Emergency Stairway Access for Coal Mine

Project Type:

Mining

Project Location:

Australia

Project Summary:

A mining operator required a design for an emergency stair tower access scaffold to be installed between two adjacent coal bins on a large mining site in Australia. The access tower was required to be used only in emergency egress situations and remain in place indefinitely with scheduled monthly scaffold inspections to be carried out to ensure structural integrity.

Customer Challenges:

The stair tower had to be designed to a maximum height of 37m and required connecting to the existing permanent walkway via a scaffold bridge section at the very top. Limited tie locations were available to support the scaffold up to 20m between ties.

AT-PAC Solution:

• AT-PAC’s Design and Engineering team provided an optimized Ringlock solution using standard components and the lightweight Ringlock Aluminium Platform Stair was integrated into the core tower. 
• To overcome the 20m span between tie locations, large aluminum beams were installed vertically and connected to the Ringlock Ledgers from grade to the top platform via double couplers. The aluminum beams were designed to provide the necessary horizontal restraint required to resist the local environmental factors. 
• Special custom fabricated structural steel frames were designed and installed at 2 elevations (3.6m and 23.7m) between adjacent bins.
• Structural analysis and static calculations were performed and checked by our in-house engineering team, with final approval coming from the client to move ahead with supply and installation with our scaffolding partner.

Impact:

The stair tower had to be designed to a maximum height of 37m and required connecting to the existing permanent walkway via a scaffold bridge section at the very top. Limited tie locations were available to support the scaffold up to 20m between ties.

Click here to view the design, and walk through the scaffold.

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