Through close collaboration and careful design, Geoquest Australia has again showcased its ability to deliver major infrastructure project components, this time on the largescale Wilman Wadandi Highway project in Western Australia.
Despite the name change – from Reinforced Earth to Geoquest Australia – one thing that’s remained consistent is the company’s ability to cater for major infrastructure projects.
Geoquest Australia has five decades experience of providing Reinforced Earth solutions to projects in Australia and New Zealand, combining three elements; controlled backfill, precast concrete facing panels and soil reinforcements to form a durable retaining structure.
These techniques for Reinforced Earth walls, also called mechanically stabilised earth (MSE) walls, were invented by Geoquest 60 years ago, and are now widely adopted in infrastructure projects worldwide.
Recent works on the Wilman Wadandi Highway in Western Australia have highlighted this capability.
The Wilman Wadandi Highway project is a 27-kilometre, four-lane road linking Forrest Highway to Bussell Highway, aiming to ease congestion and increase safety for motorists.
The use of Reinforced Earth walls and other precast elements were essential components of the project, with these structures designed to provide additional stability, protection and sound minimisation for road infrastructure.
But when it comes to tackling major transport projects, where do you start?
Rhys Senior, Regional Manager, Western Australia – Geoquest Australia says the company begins with early and proactive engagement.
“Geoquest has strong relationships with clients and client designers, so conversations begin six to 12 months before we have even started the design and supply for the project,” he says.
“It is a collaborative approach – to share advice and expertise that helps clients in the process.”
Project by project
Geoquest Australia specialises in civil, structural and geotechnical engineering services, offering a wide range of tailor-made solutions for a variety of applications.
These are presented in five business lines – Retain (RE walls, TechWall, T-Wall, Steepened Slope), Cross (TechSpan arches and precast elements), Protect (Rockfall Protection – nets and barriers, and TechRevetment), Strengthen (Geogrids, Basal Reinforcement) and Precast, offering bespoke solutions to a wide array of market segments.
The company’s expertise has secured contracts for works on several nationally significant infrastructure projects, such as the West Gate Tunnel project, Brisbane’s Cross River Rail as well as a number of rail projects that form part of Victoria’s Big Build.
Senior believes the vast experience of Geoquest Australia’s team, as well as the company’s extensive technical capabilities, are just some of the key reasons for the organisation becoming a favourable provider nationally.
“We’ve been producing reinforced earth walls and precast solutions in Western Australia for many years,” he says. “For the past 13 years, we’ve also operated our own precast yards, which has provided us in-depth knowledge, and hands-on control over quality, consistency, and delivery. That in-house design and manufacturing expertise is a key strength.
“Geoquest has been manufacturing bespoke items in-house for many years, and over that time, our team has developed a wealth of unique expertise. Several members of our design team have been with us for over 30 years – their accumulated knowledge is invaluable and truly irreplaceable.”
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Senior says early collaboration with clients also helps to reduce potential design and technical challenges before they become costly problems during manufacturing, a crucial aspect of the Bunbury Ring Road works.
“Down the track, when we started to engage in manufacture and production, we’d already ironed out all the kinks,” he says.
One of the challenges highlighted was the discrepancy in foundation conditions between the northern and southern sections of the project.
The northern section, which connects Forrest Highway to Boyanup Picton Road, was situated on top of a flood plain, consisting of an interconnected network of smaller creeks.
This also created large differential sediments in some sections, an outlier for a state and city (Perth) that typically sees full height walls erected due to predominantly solid ground conditions.
These full-height walls, known as Geoquest Australia’s TerraTilt product offering, are precast concrete solutions that combine selected granular, engineered backfill with steel tensile reinforcements and a modular precast facing system.
To offset the presented challenge, Geoquest Australia worked with the client to produce accurate readings on soil properties, loading requirements, geometric requirements, and architectural considerations.
This critical information helped Geoquest Australia to recommend the most viable walling solution. Which, in this case, was its TerraPlus designs.
TerraPlus is Geoquest Australia’s range of segmental walls that offer greater flexibility, thanks to the combination of smaller and more modular panels, providing a solution suitable for challenging ground conditions.
As Senior explains, Geoquest Australia’s approach to project delivery allows the company to evaluate each individual project on its own merits, understanding that no single solution is capable of catering for every project.
“The client generally determines the geometry of the walls. From there, we take those measurements away to do a detailed design of individual panels and the soil reinforcement required to hold the walls up,” he says.
All up, Geoquest Australia supplied the TerraPlus and TerraTilt Reinforced Earth walls, used as both bridge abutments and retaining walls, approximately 1000 barriers and parapets, about 1200 panels and post retaining walls, as well as column formers.
Senior says the company is pushing to expand what is already a holistic range, with Geoquest Australia now a one-stop shop when it comes to integrated solutions such as MSE walls, precast concrete elements, rockfall protection and geosynthetics.
“We’ve diversified significantly the past few years. That was part of the reason why we’ve renamed our company from Reinforced Earth to Geoquest Australia, because our offering is now extremely diverse and far more than Reinforced Earth walls,” he says.
“On top of our proprietary precast arch system, TechSpan, and our other precast items, we also design, manufacture and supply a wide range of geo-synthetics, geo-grids, concrete revetment mattresses and rockfall protection systems. For geosynthetics, we operate manufacturing hubs in India and USA for all our products.
“Geoquest has a heritage of research, innovation and inventions, and we continue that path today. There are a lot of new products that we’re bringing into the market here in Australia, with both reducing carbon footprint in mind, as well as helping to robustly respond to fast-changing environmental conditions.
“I’m really excited to see what we can achieve in the next few years, with more projects getting underway and adding further to our capabilities.”
This article was originally published in the June edition of our magazine. To read the magazine, click here.
