The Sydney Metro City & Southwest project is the biggest public transport project in Australia.
The Chatswood to Sydenham part of the project involved the construction of 15.5 km long twin railway tunnels from Chatswood. The tunnel runs under the Sydney Harbour and through Sydney’s CBD out to Sydenham. It included the delivery of new stations at Crows Nest, Victoria Cross, Barangaroo, Martin Place, Pitt Street and Waterloo.
PowerEarth was engaged by John Holland and Mirvac for our services. We provided earthing and bonding design for Waterloo Integrated Station Development. This consisted of an underground station and the Waterloo Metro Quarter to be constructed above and next to the station.
In the project PowerEarth performed the following key tasks:
- Collaboration with various disciplines including Building Services, Structural, Architectural, Utilities, TSOM, etc.
This is to ensure the fulfilment of earthing and bonding requirements. These requirements are in the Station Delivery Deed Scope of Works and Technical Criteria (SWTC). - Production of an earthing system design for the Station box. This is to protect people from hazardous touch voltages during earth faults.
- Providing bonding and isolation arrangements at the Station. This is to mitigate the propagation of stray DC current associated with the operation of the DC traction system. This will also monitor the effects of the electrolysis in vulnerable structures and assets.
- Production of lightning protection systems for the Integrated Station Development. This is to protect the buildings and the station box from direct strikes. The sensitive equipment inside the buildings from lightning surges is also protected.
- Assessment of the electromagnetic fields in the retail spaces adjacent to the high voltage rooms within the station box. This is to determine the level of risk the general public would be exposed to.
- Liaison with John Holland. We ensured we thoroughly discussed and documented all earthing and bonding hazards. We also discussed and documented the related controls.
We have and will continue to ensure the protection of persons, infrastructure, asset operability, ease of maintenance and constructability, for the successful delivery of the project. We will continue to work closely with the relevant stakeholders to ensure ongoing success.
Contact us today if you’d like to collaborate with PowerEarth for your next project.
Written by Carmen Po.