Opera House – Eastern Shell Lighting
This high profile and technically difficult project to provide lighting to the eastern shell of the Opera House involved the installation of 2 off new 12 metre high lighting poles fully equipped with metal halide luminaires. One of the lighting poles has been installed on the existing conservation listed Man O’ War Steps and the other lighting pole in the Sydney Harbour. All equipment used for this project was delivered by sea to minimize disruption to the site.
PROJECT HIGHLIGHTS
Man O’ War Lighting Pole (Pole 4)
Pole 4 was a replacement of an exiting pole and associated de-commissioning, removal of the existing pole and electrical reticulation.
Once removed the jetty was core drilled via specialized marine contractor’s water barge ready for an outer pile sleeve. This 1000mm outer sleeve served as protection of the heritage listed Man O’ War Steps. After removal of the infill material via auger, the core drilling of pole pile was completed, (2) two meters into bed rock (8 meters from ground level).
The underground electrical services were redirected in to the new pile, Rag-Bolts inserted into the core read for concrete encasement.
Installation of new pole 4 was completed by water with all lighting and security cameras pre wired and functional tested on dry land. All new electrical & security services were run from existing outdoor Distribution Board utilising existing underground conduits. All lighting control gear and load center distribution equipment were designed and installed within the light pole.
The final commissioning and positioning of lighting trajectory was completed with the lighting engineers and in conjunction with pole 5 commissioning.
Middle Harbour Lighting Pole 5
The second lighting pole was installed 11 meters out from the Opera House Eastern Broad Walk within the ocean itself. The final location was GPS mapped prior to installation.
Specialized marine contractors were engaged with barge equipment to complete on-water boring of the sea bed sand stone and installation of an 812mm x 16mm steel pile installed 3.5m into the sea bed allowing for 12.5m of pile above water.
For protection of the steel pile an additional 1200mm x 30mm HDPE black sleeve was installed 500mm into the sea bed and over the new pile.
To comply with NSW Maritime requirements an additional 3mm welded white UV stable HDPE jacket was later installed over the black sleeve.
Cable reticulation was from a local distribution board in the Opera House and penetrated out from behind the Eastern Broad Walk Façade and further down the ocean wall to the ocean bed. Encased in mechanical protection, the cabling enters the base of the pole through a series of underwater concrete culverts. The installation of the underwater conduits 100mm and (2) two 50mm conduits for the electrical services, were complete via both dry land and underwater diver teams.
On completion of the electrical cabling pile 5 was concrete filled from a concrete mixer and pump via barge (displacement method of 12m³ of concrete). Rag-Bolts for both the Pole 5 and Platform were combined with a specially designed and manufactured template to maintain alignment and levelling during the concrete pour.
Installation of concrete culverts, geotech matting, in filled sand bags and final bolder coverage were installed as per structural design detail to provide mechanical protection over the submersed electrical conduits.
Pole 5 was install with moveable cradle platform to provide maintenance access to the pole 5 luminaires and security cameras. The cradle platform was designed and installed by Harris Movement Engineering (HME)
with an electric winch operation. The installation, testing and commissioning was procured and managed by Ryan Wilks pty ltd.
The cradle platform required meticulous dry dock testing together with Pole 5, for functional testing and SOH staff training. These works included the structural design certification of dry dock supports and mounting structures on dry land.
In addition to the functional testing of pole 5 cradle and before delivery of the pole 5 and cradle to water could be approved, dry dock night lighting review was completed. This was to ensure there was no issue relating to shadowing effects from the cradle supports and ties.
On completion of all dry dock functional checks pole 5 and cradle / platform were transported separately to water ready for installation.
Once installed on water, final electrical connection and commissioning of both the luminaires and cradle were complete together with the installation of navigational luminaries and controls on the underside of the platform to illuminate the pile during darkness.
Due to the prestigious nature of the venue and client we were thrilled to have our works showcased there. All workers involved gained great experience due to the variety of the project and the complex planning and installation methods associated with it.