Air Services – Cairns Airport Radar Upgrade
Ryan Wilks has recently completed a major project to upgrade the air conditioning systems at seven strategic radar sites at airports located around Australia, including Adelaide, Cairns, Coolangatta, Melbourne, Stradbroke Island, Perth and Sydney, value 1.5 mil.
The Cairns site plays a critical role in the provision of air safety and traffic control and operates 24/7, 365 days a year. These works involved the replacement of the existing equipment room air conditioning units and new stainless steel mechanical services switchboard. The existing security screens and doors were modified and a fire indicator panel was installed
PROJECT HIGHLIGHTS
Due to the critical operations of each site prior to commencing of any works Ryan Wilks had to set up a dual temporary air conditioning system to provide duty and stand-by temporary cooling. The temporary air conditioning had to be run and tested, then the back up system run and tested and all signed off prior to commencement of the replacement works.
The temporary air conditioning was provided by 2 off 30 kw package units which Ryan Wilks set up on a trailer, complete with control panel , temporary cabling & flexible ductwork which allowed us to arrive on site, set up and start running the units in test mode on Day 1 on site. For this site the trailer travelled from Stradbroke island, by barge to the mainland and then by rail and road to Cairns. In all the trailer travelled a staggering xxx kilometres during this project.
The works involved a high level of co-ordination and planning with our client based in Melbourne and the facility managers in Cairns to not only meet the nominated completion dates to enable following site upgrade works to commend as per schedule and without delay.
The site was located on the northern perimeter of the airport next to the river. With the mangroves and rivers edge neighbouring the site presented some unusual, and unfriendly neighbours in the way of sand flies, green tree pythons that liked to curl up in the old units and in particular Clive. Leighton didn’t believe the locals and their stories of Clive until the last day when he saw Clive swimming in the river.
Even with these distractions we are pleased to say that the works were completed on each site on time, and more importantly our client is extremely happy with installations and commented on the professionalism of Ryan Wilks
This project enabled Ryan Wilks to showcase our ability to provide “Ryan Wilks Quality and Service” nationally and is accredit to all involved.