CPB Contractors Project Manager, Hassan Ghonaim and Superintendent, Paul Hamilton developed an innovative Australian-first slip-form methodology for Aircraft Pavement on the Western Sydney International (Nancy-Bird Walton) Airport (WSI), specifically Airside Civil and Pavement works project – the project was delivered in a Joint Venture with Acciona. Hassan and Paul’s idea to trial slip-form for the first time in Australia was not a conventional one but following its success, this work has become a game-changer that has set a new standard for safety and productivity for WSI, CPB Contractors and for future runway projects in Australia.
Hassan says proper planning was vital to the success of the venture and his experience on rail projects helped prepare him for this. “I have taken a lot of learnings from my time on rail projects, where programming and planning is critical, broken down by hour and with everyone taking ownership of roles and responsibilities.”
“Throughout the paving process, the joint venture team was committed and united. They’d often ask if they could start at 4:35am to ensure everything was ready and ensure targets are achieved. They take around an hour to prepare the onsite batch plant, then conduct tests to ensure the mix of concrete was correct, taking into consideration any change in weather conditions.
“We’d usually pave for 11 hours followed by another hour finishing and curing. To avoid unplanned cracking in the concrete, a saw cutting operation followed when the concrete hardened, depending on weather conditions. For example, if it was warm, we would begin saw cutting the first pavement around six hours after starting paving, so we needed to be meticulous in our planning, constantly reviewing the weather to ensure we completed works at the right time.”
The ’slip-form’ method paves the aircraft pavement without the use of the traditional dual steel forms – a first for Australian aviation. To achieve this, Hassan, Paul and the team modified the mix, ensuring total consistency by using the CPB Contractors batch plant on site.
“We conducted multiple successful trials, providing a precise, consistent, and high-quality surface finish. This method has now been carried forward to The Cargo Precinct project and will be transformational for future aviation projects.”
This innovative new slip-form methodology, combined with the utilisation of CPB Contractors’ onsite batch plant proved beneficial for both safety and productivity.
“It significantly reduced interactions between plants and people and the amount of manual handling by our form workers with the steel forms. The proximity of the batch plant and the slip-form methodology removed many interactions and truck movements, reducing the risk of delay or interruptions, eliminating gaps in the process, and saving significant time as we weren’t waiting for various suppliers to deliver the concrete mix.”
