Category Archives: projects

The Upper Yarra Dam was constructed in 1957 an is operated and maintained by Melbourne water, the Upper Yarra dam supplies water to the Upper Yarra region and the Silvan Reservoir which distributes water to the majority of Melbourne.

The upgrade of the dam is to improve the safety features of the dam which will bring the dam up to the latest standards, there are approx. 50 – 60 people based full time on site and duration of the project is 1.5 – 2 years, with a project value of 50 million.

The project involves moving approx. 300,000 m3 of material, excavating roughly 10m off the downstream face of the dam wall. The design involves constructing a new filter trench and filter outlets that runs the entire length of the dam face, with 92 sand filled secant piles located at the right hand abutment, this is designed to capture any potential water seepage and be filtered to lowest point of the dam at the Seepage Weir. Approx 100,000 m3 of material will be removed from the Seepage Weir and used to rebuild the Dam face, the Seepage Weir will then be re-constructed with a new structure capturing any excess water. There are approx. 20 to 25 machines on site consisting of moxie’s, excavators, piling rigs and numerous other types of heavy machinery.

Survey work includes monitoring the dam wall twice a week with 60 + prims installed along the excavation face of the crest, the prisms will be removed over time as the crest is slowly rebuilt. UAV flights are required daily to help capture movement of material and progress of site works, weekly tracking of volumes is completed to help ensure that we will have the correct amount of material to rebuild the dam wall. A surveyor is based full time on site capturing as-builts of the excavation, general set-out duties, pick-ups of materials placed.

We are contracted as Seymour Whyte’s Survey manager, daily duties involve, processing all as-built and conformance reports, bulk earthwork volumes on a weekly basis, managing all design and creating models, management of all machine control onsite, flying of the UAV and processing the daily flights, managing survey sub-contractors.

Our client, The Brisbane Racing Club, were looking to perform works on the Heritage Listed St Ledger Stand at Eagle Farm racetrack. The BRC required a detailed model to enable a concept plan to be prepared to re-purpose the St Ledger stand and its surrounding external areas. A full scan of the property including all internal and external walls, roof/soffit lines, structures and façade features was performed.

A full 3D model of the heritage building was then created to LOD200, allowing the client to have a virtual walk through to complete the design as well as having a record of the building condition, for Heritage purposes, before construction commenced. The deliverable was provided in an .STP model format.

SPRING GULLY POND C

GMCCS were engaged by Georgiou to provide survey services during the construction of a new 1600ML (4x400ML cells) DERM compliant brine storage pond. Our scope of works involved set out and As-constructed of bulk earthworks, management of machine guidance, set out and As-constructed of HDPE pipelines to support the pond operation, set out of concrete spillways and abutments for pontoons.

A project highlight was using our UAV to capture end of month quantities to avoid surveyors interacting with heavy plant on the ground.

GMCCS were engaged to supply survey on four sections of the Warrego Highway. Work included installation and co-ordination of site bench marks, pre-construction detail survey of existing surface, conformance and depth checks of all pavement layers, set-out for replacement or extension on drainage structures, management and maintenance of machine control and provide progressive volumes and reporting to engineers and management.

High production rates, live traffic, revised designs and inexperienced machine operators made for a challenging project which was delivered on time and to specification thanks to the excellent verbal and written communication skills of the GMCCS team.