The Southern Star
Here's a nice example of collaboration happening right on our doorstep. Australia's first observation wheel is nearing completion at Melbourne's docklands (a stone's throw from Aconex head office).
The construction stats are impressive. The Southern Star observation wheel stands at 120 meters high, just five meters lower than the London Eye and equal in height to a 40-storey building. It contains 1,650 tonnes of steel, 10km of steel piping, 12,500 square meters of paint and 38,000 high-tensile bolts. The cost of the project is an estimated $100 million.
Completing the Southern Star has involved some impressive collaboration between dispersed parties, which has been assisted by using an online document management tool.
ING Real Estate is the developer, the head contractor is Hansen Yuncken, the architect is Hassell and the leading contractor is Alfasi Steel Constructions. All of these companies have offices in Melbourne. Sanoyas Hishino Meisho Corporation, based in Japan, designed the wheel and is supplying a number of critical components including the hub, controls and motors as well as the 21 cabins. Haywards Steel Fabrication, the company providing the main column structures, is based in Tasmania, an Australian island and state.
So far on the project, more than 330 team members have used an online document management tool to store and manage 20,000 documents and 28,000 correspondence items. Key people on the project have stated that having fast access to files and communication between parties, at any time of the day or night, has been crucial in keeping the project on schedule.
The wheel is part of the massive, billion dollar Waterfront City development. For those of you either living in or visiting Melbourne, the cabins are being mounted over the next six months and the wheel will be open to visitors by November. The developer forecasts that it will attract around 1.5 million visitors each year.
Labels: Project profiles
