Passenger Rail, Major Projects & Infrastructure

Heavy lift contract awarded for Sydney Metro Crows Nest Station

An engineering team took on the challenge of developing a craneage plan for Crows Nest station, after consultation with Sydney Metro.

A CONTRACT has been awarded for the construction of the new Sydney Crows Nest Station.

That contract has gone to Marr’s Contracting (sometimes known as the ‘men from Mars’) which has already installed two M2480D heavy lift luffers (HLL) onsite.

Marr’s were engaged by construction partner, A W Edwards, after working with Sydney Metro during the front-end design of the project.

Marr’s engineering team was approached by Sydney Metro to develop a craneage plan for the project after successfully delivering craneage solutions for several other Sydney Metro projects – including the Sydney Yard Access Bridge (SYAB) and station redevelopment at Central Station, and new station developments at Martin Place and Barangaroo.

“Our early engagement on this project has supported Sydney Metro’s desire to design and construct the new station by adopting a designed for manufacture and assembly construction approach,” said Marr managing director Simon Marr.

“It’s essentially about taking a holistic view to align the craneage with the preferred construction method, and then using this to secure the construction program with a safer, more-efficient and cost-effective solution.”

Marr said the challenges associated with the project were largely to do with its location and where its construction schedule sits within the greater Sydney Metro project.

“Being able to work closely with the Sydney Metro team and have access to their engineering team during the design works was essential to developing a solution that took buildability, time and safety into consideration,” he said.

“The process took 18-months to complete, resulting in Sydney Metro issuing a considered and evaluated design for the Crows Nest Station construction tenderers, with a suitable craneage solution built into it.

“This meant that the project could transfer easily from contract award to construction in a short time frame.”

Construction on Sydney Metro Crows Nest station began in January 2021. Metro services are expected to be operational by 2024, with Marr’s scope of work at Crows Nest complete in 2022.