Art Gallery of SA – Deep Basement Construction

Carlo Muneretto

The presentation will cover the construction of the recently completed $26 million extensions to the Art Gallery of South Australia. Particular emphasis will be on the construction of the 10 m deep basement as redesigned to accommodate “top down” construction and the locally developed interlocking bored pile retaining wall technique. The key features to be addressed are:

1. The unconventional “top down” method of construction of the basement floors. With this method of construction, the floors provide lateral support for the perimeter wall during excavation. On this site the method eliminated the need for earth anchors which would have compromised the structural integrity of the surrounding heritage buildings
2. The design and successful performance of the innovative “interlocking bored pile perimeter retaining wall system”, developed locally by Rust PPK, and which was used in lieu of the originally proposed secant pile wall.
3. The “system approach” used by Baulderstone Hornibrook, which resulted in the successful implementation of these two design solutions with such ease.

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