Reducing our Power Consumption

Our office is looking super good! We have replaced the old style Fluro light panels within our office to the new energy efficient LED light panels. The swap over will generate a huge reduction in our energy consumption, lower our environmental impact and reduce the need for maintenance, as LED lights have a 5 year life expectancy. We now have a much brighter office and are only consuming a third of the power we once used. The change over is part of the NSW Government initiative for businesses to reduce power usage.

A light globe with a tree growing within, floating in the night sky

Ballina & Alstonville Aquatic Facilities

Aerial view of Ballina public pool

ProjectBallina & Alstonville Aquatic Facilities

Both pools incorporate a wet edge design to maintain the water level just below the surrounding concourse level, and the state of the art heating pumps are powered by the sun.

The Brief:

Ardill Payne & Partners (APP) was engaged by Woollam Constructions to undertake structural design and documentation for the pool upgrades at Ballina and Alstonville. Works for Ballina involved demolition of existing amenities building and pool, construction of new amenities building, café, pump/filter, storage rooms, new heats 25m Learn to Swim pool, 8 lane FINA compliant 50m pool, covered roof for 25m Learn to Swim pool, pool concourses and landscaped areas. Works for Alstonville involved construction of club house, pump/filter, storage rooms, new heats 25m Learn to Swim pool, 8 lane FINA compliant 50m pool, covered roof for 25m Learn to Swim pool and pool concourses and landscaped areas.

Key Challenges:

The key challenges were that the new pools incorporate a wet edge design to maintain the water level just below the surrounding concourse level, this aspect of the pool designs weighed heavily on structures and concourse designs. The challenges were to control total and differential settlement to be within very tight tolerances, the concourse areas surrounding need to shed storm runoff away from the pool whilst maintaining compliant gradients, and to ensure minimal interaction between the building and the pools to prevent unintended damage to either structure.

Solutions:

The solutions involved detailed review of geotechnical information, investigation of various piling options to refine differential settlements, so that cost effective foundation solutions could be determined and performance criteria met. The new building and covered roofs were isolated from the pool structures where possible and designed to reduce loadings to the pool shells. Concourse slab design and construction was completed in a manner to allow for differential movements and shrinkage of the two elements.

Key Features:

The 50 meter pools are heated and have eight 2.5m wide lanes and the 25m heated enclosed pools have six lanes. There are access ramps into all pools, a wet play splash area for children, covered tiered seating and brand new BBQ facilities and shelters. The Ballina site received a new amenities building and café with an outdoor seating area, and transparent fencing along the Richmond River. The Alstonville site received a new club house.

APP's Role:

APP undertook the Structural design and documentation, set out Survey, Civil design and documentation for site grading’s, concrete pathway layouts and details, certification of works, site inspections of both structures designed by APP and the new pools and RFIs. Detailed pool design for reinforcing and concrete design was completed by Crystal Pools.

Timeframe:

The project was completed within the timeframe Feb 2017 to July 2018.

Budget:

The budget for both projects was approximately $14,000,000.

Key Parties:

  • Woollam Constructions
  • Crystal Pools
  • Dave Bazar Plumbing
  • Glen Monteith Hydraulic Consultant
  • Bond and Associates Chartered Architect

Ballina and Alstonville Aquatic Facilities

Into Orbit with Lego League

We were recently invited by the Emmanuel Anglican College in Ballina to take part in judging the first Lego League into Orbit Competition!!
APP Principal, Bill Payne volunteered as head referee and APP Principal, Rob Jacob volunteered as match referee.
This is a National Competition with regional and state events, designed for schools by FLL Australian Curriculum. Almost 40 schools participated!
Here are a couple of photos from the day, and more details about the Lego League can be found here .

Image of people looking at a table of lego models

Cypress at Byron

Cypress at Byron Bay

ProjectCypress at Byron

This award-winning resort-style residential development comprises long-span steel structures, bespoke finishes and supporting details as well as a complex water recycling system. APP provided all civil, structural and environmental engineering for the project.

Location:
Suffolk Park, NSW

Architect:
Haysom Architects

Cypress at Byron Project Gallery

Callistemon Drive Swimming Pool

Callistemon Drive Swimming Pool

ProjectCallistemon Drive Swimming Pool

APP provided structural design for this elevated and stunning pool in the Byron Bay hinterland, including supervision of geotechnical work and civil design for retaining walls and drainage.

Location:
Federal, NSW

Architect:
Archimages Architecture

Callistemon Drive Swimming Pool Project Gallery

Wategos Beach House

Byron Bay Wategos beach Architecture

ProjectWategos Beach House

This spectacular house incorporates striking stone-faced Concrete blade columns and steel and timber-framed roof creating vaulted ceilings, all encapsulated in long, sweeping terraced stone-faced retaining walls. APP undertook structural design and documentation for the residence and swimming pool, site inspections and civil engineering design for the project, including road widening.

Location:
Byron Bay, NSW

Architect:
Timothy Moon Architects

Wategos Beach House Project Gallery

Wategos Beach Boardwalk

Wategos Beach, Byron Bay...

Is there a more beautiful place to relax and unwind?

We were lucky enough to be involved in the recent Watego's boardwalk project that connected the path to the bottom of the famous Byron Lighthouse stairs so pedestrians can walk safely along the road.

APP undertook the design concepts and detailed design for Byron Shire Council and NPWS.

We also completed the geotechnical investigations and construction supervision.

APP investigated a range of surfaces and materials and adopted the FRP deck and substructure for durability, and the timber handrail to match existing NPWS arrangements, and to provide a pleasing finish and leaning rail.

Have you walked it yet?

We’re a Key National Player in Alternative Energy

With the ongoing discussions regarding Global Warming, one solution is to replace and retrofit current technologies with alternatives that have comparable or better performance, but do not emit carbon dioxide.

Ardill Payne and Partners (APP) is proud to be an Australian-wide player in the Alternate Energy revolution.

“Climate change, population growth, and fossil fuel depletion mean that renewables will need to play a bigger role in the future than they do today,” said Bill Payne, Principal at APP.

At Ardill Payne & Partners, our Alternative Energy Projects involve providing engineering, project management and surveying solutions to wind farms, solar powered factories, housing estates, luxury homes and offices. In addition, we facilitate the incorporation of recycled materials into our projects wherever possible.

APP has worked on over 40 wind farms Australia wide and continue to be a key player in the field nationally. Our work involves the design of wind monitoring masts which record the wind data for a prospective site for 2 years.

“The masts collect wind information to assess how much wind energy can be won from a site. Based on this assessment the farm may or may not proceed,” said Bill.

In solar, we find that our ‘turnkey factory’ projects now usually require or request solar energy capacity. This is driven by a range of factors including the cost of power, green policies by factory franchises and personal green preferences.

Some APP solar projects include Habitat Byron Bay, and the environmentally-conscious Bridgestone “green truck centers” located in the Barossa, Hume and Port Hedland.

“As well as powering the Bridgestone sites, the solar panel array feeds energy back into the grid when the store is closed, and has a digital display in the waiting room showing kWh generation and carbon-dioxide emission reductions,” said Bill.

APP’s recycling projects range from water harvesting and recycled water systems to materials re-use.

“Our water recycling projects involve engineering, water engineering, town planning and project management for the Ballina Heights Estate, The Habitat Byron Bay, and the Bridgestone Truck Centers in the Barossa, Hume and Port Hedland,” said Bill.

“Material re-use projects involve using recycled rubber compounds for flooring systems as in the Bridgestone Truck Centers, recycled timber for housing projects such as our Coolamon Scenic Drive luxury home project, and recycled concrete for pavement construction in road construction throughout the Ballina Heights Estate.”

If you need engineering, planning, surveying or project management services for your next green project, you can contact us here at Ardill Payne & Partners on 02 6686 3280.