by Nick Drew | Tue 23 Feb 2016
Big dozers rip it up in downtown Sydney
It seems unimaginable to me that in the urban sprawl of Sydney in Australia, one could come across large dozers working next to tall buildings and apartment blocks, but that is just what happens on a regular basis and our man in Sydney Martin Grant has sent in the photos to prove it!
Most of these shots have appeared on our Facebook page, but from talking to many people on my visits I’m aware that not everyone has been bitten by the social media phenomena, so I am more than happy to reproduce them on the genuine blog so everyone gets a chance to see these incredible photos.
The Sydney Basin as it is commonly known, is formed from solid sandstone, which by all accounts is incredibly hard digging. Due to its urban location blasting is out of the question due to underground tunnels and the close proximity of buildings, so instead large dozers such as Caterpillar’s D10 models are used to rip up the ground.
These giant dozers rip up the ground and doze it towards excavators which dig out the material ahead of the construction of basements or more often than not underground car parks.
With space at a premium in the city going down is often the preferred method when considering car parking space. Probably one of the most famous underground car parks is the Sydney Opera House car park, which is more commonly known as the Bennelong Point Parking Station and has spaces for 1,100 cars. This car park was opened in March 1993 and cost in excess of $40 million dollars.
By the nature of the job, the dozers are often delivered at street level but at the conclusion of the job the machines end up deep below the street level and are then required to be lifted out by large mobile cranes.
For the purpose of lifting the machines out of the excavation the machines have their dozer blades and ripper units removed which of course cuts down the weight during the lift.
It’s definitely not a scenario you would see every day and I can only imagine the engine roar that must echo around the excavation when those mighty dozers are working deep down.
We would like to thank Martin for sharing these photos with us here on the Digger Man Blog.