Quarry transformed into riverside residential estate
Winslow Constructors West Region team has been busy transforming a former quarry located on the Maribyrnong River, made famous by rock group AC/DC’s Jailbreak film clip, into a residential estate.
The team has been onsite at River Valley Estate in Sunshine North, which is being developed by YourLand Developments, for the past five years completing stages 7A through to 7C and is now working on 7D.
The estate lies on a steep embankment requiring complex earthworks, retaining walls and interface with the river.
More than 250,000m3 of cut has been completed, with some areas requiring a cut of up to 12m.
There has also been about 230,000m3 of fill placed to a depth of up to 13m, particularly in the 7D park at the interface with the existing quarry wall.
Working alongside YourLand and its design team CJ Arms (Civil) and Douglas Partners (Geotech), the team has been able to repurpose site-generated materials to construct rock-faced, earth-reinforced retaining walls, which have significant environmental benefits when compared to conventional concrete retaining walls.
By completion of the three earth reinforced walls will have used:
- 44,000 tonne of fine crushed rocks (FCR) produced from crushing site-won material
- 8300 tonne of ballast produced from crushing site-won material
- 2700m3 of face rock
Given the environmental sensitivity of the area a large gross pollutant trap (GPT) was constructed alongside a 9m by 2.5m and 4m deep Jellyfish Pit, which was specially designed for silt filtration of water running into the Maribyrnong River, Melbourne’s second major river.