Livestock Centre, Muchea ($45m)
Pritchard Francis provided civil and structural engineering consultancy services for the new state of the art multi species sale yard facility located at Muchea north of Perth, on behalf of the Department of Housing and Works and the Western Australian Meat Industry Authority.
The project involved a significant forward works package including mining of existing gravel deposits for pavement hardstands, construction of anaerobic and aerobic ponds along with grey water and clean water dams all resulting in cut to fill works of 1,150,000m3.
Among the many challenges affecting the forward works package was unexpected ground conditions encountered across the site, perched water tables and significant ferruginous gravel deposits.
Water self sufficiency was achieved utilising stormwater harvesting methods and wastewater treatment via a series of lined effluent ponds.
This purpose built facility will ultimately include 50,000m2 of covered saleyards and offices, 95,000m2 of sealed and unsealed pavements, truck wash, workshops, seperate canteen and parking facilities.
Wind tunnel testing of the saleyard structure resulted in 'fine tuning' the design, which lead to a cost saving of approximately $800,000.
