Emergency Propping Install To Support a Compromised Wall – Sydney

Problem

Shore Hire was contacted by a customer at 3:30 pm to help support a wall after a semi-trailer hit the building and damaged and compromised it. We needed to prop and brace the wall to make it safe so the customer could assess the damage and decide, with the help of a Structural Engineer, how to best fix the wall.

Within 20 minutes of the call, Shore Hire was able to get our Sydney Rigging Manager and Propping Manager on-site to get details for our engineering team, who put together a gear list for the project.

Solution

In order to safely support the compromised wall, it needed to be propped and braced in two places. The first place it needed to be propped was at the spot where the wall was actually struck by the vehicle. We needed to use push/pull or tilt bracing to achieve the required prop setup, and Shore 400 Props as strongbacks to secure the wall without further compromising it. Aluminium and Steel Tilt Props were also used and braced back to a horizontal waler.

There was also a large garage opening next to the damaged wall, which needed propping. Due to the nature of this wall, a fairly intricate propping design was required. Using a combination of Shore 400 Props to create a horizontal support as well as Aluminium and Steel Tilt Props braced onto a horizontal waler sitting across an Engineered Block used as a counterweight turned out to be the ideal solution to support the wall.

Horizontal walers and Engineered Blocks were required because we weren’t able to drill into the building’s concrete floor, so counterweight and self-supporting propping equipment had to be used to meet the client’s urgent requirements.

This project required a massive effort from multiple Shore Hire teams – we had engineers create a solution in a couple of hours, yard teams and drivers stayed back to pick and pack the gear and deliver it to the site, and our rigging team stayed at the site until the early hours of the morning to finish installing the propping gear.

Overall, this was a successful solution to a project that required an incredibly quick turnaround, and we were glad to be able to help the customer in an emergency.