Work begins on Australia's largest cantilever on One Central Park tower
It's been likened to a giant, airborne Meccano construction.
High above Central Park, on Sydney’s Broadway, massive steel supports have been lifted 100 metres into the air to start work on a quite monumental cantilever that will protrude from the side of the One Central Park apartment block.
The cantilever will extend 42 metres from the facade of the residential tower and will carry a private sky garden with plunge pool along with an outdoor dining space for residents.
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The cantilever will also support a heliostat frame carrying 320 large mirrored panels, which will redirect sunlight across the former brewery precinct.
The mirrored panels each have nine LED coloured lights set into them, which are programmed to deliver a major public artwork designed by Danish lighting artist Yann Kersale.
Construction is part of the $2 billion Central Park precinct by joint venture developers Frasers Property Australia and Sekisui House Australia to a design overseen by Jean Nouvel.
Watpac Construction lifted the first steel truss into position on level 28 of One Central Park’s East tower earlier this month.
Frasers Property Australia Project Director Mick Caddey says it will take three months to build the structural supports and shell of the cantilevered structure.
“This involves lifting all of the structural steelwork into place. There are four 90-tonne steel trusses that lay the length of the floor plates, each measuring 46 metres and extending 18 metres from the face of the building – the trusses are two storeys (or six metres) high,” Caddey says.
“The construction team will then continue pouring concrete to construct the upper floors from levels 30-34 and finally prepare for the highly complex engineering feat of lifting the 110-tonne heliostat reflector frame into position, affixed to the base of the cantilever.”
It will be the largest-spanned cantilevered structure to be built off a high-rise residential development in Australia, requiring the world’s largest capacity tower crane, a FAVCO M2480D supplied by Marrs Contracting and nicknamed ‘Tinkerbell’, brought specifically to the Chippendale site for the task.
Tinkerbell usually works on mining sites in Western Australia and the Middle East.
Watpac Construction NSW State Manager Ric Wang says the steel structure weighs in excess of 600 tonnes, including the 110-tonne structural steel frame to support the mirrors on the heliostat.
The steel trusses were fabricated in Adelaide, transported to Sydney and have been assembled on site over the last two month at ground level “rather like a large-scale, intricate Meccano set”, according to Mick Caddey.
The cantilever defines the location of Central Park’s most exclusive property offering – the Sky at One Central Park.
Comprising five levels above the cantilever, Sky will have just 38 penthouse and sub-penthouse apartments.
They will range in size from 120 to 200 square metres.
Prices have yet to be finalised, but are estimated at between $1.4 million and $2.6 million when released in coming weeks.
Completion is expected in late 2013.
The display pavilion is at 80 Broadway Chippendale.
