.
The Steelgrid HR30 mesh bolted to the rock face notice how the system conforms to the uneven rock surface
Steelgrid HR is a geocomposite mesh made from steel wire and
high tensile cables, woven together during hexagonal double twist wire mesh manufacture. The Steelgrid HR geocomposite is particularly suitable for use as a rockfall protection drapery system or for improvement of surface or soil veneer slope stability. When used in combination with the Steelgrid HR system anchor plates (and sometimes also externally applied horizontal or oblique/zigzag cables) the mesh offers considerable installation related advantages when employed in a surface stabilisation role. The principle advantages of Steelgrid HR are its high strength, high mechanical stiffness and the strong coupling of the loads acting on the system to the crestline anchors which arise from the longitudinally interwoven cables. The steel wire used in the manufacture of the double twisted wire mesh is heavily galvanized with Galmac, a Zinc/Aluminium alloy. The double twist mesh helps to prevent unravelling of the mesh should any individual wires rupture. A totally PVC coated option (mesh and cables) is available for aggressive environmental conditions. Steelgrid HR is available in three variants: 30, 50 and 100. In all three options, the 8mm diameter high tensile steel (1770N/mm2) cables are used in place of the conventional selvedge wire and are also longitudinally inter-woven within the mesh at nominal spacings of 300mm, 500mm and 1000mm respectively depending on the required performance criteria.
