ABSTRACT
The site for the 92 storey apartment building was originally an industrial area. Because of its proximity to the CBD of Melbourne and the Yarra River, the area rapidly evolved to commercial and apartment usage. Extensive geotechnical work had been carried out for previous developments on the site, which were abandoned, partly because of the costs of providing economical foundation solutions for multistorey developments in the challenging soil conditions. Local builder Grocon proposed a 92 storey apartment building which presented even greater challenges for the structural, geotechnical and piling engineers to provide an economical foundation system given the high loadings that result from such tall structures. The structure had a relatively small footprint, resulting in a height to base ratio of 6 to 1. The top of the tower can flex up to 600 mm in high winds with resulting oscillations being dampened by two 300 ML water tanks on levels 90 and 91.
