The landmark ANZAC Frigate project, awarded to Amecon, required the construction of new and unique shipbuilding facilities. Sinclair Knight Merz was commissioned by Transfield to design Amecon's new Module Hall, which was to provide a workshop environment for joining modules of the new ANZAC Frigates. Modules were prefabricated outside the building and then manoeuvred into an assembly position on an 80 t crane system inside the hall. Cranes traverse the full working area of the building and cross a large door opening - sized to accommodate the ship modules. The flexibility of the crane rail and crane system was also assessed.
Unique steel features of the building are:
- a 21.5 m tall structure to accommodate ship assembly criteria
- an example of the use of BHP's new WB sections
- wind terrain category 2 structure on the dock area
- two independent 40 t cranes, spanning 30 m
- 17.5 m x 15.2 m high door openings.
The structural challenges in the design included:
- adopting a driven pile foundation system to save costs over the originally recommended system of bored piers into rock
- accommodating loads from the crane system into a grid system of columns which were both continuous to ground and intermittently supported on transfer trusses across the main door openings.
The participation of Sinclair Knight Merz in the development of the Amecon Module Hall demonstrates its expertise in the design of large steel structures.